Bar-tailed Godwit, DH, enjoys some midnight sun

Just a very quick one today, to mention our first Bar-tailed Godwit re-sighting outside Ireland. It turns out that this is also the furthest away that we’ve had a re-sighting!

Ringing and re-sighting locations for Bar-tailed Godwit, DH. 

While we managed to catch up with, and ring-read, 31 out of the 99 Bar-tailed Godwits (ringed 31^st Jan, 2014) before they left Dublin Bay, DH wasn’t read until the 18^th May, when it was photographed by Tomas Aarvak. Here’s a very dapper-looking DH in northern Norway, looking a lot more colourful than on the ringing day in January.

Bar-tailed Godwit, DH, in breeding plumage in Porsanger, 

Finnmark, Norway on 18^th May, 2014. Tomas Aarvak 

It won’t be long now before we start to see waders, most likely failed breeders, returning from the north, and there are also quite a few of the colour-ringed Oystercatchers and Bar-tailed Godwits summering in Dublin. So, if you feel like getting out there to do some birding or ring-reading, your re-sightings would be greatly appreciated!