Colour-rings
Some maps to show why I spend time searching for colour-marked birds: they show some - only some - of the paths between places of ringing and the sites I have seen the birds in question. A great illustration of the distances involved in migration for some of the species we note merely as common winter visitors and think little more of.
Brent Goose
Not the most diverse selection of origins for Brent Geese, but the most distant of my ring re-sightings. Breeding grounds - on the Taymyr peninsula - are over 4,500km distant from the winter sites on the Exe. Most of my re-sightings come from birds ringed in winters on the Exe, however.
I have so far gathered about 115 sightings of 33 different birds on the Exe. Ringing sites range from the Exe (all in 1996) to the northern staging sites in the Netherlands (ringed between 1997 and 2005) and the breeding grounds on the Taymyr Peninsula (ringed 1991-1995).
Black-headed Gull
I have managed to find birds ringed from exactly the same site in southern Sweden wintering in both Vienna and Exeter! Small world...
It is also interesting that a bird ringed in The Netherlands should head down to Vienna in the winter - I would have imagined that the North Sea coast would be a kinder climate.
Over the past couple of winters, an increasing amount of searching in Exeter has produced birds ringed in Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Latvia, Germany, Holland, Belgium and elsewhere in the UK. It's all out there to find!
Black-tailed Godwit
The bulk of the wintering Black-tailed Godwits on the Exe come from Iceland, as you can see from this map. We also have a handful (ssp. limosa?) from eastern England.
The oldest bird I've seen so far is about 11.5 years old.
All background map images are from Google Earth, copyright remains wherever appropriate.