Sunday 22 March 2020

20190322 Shelduck CR green S7, Iron Road



20190322 Shelduck
Male by the Iron Road with small flock.
S7 on green darvik left, and metal ring on right leg.
Note bird tugging at metal ring...
The bird is part of a BTO Windfarm impact survey, see below.

20190322 Shelduck
From David & Pats records this is the first CR shelduck ever recorded in the Cley Square.
S7 is part of a BTO survey funded by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Offshore Energy Strategic Environmental Assessment programme.
BTO Ecologist Ross Green's data so far:
I ringed S7 on Havergate Island TM 41028 47096 on 12th July last year. This was caught and ringed as part of a project to assess the interactions of Shelduck with offshore wind farms during their migration to the continent for their annual moult. In order to track their migration we attached a GPS device to S7 and 3 other Shelduck. S7 migrated from Havergate across the North Sea to the Dutch coast near Alkmaar and then flew north into the Dutch Wadden Sea near Zwarte Haan. It remained in this area for a week and then flew on to the Elbe Estuary in the German Wadden Sea. It continued to move around the Wadden Sea until the GPS tag detached from it on 14th August. 

It would be very useful to find out if S7 breeds in the area of Cley and Salthouse Marshes.
Subsequent searches have found 19 pairs in the area of Swan Lake but no S7.
20190527 Shelduck
Pre-breeding flock of 15 by Pig Farm. Birds appeared to be paired. 

20170519 Shelduck
Pre-breeding group of 14 posturing at Cley, May 2017, 4 males 10 females.