• Home
    • COMMENTS PAGE
  • PICKERINGS PASTURE LNR
    • World Wetlands Day '21
    • Latest News 2021
    • Latest News 2020
    • Wild Goose Chase
    • Sabine's Gull
    • Local News of Interest
    • Things to look out for in Winter
    • Work Parties 2019 >
      • Pickerings Pasture Volunteers
    • The Kingfisher
    • What is a Scrape?
    • The Bats of Pickerings Pasture LNR
    • WeBS Counts
    • The Tidal Bore on the River Mersey
    • The Peregrine Falcon
    • Canada Geese
    • Black-tailed godwits
    • Dunlins
    • Tree Clearance
    • Top tips for your tubs
    • Pickerings Pasture Leaflet.
  • Wildlife Garden 2021
    • Making a Wildlife Garden
    • Plant List
    • Info on wildlife-friendly gardening
    • Wildlife Garden 2019
    • Wildlife Garden 2020
  • HALE DUCK DECOY
    • Hale Duck Decoy - Recent Events
    • Hale Duck Decoy - AT RISK
    • First Impressions
    • Wildlife photographs from Hale Duck Decoy
    • The History of Hale Duck Decoy >
      • Restoration
      • The Flood 1990
      • Dredging the Pond and Moat.
      • Tidal Surge & Flooding 2013
      • The Freemen of Hale
    • Old slides of Hale Duck Decoy
    • Booking a Decoy Guided Walk
    • Wildlife - Past and Present - on Hale Duck Decoy
  • Photo Gallery
    • The Insects at Pickerings Pasture
    • WILDLIFE Gallery
    • Little Owls
    • The Meadows at Pickerings Pasture
    • Fungus
    • Halebank Park
  • Archived Information- A Guide
    • Latest News 2019
    • Latest News 2019
    • Latest News 2018
    • A brilliant display
    • A ringing recovery
    • A Walk in Arctic Woodland
    • BBC Wildlife Magazine promotes Pickerings Pasture.
    • Canada Goose Nest 2015
    • Childe of Hale
    • Cleaning Up Pickerings Pasture
    • Great White Egret
    • Harbour Porpoise (Updated)
    • The Cornfield Meadow
    • The Kingfisher Returns
    • The Pathways Work
    • Visit by Botanical Society from Nantes, in France
    • Windblown Waif
    • Young Nature Conservationists
    • Incident down at Pickerings
    • ​The Peoples’ March for Wildlife, London
    • Rock On Barney
    • The Ibis Pool
  • LINKS
  • Wildlife Garden 2021
  The Friends of Pickerings Pasture - Wildlife Sightings

BLACK-TAILED GODWITS ON THE RIVER MERSEY                         

Updated 16.7.16 at bottom of the page
Picture
Until recently we have seen small numbers of black-tailed godwits in this part of the river, but in 2011 the numbers increased to almost a thousand birds and they are now using the estuary annually.. As the tide comes in they fly to Hale Marsh were they can be seen roosting from the bird hide. Small numbers moved onto some of the freshwater pools on the higher reaches of the marsh. Numbers continue to increase.  They usually arrive in July on their return migration: a lot of these birds are brick red - their full breeding plumage. Gradually they change into their winter plumage. There are also young birds with them in their juvenile plumage. 
Picture
Black-tailed godwits in July.
There are two separate races of black-tailed godwits, one race breeds in Europe from Holland through to the Baltic States (Limosa limosa limosa): the other race breeds in Iceland (Limosa limosa islandica) It was thought that the birds at Pickerings Pasture LNR were of Icelandic origin and this has been confirmed as several birds were carrying colour rings on their upper tarsus.
Picture
This black-tailed godwit RO-WYf was photographed at Carr Lane Pools, Hale. It is shown below as a chick in Iceland..
The black-tailed godwits from Iceland have been increasing in recent years: the reasons are uncertain but it is probably due to milder weather owing to global warming which has resulted in the birds being able to rear more young. Another possible reason for the increase is that some of the birds are staying in the UK
for the winter instead of going into southern Europe where they were more likely to be shot by hunters.
The results from colour-ringed birds make very interesting reading – one found amongst the high-tide roost from the hide on 8th August 2011 was ringed Green over Orange: Lime over White (GO-LW). It was ringed on the Wash Estuary in Lincolnshire on 9th September 2002 at Holbeach. It was probably an adult when it was ringed, so the bird was over ten years old. It is not unusual for Godwits to live until they are fifteen, if all goes well.

