Nokia Bittern found in Wales

We mentioned cold weather movements before (Woodcock) and wonder if this recent ring report may be linked..... On Wednesday, a Bittern was found dead at Hendre Lake, St Mellons, near Cardiff in South Wales. It had been dead a while (as the photo attests!) but was found to have a ring inscribed with "Museum Zool Helsinki Finland".

Thanks to Jari Valkama at the Finnish Museum of Natural History, we found that his bird was ringed in the nest at Nokia, western Finland, on 5 July 2008. We have very few ring recoveries of Bittern, and this is the first from Finland.

The map below shows all of the foreign movements of Bitterns, with those ringed abroad in blue, and the one BTO-ringed bird found abroad in red. The lovely green markers show Nokia and Hendre Lake!


View Larger Map

Thanks to Gareth the Community Park Ranger for the report and photo, and to Jari for the quick response on its origins.