Nick Carter, Wetland Project Officer
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| Reed Warbler, by Chris Thornton |
Kartong Bird Observatory, at the southern end of the Gambian
coast, was established in 2010 and so far 12,000 birds, including 256 reed
warblers, have been ringed there. Ringing takes place in the reedbeds that have
developed in an old sand mine and also in the surrounding Acacia scrub. L930934 was ringed there on 18 January 2014 and I have
just been informed by the BTO (which licences bird ringing in the UK) it was re-trapped
on the Hilgay Wetland Creation site, a joint venture with Environment Agency,
on 11 August 2015, a distance of 4,647km and a gap of 1 year and 205 days. She
is a female and had an active brood patch when trapped which means she was
breeding onsite. Of the reed warblers ringed at Kartong, six have been re-trapped
in Europe but the Hilgay bird represents the furthest north of any of these
recoveries.
Numbers of reed warblers are increasing on the Hilgay site
as the areas of reeds enlarge with three pairs present in 2014 and up to eight pairs
this year. Most of them are concentrated on the reed-filled ditch on the
northern boundary of the site although some birds were singing in the southwest
corner of the site this year. It will
take several years for the reedbeds to develop fully and obviously reed warbler
is one of those species that will benefit enormously. Ringing on the site will
not only enable us to monitor this population increase but also important
breeding parameters as breeding success by comparing numbers of young and
adults ringed each year.