It was next reported at Cley in Norfolk on 24th March 2003 where it remained until 22nd April. Four days later, on 26th April, it was over a thousand miles away at Álftafjörður in Eastern Iceland and was seen there on three occasions up to 1st May.

On various dates between 9th August 2003 and 19th April 2004 our bird was seen at Cley although it did pop up to Snettisham for a while in September. Bizarrely it was back in Snettisham the following September before returning to Cley. A similar pattern continued until April 2007 although it did show up at Salthouse (not far from Cley) on several occasions.

Our bird would have returned to Eastern Iceland each summer to breed, without being noticed: but eventually it was discovered at Egilsstaðanes, Egilsstaðir on 21st May 2006 and again at
Álftafjörður on 30th April 2008.
Things changed slightly in 2007: our bird started to appear on the Humber Estuary in the early part of the winter and this pattern continued through until at least 2010. This highlights one of
the problems with these sightings: did the bird change its pattern or did a different observer start watching a new area? Whichever – GO-LW continued to spend much of its winter on the North Norfolk coast, particularly at Cley where
it was in the company of many others of its species.

Thanks go to Jenny Gill, from the University of East Anglia, Peter Potts and Project Jadrakan in Iceland who provided the full details and photographs, which have been summarised here.
Picture
Colour-ringed godwit GO-LW.
Last year ten young birds were found with colour rings. In one case two siblings were at Hale just forty days after they were ringed as small chicks. It takes about thirty days for them to fly  from hatching and several more to improve their flying techniques!  Another ringed at Fljot, Northern Iceland on 10th July spent twenty one days on the Estuary from 1st September.

Our birds sometimes cross over to spend time at Frodsham and others have been found around Leighton Moss and on the Dee Estuary.
This year the numbers have again broken all records on the Mersey with a flock in excess of two and a half thousand. They will remain here (or nearby) until conditions change: weather and
availability of food being the main triggers to further migration. Some will move on south-east towards the Wash, others will travel further south into Spain and Portugal. Unfortunately in 2013 the vegetation was too long to read the rings with any degree of accuracy this year.
Picture
These photographs were sent to us from the ringer in Iceland. It shows the habitats
Picture
were our birds were ringed.
Picture
Two of the ringers in Iceland. Note the yellow flag used in combination with the colour rings.
Picture
The two girls are from a local school. The ringers run an education programme as part of the scheme.
Picture
RO-RYf. Ringed as a very small chick on 10/7/12 at Fljot, Northern Iceland. Seen Carr Lane Pools 28/8/12 & 4/9/12
Picture
RO-WYf. Ringed as a small chick on 10/7/12 at Fljot, Northern Iceland. Seen Carr Lane Pools 19/9/12 & 23/9/12
Picture
WW-LYf. Ringed at 2 weeks old on 12/7/12 at Bergland, Northern Iceland. Seen Carr Lane Pools 20/9/12 - 30/9/12.
Picture
GW-OYf. Ringed as a large chick on 13/7/12 at Dalvik, Eyjafjörður, North-east Iceland. Seen 20/8/12 at Frodsham & 27/8/12 at Carr Lane Pools.
 Click on photos to enlarge                                                                                                                                                                                                   CA & RP Cockbain
PictureYO-YGf
Another interesting colour-ringed black-tailed godwit has been seen at Carr Lane Pools. YO-YGf was ringed as an adult male on the Tagus Estuary, near Setúbal in Western Portugal on 20th February 2007. It has returned to the Tagus each winter: although it wasn’t seen in 2009!

Travelling south in autumn it has been seen on the east coast  on the Medway Estuary in Kent in 2008 and 2010 and on the Colne Estuary in Essex in 2012.
Travelling north in spring it tends to have taken an easterly route too. In 2008 and 2010 and 2012 it visited Holland and in 2011 was at Lawling Creek on the Blackwater Estuary in Essex.

