Sightings backlog January 2015

After a long hiatus, sightings of colour-ringed Little Egrets from Britain and Ireland are now being processed. The oldest sightings are being dealt with first and so it may take some time to get to more recent sightings. For the course of 2015, please be patient - I will get to you eventually.

Rest assured your sightings are valued and will not be lost. If you have any others, please do continue to send them to littleegrets@yahoo.co.uk. Further updates will be posted here in due course.

oUy6 still at Gib Point

Orange U yellow 6 is still at Gibraltar Point, Lincolnshire, seen most recently by Malcolm Johnson on 15th August, some three years after being ringed on the other side of the Wash near Terrington.

Sightings of 2011 youngsters

Sightings of a number of fledged 2011 young have been received in the past couple of weeks, including a bird from Lincolnshire ringed by Martin Sizer that was at Tyninghame Estuary for most of July, seen by Dave Allan, and has now been seen by John Anderson at Guardbridge in Fife.

Northwards dispersal is the norm in this rapidly expanding species, so observers in northern England and southern Scotland probably have the best opportunity of finding marked birds, but July - September is when young birds are dispersing the most and they can turn up almost anywhere in the UK.

Just getting started...

This blog will shortly contain information on the colour-marking of Little Egrets in Britain and Ireland.

Birds are ringed mostly as nestlings at sites throughout the current breeding range, and this is leading to much new knowledge about the movements of this species.

If you see a colour-marked bird from this project, please report the details to littleegrets@yahoo.co.uk

Further information on colour-marking projects can be found at http://www.cr-birding.be/