Colour-ringed Black-tailed Godwit Update.........

After finding a colour ringed male Black-tailed Godwit on my patch at Winter's Pond on the 8th September,i have now received the full life history of the bird back from the ringing project in Iceland.The following is a summary of the birds movements and age etc.

Male bird - CR Combination - Green/Green left leg,Green/Lime right leg,ringed as a 2 year old bird at S-Mulasysla,Alftafjordur,Starmyri eastern Iceland on the 03.05.00.,making this bird an incredible 20 years old.
 He has travelled widely being seen at Belfast Harbour RSPB in Northern Ireland,Wexford Slobs in Southern Ireland,North Killingholme Haven in Lincolnshire,the Ribble Estuary in Lancashire,Paul Holme Strays in East Yorkshire,Wheldrake Ings in the Lower Derwent Valley,in East Yorkshire,the Dee Estuary in Merseyside,Frieston Shore in Lincolnshire and finally my patch at East Halton in Lincolnshire.
 The bird spent all his winters here in the UK,mainly on the Dee Estuary/Wirral in Merseyside,before returning to Iceland to breed.
 What a fantastic insight into a birds life and again,just goes to show how important ringing birds is to study their migration and help in the conservation of so many of our birds.
 A big thank you must go to Dr. Jenny Gill for her original reply and the forwarding of my details to Boddi at the Iceland Wader Group and also for anyone interested please check out the superb Wader Tales Blog ran by Graham Appleton of the BTO,with contributions from Jenny and others,the blog can be found here @ https://wadertales.wordpress.com .

The 20 year old male Icelandic Black-tailed Godwit,seen feeding at Winter's Pond,East Halton,08.09.2018.