The first returning Sand Martin was seen over Bank Island last week (13/03) - a day after we received a recovery of an individual from last summer: ringed here as a juvenile on the 01/08/21 - re-caught 28 days later at Sandouville, Seine-Maritime, France - 497 km to the south. Hopefully it's now on its way north, possibly back to the LDV, where our Sand Martin bank is ready and waiting for occupants.
We've also had a flurry of Shelduck recoveries recently, including an individual ringed at Bank Island in February 2018, which was then re-sighted in February 2021 at Zierikzee Zuidoek in The Netherlands - 412 km east of the LDV. This is our third foreign movement (two to the Netherlands and one to Germany). Many thanks to our great team for all the hours put in helping to collect this valuable data, which is now producing a wealth of information on the ecology and movements of this species.
Whilst our breeding birds are starting to return, some of our wintering visitors are lingering, including the flock of Whooper Swans at Derwent Farm in North Duffield, where a colour-ringed individual was spotted recently. ZXI was ringed at Caerlaverock in Dumfries and Galloway on the 19/02/10, where it then subsequently returned each year from 2010 until 2019 (bar 2015). After three years of not being sighted anywhere, it then appeared at Adlingfleet in East Yorkshire, on the 03/02/22, before joining the Whooper Swan flock in the LDV, where it was spotted by our team on the 13/03/22. It's unlikely to be here for much longer, with the remainder of the flock soon heading back to Iceland for the breeding season, with just 40 individuals present during the recent WeBS count.
