10 November 2009

Readers of Devon Birds journal will have enjoyed Dennis Elphick’s exposé on the movements of Alba wagtails colour-ringed at Slapton Ley National Nature Reserve, published in April this year. Here, Dennis provides an update on the latest sightings of colour-ringed birds reported from Devon, NW England, France, Spain and Iceland.

Alba Wagtails (Pied – Motacilla alba yarrellii and White – M. a. alba) are being colour-ringed at three sites in the UK: East Kilbride (Scotland), Abbotsbury/Weymouth (Dorset) and Slapton Ley NNR (South Devon). The East Kilbride project has been running for over ten years, Abbotsbury for five years and Slapton seven.

Colour-ringing has been carried out at East Kilbride throughout but only to identify birds by race and age, not as individuals. Individual colour-ringing started at Slapton in 2005 and a coordinated approach between all three sites in 2008.

There are two elements to the colour-ringing protocol used:

1. To mark each bird with a single plain colour-ring (year code) above the metal BTO ring. In the case of Slapton and East Kilbride this is the right leg and in the case of Abbotsbury/Weymouth this is the left leg. The year code colour is the same for all three sites and was Orange in 2008, the first full cooperative year. This year, 2009, the year code is Pink. Previous years at Slapton only were 2006 (Yellow) and 2007 (White).

2. To individually colour-ring each bird. To achieve this across all three sites is more complex. At Slapton three plain colour-rings are placed on the left leg giving 512 possible combinations. At East Kilbride (left leg) and Abbotsbury/Weymouth (right leg) two bi-coloured rings are used. A bi-coloured ring has a double stripe, each a different colour, giving a total of four colours enabling 1,196 possible combinations for each site.

Re-sighting birds and recording any colour rings, particularly if they are individually marked, is of great benefit as it is not necessary to recapture the birds again to check the BTO metal ring number.

Colour-ringing in this way at Slapton has proved to be an extremely efficient way of obtaining recovery/re-sight data – 95% or more of such data are now obtained by the re-sighting of birds (see Elphick 2007, 2009).

The photographs below show examples of all these possible combinations.

Pied Wagtail – Dartmouth – © David Morehen – 7 January 2009

Photograph 1, above, shows a Slapton-ringed Pied Wagtail with yellow (year code for 2006) over metal on the right leg and Pink over Orange over Pink on the left leg. The latter identifies the bird as V 395796 (the BTO metal ring number) which was ringed as a 1st winter M. a. yarrellii on 29 October 2006 and re-sighted (and photographed) at a Dartmouth bird bath on 7 January 2009.

Pied Wagtail – Finistere – © Jean Jaques Chever – 17 February 2009

Photograph 2, above, shows a 1st year M. a. yarrellii with an orange colour-ring (year code for 2008) over a BTO metal ring on the left leg. The right leg shows a white over red bi-coloured ring over a second bi-coloured ring white over yellow. This enables the bird to be identified as X321226, ringed at Abbotsbury Swannery, Dorset on 17 October 2008. The bird was re-sighted at Loctudy, Finistere, France on 17 February 2009.

White Wagtail – Seaforth – © Steve Young – 7 April 2009

Photograph 3, above, shows the adult male White Wagtail M. a. alba ringed with BTO ring no. V433743 at East Kilbride on 12 September 2008 and re-sighted at Seaforth (Merseyside) on 7 April 2009. The ring combinations are orange (year code) over metal ring on the right leg and two bi-colour rings (blue/dark green over yellow/lime) on the left leg.

White Wagtail – Bjarnanes/Nes, SE Iceland – © Brynjulfur Brynjolfsson – 28 April 2009

Photograph 4, above, shows an adult male White Wagtail M. a. alba with an orange colour-ring over a BTO metal ring (V 923557) on the right leg and plain dark blue over orange over dark green on the left leg, indicating it was ringed at Slapton on 12 September 2008. It was re-sighted at Bjarnanes/Nes, Hofn, south-east Iceland on 28 April 2009. This was the eighth recovery of M. a. alba between Iceland and Slapton (there is also one to South Milton Ley).

White Wagtail – Vik, SE Iceland – © Hrafn Svavarsson – May/June 2009

Photo 5 shows a White Wagtail ringed at Slapton on 29 August 2008 as a 1st year bird and re-sighted at Efri-Ey II, Medalland (Vik), south-east Iceland in late May/early June 2009. The ring combination is orange colour-ring over a BTO metal ring (V 923532) on the right leg (year code) and blue over yellow over blue on the left leg. The bird was sitting on six eggs. Two eggs and one chick did not survive but Hrafn ringed the remaining three chicks.

Map showing recoveries of Motacilla alba ringed at Slapton - updated 31 January 2010

The map is an update of Map 1 in the article published in the April 2009 issue of Devon Birds journal (Vol.62 No.1, p.29). Additional recoveries of M. a. alba have since come from Hofn, SE ICELAND (ringed 18 September 2006 and re-sighted 25 August 2009 – 3 1/2 years). This is the fourth recovery from Iceland in 2009 and the twelfth overall and very much the time the first M. a. alba arrive at Slapton as exemplified by a recovery from Corunna, NW SPAIN (ringed 29 August 2009 and re-sighted 13 September 2009 – 15 days). Similarly, additional re-sightings of M. a. Yarrellii have come from Morlaix, Finistere, FRANCE 25 February 2009, ringed 22 October 2007; Wigglesworth, Skipton, N Yorks 13 July 2009, ringed 18 October 2007 and Burnham-on-sea, Somerset 27 Sepember 2009, ringed 17 October 2008 as well as a number of local sightings.

There was just one bird ringed elsewhere and controlled at Slapton – ringed at Dingwall, Inverness, Scotland on 21 August 2009 it was caught at Slapton on 5 October 2009. This follows an earlier bird ringed at Dingwall on 2 August 2004 and controlled at Slapton on spring passage on 14 March 2005.

Submit your colour-ring sightings

If you are fortunate enough to see an alba wagtail with colour-rings and can note the colour combination, please send the record, including the place (with grid reference if possible) and date of your sighting to Dennis Elphick at dennis.elphick@devonbirds.org.

An update to Elphick (2009) including the above records is planned for the April 2010 issue of Devon Birds.

Acknowledgement

Grateful thanks to Brynjulfur (‘Binni’) Brynjolfsson, who runs the bird observatory in south-east Iceland (see www.fuglar.is), Jean Jaques Chever, David Morehen, Hrafn Svavarsson and Steve Young for allowing the use of their photos, and Eleanor Knott of the Devon Biodiversity Records Centre for preparing the map.

Dennis Elphick

References

Elphick, D. 2007. Slapton Ley NNR Alba Wagtail Motacilla alba Report 2006–2007. Devon Birds Vol.60 No.2 August 2007: 7–12.

Elphick, D. 2009. Movements of Slapton Ley NNR Alba Wagtails Motacilla alba and the national and international context of Icelandic White Wagtails (M. a. alba). Devon Birds Vol. 62 No.1: 28–35.