Ringed Plovers on the Move
Ringed plover chicks which hatched on the Northumberland coast are off on their travels… or at least some of them are!
In 2023, we started a colour-ringing project to assess where ringed plovers which nest along the Northumberland coast go after the breeding season. Ringed plovers are migratory, with most travelling south in the autumn, however we do have a population which stay in Northumberland all year round. Working with experienced ringer Chris Redfern, 6 fledglings were ringed at a nest site at Dell Point, Beadnell, with green ring on their left tibia (upper leg) and a white ring on their left tarsus (lower leg) with a black 3-letter code.
Pictured above is UAH, which stayed in Beadnell for a month after fledging in July 2023. There was no further sign of it or any of our ringed juveniles… until we received an email from a birder in Brittany, France, telling us she’d spotted UAH feeding with a group of other ringed plovers in October last year! We were very excited to hear the news that this bird was safe and well, opting to spend the winter in the warmer climate of France or possibly even in northern Africa.
This was the only report of our ringed birds of the winter, and at the start of the 2024 nesting season, we were keeping a very close eye out for a flash of green and white on the ringed plovers returning to Northumberland. Sure enough, in June this year, a report came in of a young ringed plover feeding at Newbiggin with green and white colour rings… and it was none other than UAH! The markings on this bird indicated that it was a female, returning to Northumberland in her first year as a non-breeding bird.
Photo: Alan Priest
UAL, one of UAH’s siblings, was also spotted back in Northumberland this summer. Her first re-sighting was in August, so we cannot be sure of her exact movements in her first year, but great to see her on the coast again!
To continue to build up a picture of the movements of our breeding ringed plovers, a further 19 chicks were colour ringed this year at our sites at Beadnell, as well as at the National Trust’s Long Nanny Tern Site. Over the past few months, we have received some extraordinary re-sightings of our juveniles with some turning up in places we would have never expected!
UBF, a fledgling from Dell Point, Beadnell headed south to Portsmouth, a journey of roughly 450 miles at 2 months old! UAS, a youngster from a different brood at Dell Point surprised us all by travelling almost 270 miles west to County Donegal, Republic of Ireland! And in a move nobody expected, UAV from the Long Nanny flew north to Fife!
The drivers of migration are very complex, so why some birds travel to unexpected places is a bit of a mystery. But as well as birds migrating away from Northumberland at the end of the nesting season, we are very excited that some birds have stayed!
UBV from Ebbs Point in Beadnell, has been spotted regularly in Beadnell over the past few months, the latest sighting on 26th November just 100 metres from where he was ringed! His sibling, UBZ, has also recently been spotted in Seahouses by Northumberland Coast Conservation Team volunteer Paul Reed, one of the many dedicated people helping us protect all nesting ringed plovers this year. UBN has remained in Northumberland too, last spotted on 4th November hanging around at Dunstanburgh along with UAL.
Photo: Chris Redfern
It is very likely that those birds which are still in Northumberland will now stay with us for the rest of the non-breeding season. If you see them when out on the coast, please do let us know when and where! And if you spot any other birds which have colour rings on their legs, head over to the European Colour-Ring Birding website to find out which colour ringing project they belong to.
We are eagerly awaiting more news about our ringed birds, and can’t wait to hopefully see them back on our beaches in the spring, ready for the nesting season to begin once again.
