16/02/15 - A foreigner at Duffield

On Tuesday evening last week a great whoosh net catch of 45 birds was had at North Duffield Carrs, which included the first Dutch ringed Teal we have controlled here. It may take a few weeks to get the information of when and where this bird was originally ringed but it will be the first Teal interchange between the Netherlands and the LDV. Another bird re-trapped during a whoosh net catch at Duffield last week had originally been ringed at Skipwith Common NNR in September 2010, indicating that some Teal return to the area in subsequent winters.

 

The LDV NNR is one of only a handful of key waterfowl ringing stations in the UK and is supported by our friends at the WWT. As well as ringing nationally significant numbers of ducklings during the summer months, important numbers of certain wintering species such as Wigeon and Teal can also be caught on the reserve. In some years we can catch up to 50% of the annual British Teal total and 30% of the Wigeon caught in the UK.

Following a rather poor year in 2014 for catching wintering ducks, this year has so far proved particularly successful for catching Teal in our whoosh nets. 220 Teal have been ringed so far in 2015 with three catches accounting for an impressive 140 birds. This has taken the number ringed in the valley to a total of 2330 since waterfowl ringing started in the late 1980’s. This has in turn resulted in 62 movements away from the local area including 29 recoveries overseas to 10 countries, with seven to Russia, six to Finland and four to Denmark. Four birds (two to each) have also been recorded in Portugal and France. We’ll post the details of the Dutch Teal on here when we hear back from the BTO.