From across the pond

Britain and Ireland are part of the East Atlantic Flyway, so we regularly get a few high Arctic breeding birds from Greenland or Canada in our country like Greenland Wheatear, Barnacle Goose, Pink-footed Goose or Purple Sandpiper.

The majority of recoveries are of Brent Geese (66%), but 19 species have been recorded either coming from, or going to, North America, Canada or Greenland (the latter is covered by the Denmark Ringing Scheme).

Brent Geese have been excluded from the pie chart to better illustrate the other species involved.

These are not all recent recoveries however. The oldest report is from 18 July 1948 (juvenile Arctic Tern ringed in the Bay of Fundy and found by Lairg, Highlands three months later). Due to a colour ringing project on Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, we have received quite a few Turnstone reports (37% of the total). Several species stand out, including Great Shearwater (one caught by a trawler and the other caught on a boat), Peregrine (downed by a falconer's Peregrine) and a Caspian Tern (found dead).

Below are a few examples of more recent recoveries :

Ringed Plover - you may remember that Ringed Plovers from Canada have been featured recently on the Demog Blog, so we have several reports of them.

Ringed Plover. Photo taken by Lee Collins

Green-winged Teal - one turned up on the Hayle estuary, Cornwall on 9 November 2016 and it didn't take long to notice it was ringed! It took the Cornish ringers and birders quite a while to get enough photos of the bird to get the ring number, but finally on 19 January 2017 they had enough to trace it. Amazingly this bird was ringed as an adult in Quebec in August 2015!

Green-winged Teal. Photo taken by Anne Carrington-Cotton

Knot - in February we received a report of a dead Knot at Old Hunstanton, Norfolk. The likely ringer would have been the Wash Wader Ringing Group but the ring was clearly from the American Ringing Scheme. American rings are also used in Canada, which is probably where this bird was ringed. If this is the case, then this would be the 10th Canadian ringed Knot to be found in Britain or Ireland. Several BTO staff travel to Delaware every year for their holiday to ring 'Red Knot' as part of the Delaware Shorebird Project, so there was quite a 'flap of excitement' until it became clear that it was not one of theirs. We, and the finder, are awaiting the ringing details from the scheme.

Recoveries from the States are still very few and far between so each one is unusual in itself. The information from the tagged Ringed Plovers will be very interesting to follow in the coming years.

For more information on the movements of birds look at our Online Ringing and Nest Recording Report on our website.