20190805 CR Spoonbill NWT Cley Marshes

20190805 Spoonbill

Left tibia: metal ring no.8061922over yellow (stained with red) ring over black ring.

Right tibia: black flag over yellow (stained with red) ring over green ring.

A female.

Seen: Cley Marshes 5/6 (DPW,JFo), 4/7(DPW), 29/7(JM).

Ringed as a pullus 4/6/16 at Oosterkwelder, Schiermonnikoog (Netherlands).

Movements Lauwersmeer (Netherlands 53.38N 06.23E) 20/8/16, Somme (France 50.33N 01.68E) 4/9/16, Balgzand(Netherlands 52.94N 04.79E) 13/9/16, Somme 17/9/16, Balgzand 22/9/16.

20190905 Further info from DPW

There were further views of two multi-ringed Spoonbills that have given us real ring-reading problems. The French-ringed adult that has a young “little beggar” with him, (he nested in the Holkham colony and was seen several times last month), was last seen on the 8^th. The French ringing scheme coordinators have still not responded to any of our e-mails. A Dutch bird with a black flag was seen and photographed by Tom Whiley on Watling Water on the 5^th (along with the French bird). The combination of rings is extremely similar to those on a bird seen earlier this year. The middle rings on each leg looked yellow with red marks when first seen by Pat in June then by me in early July but these rings looked orange to Jason Moss when he saw what we had initially assumed would be the same bird in late July. The rings do in fact look in Tom’s photos to be an even coloured orange-red throughout (one of Tom’s photos is attached). The Dutch scheme coordinator saw the photos on Tom’s blog and is wondering if these rings might in fact be red not yellow (orange is not used). He has asked for and received Tom’s photos so that he can analyse them. It seems unlikely that two different birds with such similar ring combinations could have been seen in our area but one would have also thought that it was unlikely for rings that had contrasting stain marks on them could not long afterwards become so uniform in colour.

201908 Spoonbill

Colour ring edges appear consistent with the outside colour here.

They are probably considered red by the ringing project. 

20190805 Spoonbill

Left tibia: red ring over metal ring.

Right tibia: white ring (now stained yellow) over lime ring over blue ring.

A male.

Seen: Cley Marshes 4+5/7(DPW), 15/7(VC), 20/7(JDa,TM), 22/7(DPW), 24/7(DPW), 25/7(GFe), 27/7(DPW), 28/7(JFa), 29/7(JM), 2/8(DPW,DC), 4/8(RC), 5/8(DPW). Usually had a begging youngster with him.

Ringed in France (birds with similar combinations were ringed in 2011 but details have not yet been received for the above combination).

Movements: he nested in the Spoonbill colony at Holkham, 8/5/17-14/6/17, but the chicks were predated. He nested there again 7/4/18-11/7/18, was seen at Kelling Water Meadow 17/6/18 and still had small chicks in the nest then. Photographed in the Holkham colony 7/6/19 and seen there with a begging youngster 18/7/19.

20190805 Spoonbill

2 juvs with the above adults on Wattling Water