Colour-ringing
information .
. . Godwits
season 2012-13
. . . Godwits
season 2011-12
.
. .
Spurting
behaviour
BLACK-TAILED
GODWIT DIARY 2011-12
in reverse
chronological order
Godwits
fighting? - 14 February 2012
Heather Mills got this
extraordinary photo of what appears to be two
Black-tailed Godwits fighting. Heather says "Really
vicious behaviour, but fortunately the underwater bird
got away eventually". I have sent a copy of the photo
to Pete Potts to see if he knows what is going on.
LOOKING
FOR MISSING GODWITS
- Tuesday 10 January 2012
Godwit numbers have
dropped quite dramatically in Emsworth Harbour from a
regular 100+ for the last 3 months down to a mere
handful. This also happened in the winter of 2006-07.
The theory then was that the birds had exhausted the
food supply in the harbour mudflats and had migrated
to the lush fields and valleys. The fact that the
present decline in Emsworth coincided with a big rise
in Godwit numbers at Pulborough Brooks suggested this
might be happening again.
I decided to check on
the Pagham Harbour north fields this morning and was
disappointed to find only 54 there, including one
colour-ringed - O+GL - not an Emsworth regular. The
fields looked quite dry and uninviting to Godwits.
There no Godwits at Sidlesham either, and none on the
recent sightings board. So, clearly the missing
Emsworth Godwits had not gone to Pagham.
I had a quick at
Bosham where there was about 200 Godwits, so clearly
they have not deserted that harbour.
I am not sure if Pete
Hughes has got any information about the colour-rings
of the Pulborough Brooks Godwits, but I hope to go up
there tomorrow to have a look. I assume they are on
the north brooks as usual.
Pagham
Harbour North Wall - 10:30 - 11:30
I parked at the end of
the lane by the Parish Church and walked to the North
Wall. It was about 1 hour before high water, but the
tide was not a high one at 4.6m so there was still
some mudflats and saltmarshes showing in the main
harbour. Several hundred Lapwing were gathered
on the edges of the saltmarshes near the North Wall
which was a very impressive sight. A large flock of
several hundred Golden Plover were circling
over the harbour - also impressive. Flocks of Brent
Geese continually flew overhead from the harbour onto
the north fields. This must be one of the best sites
to see this spectacular display of flying geese. There
is no shortage of birds in Pagham Harbour!
I walked to the end of
the North Wall, but there were no Black-tailed
Godwits. The only waders I saw were a group of 48
Curlew on the field on Halsey's Farm. I thought the
fields looked remarkably dry, certainly not flooded,
and I could see molehills dotted around. However, on
the way back along the wall, I came across a group of
54 Godwits on the lake at the eastern end of the North
Wall which were not there when I passed first time.
There was just one colour-ringed bird among them:
O+GL.
O+GL
- has been seen in Emsworth Harbour, but only once on
27-Oct-06. It is certainly not one of our missing
birds. I have also seen it at Fishbourne and Bosham.
The most recent record I have is by Anne de Potier at
Bosham on 13-Sep-11.
Sidlesham
- 12:00
I drove over to the
Sidlesham Reserve Centre, but there was no sign of any
Black-tailed Godwits on the fields here. There were no
Godwits on the sightings board in the reserve centre
either. Clearly, the birds which have disappeared from
Emsworth have not come to Pagham Harbour. I shall need
to try Pulborough Brooks tomorrow?
Bosham
Harbour
12:30 - On the way
home from Pagham I had a look at the upper reaches of
Bosham Channel where there is often a high water
Black-tailed Godwit roost. I found about 200
Godwits clustered along the upper shore of Colner
Creek, so resolved to return later when the tide had
fallen to look at them more closely.
15:00 - 15:30 - About
3 hours after high water. Parking on the shore to the
east of the village, I walked across the green to have
a look at the main channel. I could see a line of
about 100 Godwits feeding on the far side of the
channel.
At that distance and
in poor light it was not easy to read colour-rings,
but I think I got one which was
L+LL.
This one has been a regular in Emsworth Harbour this
winter with 24 sightings, the last of which was on
05-Dec-11. I wonder if it has been over here at Bosham
since then?
When I got back to the
car, a lot of Godwits had arrived to feed on the
emerging mudflats east of the town. They were fairly
close to the shore and easy to view. I counted a
maximum of 102 with just one colour-ringed: O+YL -
This bird has been a Bosham and Fishbourne regular
since at least 2006.
Nutbourne
bay
16:00 - The light was
going rapidly, but there were no Black-tailed Godwits
at all.
BLACK-TAILED
GODWITS ON THE MOVE?
- 6 January 2012
There were just 10
Godwits on the mudflats in the Nore Barn Woods channel
by the time I left at about 12:45 and no sign of any
others anywhere else. This is the second day running
they have not turned up and may mark the departure of
the large flocks from Emsworth, which sometimes
happens at this stage in the winter period. The food
supply in the mudflats gets low and they migrate
inland to feed on lush worms and other creatures in
the flooded valleys and fields. So, Godwit numbers
should rise in Pulborough Brooks and Pagham North
Fields.
As I expected, 230
Black-tailed Godwits were reported at Pulborough
Brooks today. I wager they included some of the
Emsworth birds.
GODWIT
FEEDING HABITATS - 30 October 2011
Pete Potts provided
some very interesting information in reply to my query
as to why the Black-tailed Godwits have moved away
from Fishbourne to Bosham and Nutbourne this year.
