Wednesday 13 August 2008

Colour-ringed EURASIAN SPOONBILL in Hampshire

Dutch birder Otto Overdijk has kindly provided the following information relating to the colour-ringed EURASIAN SPOONBILL currently residing at Keyhaven/Pennington Marshes in Hampshire.

The bird has a light green over yellow over metal ring on its LEFT leg and a yellow flag over light green over red on its RIGHT leg.

This bird, a first-summer, was born in The Netherlands last summer and was ringed at Onderdijk (43 Kms north of Amsterdam) on 20th May 2007. It remained in this general area until October before migrating west with other Spoonbills to the River Lynher in Cornwall on 25th November. It remained in Cornwall and Devon for several months before relocating to Keyhaven on 8 March 2008, where it remained on and off until 4 May.

It then returned to The Netherlands from late May to mid-June, before returning once more to Keyhaven on 5 July. Thereafter it visited Poole Harbour (Dorset) intermittently.