A closer look at the veterans

Eight of the woodcock we are tracking this year were caught and tagged prior to 2015 – either in spring 2013 or spring 2014. This means we are currently following their outward migration for the second or third time.

Irena's journey

Three of these birds are already at the breeding sites they visited last year. These are:

Irina – who has travelled from Ireland to the exact same site in Norway in spring 2014 and 2015.

Wensum – who was tagged in Norfolk in spring 2013. Wensum has wintered in Germany the past two winters and has returned to the same wood in Finland each year.

St. Brendan – who flew from Ireland to Latvia in 2014 and 2015.

Unsurprisingly these three, who have already finished their migrations, are those who travel the shortest distances.

Knepp and Olwen are both pretty close to the breeding sites they have used in previous years (Finland and Russia respectively) and appear to be heading in the right direction. Nastasia also appears to be plotting the correct course but still has 500 or so km left to travel before she reaches her Russian breeding grounds.

Remy has not transmitted data for some time so we are unsure of her exact whereabouts. Assuming she is a) still alive and b) returning to the same breeding site she ought to be en route to eastern Latvia. The last we heard she was in Belgium, but that was on the 22nd March.

The final bird is Monkey III. Monkey III should be heading towards Western Russia by now. Last year he/she had arrived on his/her breeding site by 30th April. This year, however, Monkey III has not yet left the UK and is still sending regular and accurate data from Hampshire. This seems very strange – we didn’t expect birds to ‘opt out’ of migration! Either Monkey III is leaving it very late to leave or there is something wrong with him/her.

Whilst Monkey III appears to be alive and moving around on a regular basis, there may be an issue that is preventing him/her from achieving the condition required to migrate – perhaps the result of a parasite, illness or old injury.

Please help us continue our woodcock research

 

Irina reappears in Ireland

As day length and sunlight intensity increase, our tags now have a better chance to recharge. This can see the revival of tags that have been inactive over the darker, duller winter months. Knepp’s tag did this early last week: after several months of silence it reappeared and is now regularly sending high-quality data.

Today, a second bird, Irina, has done the same. Irina was tagged in County Cork last spring and, unlike her compatriots that visited Western Russia and the Baltic states, she headed north to Norway. Prior to Irina, the only Norwegian birds we had tagged in the British Isles had all been caught in Scotland.

The last time we heard from Irina was 14 July 2014. No further data regarding her whereabouts had been received until the arrival of two new data-points this morning. These show that Irina is back in Co. Cork at a site very close to where she was caught. We do not know how long Irina has been back in Ireland. It is possible that she has been there since the beginning of the winter, but this is the first opportunity her tag has had to transmit.

Although it means we have missed some potential autumn and winter data, Irina’s sudden return is good news. With luck, her tag will remain charged and we will be able to watch Irina make a second outward spring migration. We’re particularly interested to see whether Irina returns to the same breeding site in Norway later this year.

If and when she does, Irina will be joined by a new batch of tagged woodcock. The satellite tags arrived yesterday and are currently being charged, waiting for deployment across the UK in the coming weeks. We’re hoping these birds will go live in March, and join the likes of Irina and Knepp, as we track a fourth spring migration.

Please help us continue our woodcock research