Colour flagging Ringed Plover with SCAN

Saturday saw me having a fairly leisurely start to meet up with the rest of the SCAN team in N Wales in an attempt to catch Ringed Plover and mark them with individual colour flags. This enables birds to be individually recognised in the field without having to recapture them and provides important data as to the importance of the Lavan Sands site for either a wintering or migration stop-over site. Two distinct moult strategies are apparent in the birds using this area - those that have started their annual moult winter in the UK whereas those that winter in Africa don't moult until they reach their wintering grounds. The African wintering population generally breed further north than the UK wintering population.

Once we'd set the nets its a waiting game. Despite forecasts to the contrary the weather was wet and miserable. Luckily it improved as we headed towards high tide and we managed a respectable catch of 168 birds of which 92 were Ringed Plover and the rest were Dunlin with the exception of a single Sanderling. All birds were ringed, aged, sexed (where possible), moult recorded, wing length, bill and head measurements taken and weighed. A great effort by the team and some interesting moults recorded.

Above: Juvenile Dunlin

Above: Ringed Plover aged 5 in with suspended moult moult with primaries 2-4 being old and 10-6 being newly moulted.

Below: Ringed Plover with suspended moult having seemingly moulted two primaries in its breeding ground and the rest in its wintering quarters.

The salt marshes and shingle ridges around the area are also home to some stunning wild flowers. Both Sea Aster and Horned Poppy were present although the Sea Aster is rapidly going to seed - a fact that hadn't gone unnoticed by the large flock of Linnets present.