A familiar pair of legs

It seems that celebrities were all over Hoo Peninsular at the weekend. I made a quick visit to Cliffe on Saturday afternoon and was pleased to bump into one of its own:

C-ringed Greenshank, Cliffe Pools, 25/1/14

This colour-ringed Greenshank (Tringa nebularia) pictured on the left, was roosting with a small flock of birds at the top of Flamingo pool. That in itself was good to see but with a closer look I spotted the rings and recognised the colour combination - it was a familiar pair of legs. You might just be able to make out the small Green over Orange flags on its left tarsus.

I saw this bird twice last year, when, with the help of another local birder, I was given the ringers details. He was quickly able to confirm that this bird is something of a Cliffe Pools stalwart as it has been returning to Cliffe every winter since 2006. Ringed locally in August 2006, this individual often stays in the area until April before reappearing again in late summer or autumn. Where it goes in the meantime is a guess, presumably it migrates to a breeding site much further north. On its travels it has also made brief stops in Buckinghamshire and Cambridgeshire, but it is its remarkable site fidelity here that makes it a special bird indeed and shows that it clearly finds conditions to its liking. I was really happy to see it back again for another year.