Waterbird Colour-marking Group

Our website brings together all the #waterbird colour-marking projects our volunteer ringers, fieldworkers & researchers work on. You can also use it to report our birds. Head to waterbirdcolourmarking.org. With thanks to everyone who contributes to our work. #BirdRinging

@ScottStaffs @WestMidBirdClub @RingersWm The Whooper is one of ours, please report it to us through our app and you’ll get its life history; waterbirdcolourmarking.shinyapps.io/sightings2/

Popped over to Elford to see the 60 Russian White-Fronted Geese. Nothing doing when I got there, but fortunately they flew in after an hour. Also 4 Whooper Swans. One of which had a white ring on it's left leg. The number looked like 22L @WestMidBirdClub @RingersWm

The Whoopers are starting to move and will soon be back on their Icelandic breeding grounds! Since @WaterbirdCM started ringing Whoopers in 2023, we've tagged >600 inds. and gathered >750 sightings. Please keep an eye out and continue to report any sightings to us as they leave!

Ok! Come on let's follow this lot to where they're sleeping tonight... A thread🧵 #Ornithology 1/7

Since 2023 we've caught & colour-marked nearly 600 Whooper Swans & we need your help to find them! 🧐 Please check any flocks you may see & let us know what you find...

Another successful expedition to #Iceland comes to an end! Over 200 Whooper Swans caught & colour-marked for ongoing studies & many GPS tags deployed. Thank you to Sverrir Thorstensen, Ketill Þor & the many farmers who have hosted & helped us 💫

Another day on board the zodiac with our special passengers! All caught for @WaterbirdCM colour-ringing 💫

We're spending today at the stove as we make up & mould darvic rings ahead of our Whooper Swan expedition to #Iceland next week!

The team has been on the road visiting North Yorkshire, Cumbria & Perth & Kinross for Barnacle goose ringing. In total, 415 geese were rounded up & colour-marked as part of work to better understand the movements & survival of the UK's naturalised Barnacle goose population.

400 flat engraved darvics for our @WaterbirdCM Whooper Swan expedition up to #Iceland 🇮🇸 in a few weeks. I just need a few days in front of the stove to make them up 🔥

Southport-ringed BHG 227L is back in Roundhay Park, Leeds, today having last being seen here on 18th March 2024 Presumably it is on its way back to Southport. Is anyone there to watch out for it? waterbirdcolourmarking.org #Chroicocephalus #ridibundus #NWBHGs ⁦@WaterbirdCM⁩

What do you call a North Yorkshire breeding Barnacle Goose in Italy?..... Lost! Very lost! 🇮🇹

@ornitho_pie Many thanks for letting us know! We had not heard of this sighting. A month later it was in Northern Italy! Sure is getting around :)

@WaterbirdCM Hopefully you received this sighting from South of Italy (if it belongs to your project)

When we started our colour-marking study of the UK's naturalised Barnacle Goose population, we didn't think they would roam as much as they have! Watch till the end...

We're interested in knowing of any decent sized moulting flocks of Mandarin. Please keep an eye out and let @WJSmith97 / me know know...

Round yer mates up... for a paddle on the water then catch 600 geese! Nicely topping up our marked population. Pretty cool weekend! Though feeling it now... #BirdRinging

Another batch of Black-headed Gulls reported across Europe including Norway 🇳🇴, Germany 🇩🇪 and this bird, 2V10 seen in The Netherlands 🇳🇱 Check out the map here ➡️ waterbirdcolourmarking.org/sightings-bh/

Today, we took a batch of darvic to the engravers to start making up this years Whooper Swan rings. Another 500 being made for deployment in #Iceland this summer 😊

Looking smart in the sunshine is Black-headed Gull 2T74, photographed by @robertwikstrand in Stavanger, Norway 🇳🇴 a few days ago (also seen there in 2022 and 2023). The bird winters, and was ringed in Cumbria, UK 🇬🇧

We've already had 34 Black-headed Gulls reported across Europe this breeding season, from 8 countries 🇵🇱🇳🇴🇸🇪🇫🇮🇷🇺🇩🇪🇳🇱🇩🇰 Sightings map now online - waterbirdcolourmarking.org/sightings-bh/

Our wandering Barnacle Geese (originally ringed in North Yorkshire) are touring Germany! First seen close to the Austrian border in January, they are now in Lower Saxony. Heading home? 🤗