Glossy Ibis' overnight trip to Germany

We've reported on interesting movements of colour-ringed Glossy Ibis before, and even mentioned birds continuing their journeys from the UK to Germany. This pattern was mirrored this week, involving a group of four Glossy Ibis, including the colour-ringed bird 01N1, that had spent a couple of weeks at Cantley Marshes in Norfolk.

These birds first appeared in east Anglia in mid-February, settling at Cantley on 17th March. They were last seen there on Tuesday morning (27th) but by Wednesday had moved to Braunschweig in Germany where the flock of four were photographed: an impressive movement of over 600km in one day!


View Norfolk Glossy Ibis in a larger map

Going Glossy

The chances of seeing a Glossy Ibis in the UK have been quite good in recent years, with several of these birds being colour ringed. Ibis, white N4C (DA264549), was ringed in Gard, France on 19 May 2009 in the nest. It then came to the UK with other Glossy Ibis and was seen at Chew Valley Lake, Bristol and then twice at Lows Nature Reserve, Somerset on 3 Oct and 25 Nov 2009. Things went quiet until it was seen again, in Spain! It was seen on 31 Jan 2011 at Arrossars de l'Encanyissada, Tarragona.

This is a distance of at least 1385km but where was it in 2010???


View Glossy Ibis travels in a larger map

Spanish Glossy Ibis in Trinidad and Tobago!

Amazingly we've just heard that a mystery ringed Glossy Ibis we helped trace last year is a seriously remarkable record!


6PW was ringed at the Fao colony in southern Spain on 3 June 2006. It was then seen over 6,000km away on 15 July 2008 at Oropouche Lagoon in Trinidad and Tobago! Our own Glossy Ibis news (here and here) now seems rather dull...


View 6PW in a larger map

Thanks to Kris Sookdeo for the original report (and photos) and the Spanish Ringing Scheme for helping us track this bird down.

More Glossy Ibis news!

We had two interesting snippets of Glossy Ibis news yesterday afternoon... Firstly we found out that the two birds that were seen over Chew Valley Lake on 26 September, then seen at Catcott Lows were from rather different places! N4C was a bird ringed in the Camargue, southern France (on 19 May 2009, colony photo below), whereas L9M was a bird ringed in Donana, southern Spain!


I then received two emails from Germany reporting a colour-ringed bird, HH4. This has been present at Moorhauser Polder since 7 December (and photographed below), and is one of the birds that was originally seen at Pembrey, west Wales on 5-6 September! They do get around.....


Thanks to Andreas Noske for the report and to Regina Cunz and Michel Gauthier-Clerc for the photos.