This year it was interesting to see that it stopped both in France and UK on its way north! It was near Dunkerque, N France from at least 24th March to 15th April. Three days later, on the 18th, it was on Carr Lane Pools with a flock of five other godwits. There had been a strong north-westerly gale the previous day, which had probably forced them down. They had gone by the evening.   

Some 2016 sightings of black-tailed godwits.
WN-YX 11.07.09 Siglufjordur, N Iceland
WN-YX 12.08.09 Estuaire du Lay, L´Aiguillon sur Mer, Vendée, W France
WN-YX 20.08.09 Fier d'Ars, Ars-en-Ré, Íle de Ré, W France
WN-YX 19.12.09 Pointe de l'Imperlay, SAINT-BREVIN-LES-PINS, Brittany, France
WN-YX 07.03.11 Abbega , Súdwest Fryslân, Friesland,N Netherland
WN-YX 22.04.11 Melasveit, Borgarfjarðarsýsla, W Iceland
WN-YX 25.04.11 Melasveit, Borgarfjarðarsýsla, W Iceland
WN-YX 13.05.11 Siglufjordur (west side), N Iceland
WN-YX 16.08.11 Estuaire du Lay, L Aiguillon-sur-Mer, Vendée, W France
WN-YX 14.09.11  Réserve Naturelle,PORTES-EN-RE, W France
WN-YX 19.11.11 Pontorson(Ardevon), Normandy, NW France
WN-YX 19.11.11 near the Mont-Saint-Michel, Ardevon, Normandy, NW France
WN-YX 29.11.11 Fosse de Loix, COUARDE-SUR-MER (LA), Íle de Ré, W France
WN-YX 17.02.12 Farlington Marshes, Hampshire, S England
WN-YX 13.05.12 Siglufjörður, N Iceland
WN-YX 18.06.12 Siglufjörður, N Iceland
WN-YX 10.07.12 Siglufjordur,  N Iceland
WN-YX 11.07.12 Siglufjordur,  N Iceland
WN-YX 21.04.13 Polders Poelgeest,  Warmond, South-Holland,  W             Netherlands
WN-YX 9.05.13 Siglufjordur,N Iceland
WN-YX 8.03.14 Westerland, Normerven, W Netherlands
WN-YX 11.09.14 Réserve Naturelle, Portes-En-Re (Les), W France
WN-YX 13.05.15 Steinaflatir, Siglufjörður, N Iceland
WN-YX 02.09.15 Réserve naturelle C9, PORTES-EN-RE (LES), Charente-Maritime, W France
WN-YX 06.09.15 Fosse de Loix, LOIX, Charente-Maritime, W France
WN-YX 09.09.15 Réserve naturelle P1, PORTES-EN-RE (LES), Charente-Maritime, W France
WN-YX 27.09.15 Fosse de Loix, LOIX, Charente-Maritime, W France
WN-YX 07.11.15 Ecoe de voile, Port-Des-Barques, Charente-Maritime, W France
WN-YX 26.04.16 Siglufjörður, N Iceland
WN-YX 29.04.16 Siglufjörður, N Iceland
WN-YX 15.07.16 Carr Lane Pools, Mersey estuary, Cheshire, NW England
Thanks for finding and reporting this bird. It is really great that it has been found once more. 
Of the 58 Black-tails ringed in Cork Harbour, this one is the fifth UK
re-sighting (second English), is only the third re-sighted in Iceland but is the first to be seen in both! The ringing and resighting details to date are in the table below and previous observers are included in the circulation list as this is "their" bird too!

GN W= N 29/9/14  Lough Beg, Ringaskiddy, Cork Harbour, County Cork.BO'M
GN W= S 16/5/15   The Slob, Youghal, Co.Cork                                      Bob Rock
GN W= S 28/4/16   Melasveit, Borgarfjarðarsýsla, W Iceland               JAG/GFA
GN W= S 5/7/16     Carr Lane Pools, Hale, Liverpool                     R.Cockbain
Picture
GN W in the black-tailed godwit flock at Carr Lane Pools.
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.