Thursday 16 May 2019

Reed Warbler Recovery

News fresh in from the BTO last night that one of our Blackers Rock, Lough Neagh Reed Warblers has been trapped on return migration north.

The bird was originally ringed as a juvenile on the 13th of August 2017 and hadn't been seen since before it turned up in a mist net on Lundy Island in SW England 10 days ago. The time elapsed between ringing and recapture is 631 days. The distance between the two sites is 404km but in reality this bird will have migrated to sub-Saharan Africa, back to NI, back to sub-Saharan Africa before returning to the UK. All being well, the bird will be back in a reedbed around the Lough ready to breed. 


This is just our second Reed Warbler control/recovery and even better, just the seventh for Northern Ireland, the third NI ringed bird to be found outside the country. With more and more birds being ringed every year we are expecting these recoveries to become more regular and paint a better picture of Reed Warbler migration into NI. 

By chance, our friend and ringer Dean Jones from Coleraine is based on Lundy Island as a warden and may well have handled this very bird! 



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