Tuesday, 15 November 2022

Venus Pool - 20 yo Curlew (metal ring)

Getting a decent pic of the colour ringed (LU) Curlew at Venus Pool was easy-peasy. During mid November another ringed bird (this time bearing just a metal ring) was seen by Dave Chapman and myself. Reading the ring number would be a difficult task to say the least however! I'd got loads of images to trawl through, little thinking I could clinch the full ring number but I had a go...

The first part of the code?  P490...


The number 4 clearly follows... P4904


And then add on a 7... P49047


This image shows clearly '47' is the final part of the code... The only digit missing is an F at the start which denotes the ring size!


And here's the proud wearer of the ring FP49047 seen at Venus Pool on a few occasions in mid November. A Curlew now proven to be some 20 years old !! Ringed at Wood Lane Quarry before the dawn of colour ringing. 

With colours and large letters, ringing recoveries are so much easier nowadays but the reporting rate is still somewhat infrequent!