The Lincolnshire Bird Club

The Mid Lincs RG ringed two nestling Little Egrets on 30/6/07 near Donna Nook. We have received notification that one (Left red "A" Right Yellow "B") were seen in the field on three occasions in August at the RSPB Reserve at Old Hall, South Yorks. The first was only five weeks after ringing. The last record was on 20/8/07 at Potteric Carr Nature Reserve. They are certainly spreading around the country!

Hi Stu. This recently received re Little Egret seen at Gib in August

Dear Nigel

Many thanks for your valuable sighting of a colour ringed Little Egret, and apologies for the delay in getting back to you.

Please find attached a life history report for this bird, which as you will see was ringed as a nestling last summer just across the Wash from you. I have copied this email to the ringer, Jez Blackburn. If you have any further sightings of this bird, even if from the same location, I would be very grateful for the details.

You will see that I have accepted this record as Orange D Yellow K, rather than Red D Yellow K. This is because, whilst we do use red rings, we have not used that particular combination yet. Orange rings are getting reported as red quite frequently, but for future reference they have black letters, whereas the red rings have white letters.

Finally, if you would like to know more about this project, please don't hesitate to let me know.

Best wishes
Richard Hearn

British & Irish Little Egret study

Life history of colour-marked bird


Bird ID: Left = orange D, Right = yellow K

Date of ringing: 16 June 2007 Site: near Terrington St Clement, Norfolk Age: Nestling

Date Location County State Observer
02/08/2007 Gibraltar Point NNR Lincolnshire Alive, seen in field Nigel Lound

At Manby Flashes today. A colour ringed bird. orange marked X,left leg. Yellow marked 6 or possibly 16,right leg. I have emailed Richard Hearn so look forward to getting some information back.

Did you hear anything back yet on this bird?

Mark Grantham

No, but I did google 'X6'and found reference to a photo of the bird on GPC's pewit blog from Sept. 2008 taken at Pyewipe, so it doesn't appear to have moved far.
I had more luck with a colour ringed Med Gull in the midlands,the ringers soon emailed back to say it was ringed in France.

Found this now, and it was a bird ringed in the nest (GH56419) at Terrington St Clement, Norfolk, on 19 June 2008.

You're right as well, that Graham saw it at Pyewipe on 17 September.

Mark G

Thanks Mark, so the bird was just about 1 year old when I saw it.