Ruff crossing

Colour-ringed Ruff at Elmley Marshes, Kent, 27/1/13

As I mentioned in a previous post, one of the highlights of a trip to Elmley Marshes recently were the great views of a flock of Ruff (Philomachus pugnax) feeding along the entrance track. Scanning through the birds, I spotted two colour-ringed individuals - the photo above is a record shot of the one nearest me. It's not a great shot but you can make out some detail of the rings, in this case: yellow-top/white?-below (left tarsus) and blue-top/white-below (right tarsus). I'd heard about wader ringing programmes in northern Europe before and a quick check online, via the excellent www.cr-birding.org, pointed me in the direction of Jos Hooijmeijer at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. I sent him this photo and he was good enough to fire an email straight back.

Jos instantly recognised this bird as being from an affiliated ringing programme and this is the information he sent. This is a 3cy male Ruff, first caught and ringed on the 3rd April 2012 in Gaastmeer, Fiskersbuorren (Netherlands) in the vicinity of Lake IJsselmeer. It subsequently moved south west to Gent in Belgium to what looks like an area of well-drained arable land, where it was first spotted in December 2012 before travelling due west across the channel to Sheppey:

 30-12-2012 Gent, Bourgoyen
Belgium 51.03.50 N 03.40.30 E
3-1-2013 Gent, Bourgoyen
Belgium 51.03.50 N 03.40.30 E
5-1-2013 Gent, Bourgoyen
Belgium 51.03.50 N 03.40.30 E
27-1-2013 Isle of Sheppey, Elmley
Marshes United Kingdom 51.22.31 N 00.47.15 E

The arrival on Sheppey seems to correspond with freezing conditions across north eastern Europe and south eastern England has thawed nicely since then so Sheppey would seem a good destination.

Anyway, always interesting to find out where birds have been - looks like another cold snap this week, so keep an eye out for more continental arrivals.