Waterbird Colour-marking Group

Our network of volunteer bird ringers focus on waterbird species

[Waterbird Colour-marking Group @WaterbirdCM]

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 https://t.co/dMOoWIhFw0. With thanks to everyone who contributes to our work. #BirdRinging

[Waterbird Colour-marking Group @WaterbirdCM]

@ScottStaffs @WestMidBirdClub @RingersWm The Whooper is one of ours, please report it to us through our app and you’ll get its life history; https://t.co/nxwsoMqz06

[Stephen Vickers @Stephen8Vickers]

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!

[Kane Brides @KaneBrides]

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

[Waterbird Colour-marking Group @WaterbirdCM]

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...

[Waterbird Colour-marking Group @WaterbirdCM]

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 💫

[Kane Brides @KaneBrides]

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

[Waterbird Colour-marking Group @WaterbirdCM]

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

[Waterbird Colour-marking Group @WaterbirdCM]

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.

[Kane Brides @KaneBrides]

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 🔥

[allthingsmothy @Calybites]

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?

https://t.co/U3CI5Oj0mR
#Chroicocephalus #ridibundus
#NWBHGs ⁦@WaterbirdCM⁩

[Waterbird Colour-marking Group @WaterbirdCM]

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

[Waterbird Colour-marking Group @WaterbirdCM]

@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 :)

[Waterbird Colour-marking Group @WaterbirdCM]

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...

[Kane Brides @KaneBrides]

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

[Kane Brides @KaneBrides]

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

[Waterbird Colour-marking Group @WaterbirdCM]

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 ➡️ https://t.co/ygyYyTKo2z

[Waterbird Colour-marking Group @WaterbirdCM]

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 😊

[Waterbird Colour-marking Group @WaterbirdCM]

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 🇬🇧

[Waterbird Colour-marking Group @WaterbirdCM]

We've already had 34 Black-headed Gulls reported across Europe this breeding season, from 8 countries
🇵🇱🇳🇴🇸🇪🇫🇮🇷🇺🇩🇪🇳🇱🇩🇰
Sightings map now online - https://t.co/ygyYyTKo2z

[Kane Brides @KaneBrides]

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? 🤗