World's oldest Whitethroat!

When ringers at Stanford Reservoir, Northants, caught Whitethroat ring number P774799 on 2 August 2009 they didn't think much of it. It was only later they realised that it had been originally ringed at the same site on 3 August 2002. Since then it was a regular at the site, though did go missing in 2007.

Seven years old might not seem like much, but P774799 is now the oldest recorded Whitethroat in Europe (and presumably the world?), beating a six year old Lincolnshire bird found dead back in 1992.

What is more amazing is that just in migrations alone, it will have made the 7,000 mile return trip to/from Africa seven times, crossing the Sahara 14 times!

Thanks to Adam Homer at Stanford Ringing Group for letting us know about this amazing bird.