A pretty grim day, weather wise, saw me driving across to Hilbre for a couple of hours as the tide ebbed. There'd been a notable increase in winter wader numbers and several Grey Plover were feeding along the edge of the gutter fairly close to the vehicle track.
Checking them, as I always do, for colour flags or colour rings, I came across a bird we'd ringed at Altcar in march 2019 with the SCAN ringing group! See here for a report on that trip.
Littler is known about Grey Plover and the catch we made on that day was the biggest for many years. They breed in the arctic and may winter in Africa or Southern Europe. Remarkably we've had a number of sightings from the birds we marked that day which all helps towards our understanding of their movements and helps towards future conservation efforts. Although I didn't get a photo of the bird in the hand I did have a photo, on my phone, of AL still on the string of flags to be used!
Brent Goose numbers are building up and we get a number of colour ringed birds most winters so I checked the flock and found this bird that was ringed on the breeding grounds in Arctic Canada and first seen off Hilbre in December 2019. Its amazing to think this bird has flown the best part of 7,000 miles since it was last on Hilbre! 3,500 miles to its Arctic breeding grounds and 3,500 miles back to Hilbre.
Most winters we get a couple of Dark-bellied Brent Geese and I found a group of three among the Pale-bellied. It was only when I checked the photos later I realised one had a metal ring! It'll be an interesting winter project to try and read this ring and find out the history of this bird.
So, no birds ringed but an interesting and worthwhile trip.
Below: Storm brewing over the north of Hilbre looking towards the old lifeboat station.
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