With the dry conditions and
dwindling water levels around the reserve over the last month, the ringing team
have been able to take advantage of the conditions and the opportunity to catch
and ring some passage waders. With little inland wader ringing taking
place across the country some of the results from the valley add significant
numbers to the national totals and data set. Using wader nets set during
the hours of darkness, the team have managed to catch 26 Common Snipe, 17 Green
Sandpiper, a single Wood Sandpiper and Little Ringed Plover, as well as 7 Teal
and 2 Mallards over the last month.
The sandpiper totals are particularly
noteworthy – 17 Green Sandpipers represents about 25-35% of the annual UK
ringing totals, whilst only around 4 or 5 Wood Sandpipers are ringed in the UK
each year. Likewise, the annual ringing totals for snipe average around 400, so
another 26 from the valley will hopefully add further to our knowledge of these
birds and how they use the valley throughout the year. It’s likely that
will be it now for wader ringing this year, as the last remaining pools look
set to dry up any day now, which will see ‘our’ sandpipers head further south,
into Europe and Northern Africa for the winter.
Wood Sandpiper
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