Dublin Bay Godwit drops by Scotland

A flock of Black-tailed Godwits, that spent the winter 2012/13 near North Bull Island in Dublin Bay, included a very special bird.  Photographed at least three times by Cian Merne, Richard Nairn and John Fox, it had a selection of colour rings on its legs.  It turned out that this bird had been marked by a Scottish ringer, Raymond Duncan, at the Montrose Basin, between Dundee and Aberdeen on the north-east coast of Scotland.  It had been caught as a juvenile, only a few months old, on 16^th September 2012, not long after it had left its breeding grounds in Iceland.  With its new colour combination of orange and blue rings, EX71920 flew south to Dublin Bay where it was first resighted in December by Christer Persson at the Santry River.   A day later it was seen in Lein Park Raheny before moving with the flock to feed near the Bull Wall until at least March.  By May 2013, it would be back in Iceland after a flight of at least 1,500 kilometres, which it could have undertaken in one day. We will be looking out for this bird again next winter in Dublin Bay. 

Black-tailed Godwit flock with colour-ringed 
bird at North Bull Island. Richard Nairn