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Lincs Bird Club Member |
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Joined: Wed Aug 30, 2006 2:33 pm Posts: 588 Location: Welton le Marsh
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I have just seen Graham's photo- on his blog - of a juv Islandic Black T Godwit taken a few days ago ( no obvious date) that is well advanced in its post juv moult into first winter plumage. I have been monitoring every Black T Godwit flock I can find for juvs ever since the first adults returned from Iceland at the end of june. I did not find a single juv until the middle of august and since then I have not found more than 3% juvs in total and generally it's as low as 1% - and that's in flocks of upto 160 individuals. I have seen odd ones just starting post juvenile moult with a few grey scapulars but the majority have shown no sign of moult. Even today at Gib the only juv showed no sign of moult. I have no records from previous years of juv numbers but 1-3% seems to show a breeding failure. Does anybody have any comments??
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