Thursday 7 June 2012

The utterly miserable weather was back today, with hardly a break between rainstorms, and so very few birds were around. A single Swift passed overhead in the morning, joining a flock of 26 House Martins above Nant. On Solfach, a summer-plumaged Sandelring was seen with six Dunlins and three Ringed Plovers, and a Black-headed Gull flew in briefly.

 At least four territorial male Sedge Warblers are singing in the withies at the moment 
 Sanderlings undertake an extremely long migration, one of the longest known in birds, although it is fairly poorly understood. Birds wintering in Southern Africa are known to migrate both to Siberia and Greenland (these are the ones that pass through Western Europe and Iceland), and some even beyond to Arctic Canada. Through an extensive colour-ringing scheme, the majority of the Canadian breeding population have been found to winter in South America. 
Black-headed Gull

2 comments:

  1. Have a look at http://fleetwoodbirdobs.blogspot.co.uk/ for some interesting Sanderlings from Mauritania that we have been seeing recently. Cheers, Seumus

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  2. Interesting stuff. There was a colour-ringed and flagged Sanderling on the island in 2008, which was ringed in Arctic Canada. This bird was presumably flying back to its breeding grounds after wintering in Africa.

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