Belgian-ringed Water Rail resurfaces

Way back in September 2012, group ringers covering the autumn migration period at Marazion Marsh caught a Water Rail wearing a ring from the Belgian ringing scheme. This was quite exciting, as whilst Water Rails are known winter migrants into the UK, we really don't catch enough to know much about their movements. But it was only this week that we finally got the original ringing details back from the Belgian scheme, showing the bird had been ringed 52 days previously at Mechelen in northern Belgium. This is the sixth foreign-ringed Water Rail to be found in Cornwall, with others (all found dead) coming from Germany (four) and The Netherlands (two).

Others reports that came in this week included confirmation of the sad demise of one of our colour-ringed Peregrines. This had been ringed as a chick near Porthtowan in May 2014, but was found with a badly injured wing near Cornwood, Devon, back in March 2015. Unfortunately its injuries were too sever for it to be rehabilitated, so it had to be euthanased two days after being admitted to the vets.

Slightly cheerier news also came in confirmation of the ringing details of several rings and colour rings read recently. Some of these were well-known local birds, but it's always nice to receive the records back. This time, we had received details of a Dutch Curlew, a Great Black-backed Gull from Guernsey, two Mediterranean Gulls from France and Black-headed Gulls from Poland (two) and Belgium.