"The reason for shifts
in godwit concentrations will be food supply. They
predominantly feed on bivalve molluscs e.g.
Scrobicularia plana. Once they have depleted them in
one area, at least, to a numbers of a certain shell
size that makes it not efficient to continue to feed
there, they move to other places with richer pickings.
Some of the bivalves they favour take several years to
get to a worthwhile size for the godwits to eat; that
is why the godwits vacate an area for a few years till
the crop of molluscs is back to harvestable size once
again. This is a bit over simplified but it is along
the right lines.
Of course, godwits
also eat marine worms but I think the molluscs are a
better source of food energetically than worms on the
inter-tidal. In the winter, during periods of wet
weather, as we know, they rapidly move to favoured wet
grassland sites to eat earth worms and tipulid (crane
fly) larvae forced to close to the surface by
flooding/water logging, e.g. at North Walls Pagham
Harbour, Meon valley at Titchfield Haven, Avon Valley,
Pulborough Brooks, etc.
So, the message is,
all these creeks that godwits use on a cycle,
sometimes with gaps of a few years, are vital to the
species long-term survival. The large number of
potential feeding sites (restaurants) offered in The
Solent's harbours, estuaries and surrounding wet
grassland, make this area such an important place for
godwits to winter and stage on migration.
The survival analysis
done comparing wintering godwits in The Solent and
some east coast estuaries back in Year c.2000 showed
that godwits wintering here at that time had a much
higher annual survival rate than godwits wintering on
Suffolk/Essex coast - Jenny Gill wrote all this up in
her Buffer Effect paper in Nature. Whether this still
holds true with milder winters and shifts in godwit
numbers is not known, but it may well be the case. We
can look at survival rates again and now that we have
good samples marked on Suffolk and in N Kent and we
have enough winters worth of data (i.e. resightings)
we can re-do the survival analysis to see what has
changed. However, the number of available habitats and
proximity of wet grassland to mudflats has not
changed.
PS if anyone is
interested in coming out cannon-netting in The Solent
I am always recruiting new team members and need good
sized teams each time. You are welcome! Pass the
word."
My
follow-up questions
I asked Pete a few
additional questions:
1. How do the Godwits
manage to open the shells under the mud?
A: They don't open the shells. They eat the whole
shell and crush them in their gizzards.
2. Presumably the
molluscs are eaten by other waders too?
A: Yes, probably but different waders eat different
species and different age classes of bivalves and
there is still much to learn.
3. There is also a
pattern of Godwit feeding in Emsworth Harbour. What I
have noticed over the years, is that in July-Sept the
Godwits concentrate in the eastern harbour and then
move across to the western harbour from Oct onwards.
Again, due to food supply I assume?
A: Emsworth Harbour local changes are very
interesting; probably just depleting one food supply,
then moving on to another rich picking. Is the roost
site the same when feeding at each site?
ONE-LEGGED
GODWITS? - 10 August 2011
Ralph Hollins was
fascinated by Richard Somerscocks's photo of a pair of
Black-tailed Godwits in flight each apparently with
only one leg each (see photo on August 8). Ralph asks,
Were these genuinely one-legged? Or do Blackwits
regularly retract one leg at a time?
In my experience
Black-tailed Godwits do regularly stand on one leg
with the other tucked up, usually when resting. They
sometimes also hop around like this. As for flying, I
have looked at some other photos I have of Blackwits
in flight and many of the birds have only one leg
showing.
Richard agrees that
Godwits often stand on one leg when resting. He says,
"They seem to do this more on an incoming tide - I
suppose they have been feeding on the mudflats for
longer and are not as hungry. When the tide is
receding they are usually feeding more actively and
tend to be on 2 legs. On an incoming tide they are
often forced to get airborne for short distances in
order to get onto higher bits of ground, which is what
was happening when I took the photo. I think that if
they have been standing with one leg tucked up then
they will fly a short distance like that and land on
one leg. However you frequently see them with both
legs outstretched when flying."
Richard provides the
following photo, taken at the same time as the earlier
image, showing two birds with both legs showing and
two with only one. The latter two birds may, as
Richard suggests, have their other leg tucked in, or
possibly the two legs were close together so that it
looked as if there was only one leg.
Ralph's
final comment:
"One of the thoughts
provoked by Richard's picture was that it is not
uncommon for waders to lose feet or even legs as a
result of two causes - either by treading in the 'open
mouth' of a large shellfish such as a clam (especially
when forced by short daylight hours and winter hunger
to feed in darkness when the tide is out) or by being
alarmed by some threat such as a fox after one or both
feet have become frozen to the mud while the bird is
sleeping in very hard weather. I have heard of both
disasters occurring and have seen a one legged Curlew
that was feeding off Langstone in two successive
winters and I have been told how someone from the
Royal Oak at Langstone once rowed out to see what was
wrong with a gull struggling but unable to take off
from the water - they picked up the gull, found it had
a large shellfish clamped to its foot and took it back
to the pub where they removed the shellfish with a
special hammer used for cracking the shells of crabs
after which the gull was able to fly off apparently
unharmed - unlike a Herring Gull which I personally
saw drown in the IBM Lake at Portsmouth through having
got a supermarket carrier bag hooked on its leg while
feeding on the rubbish tip (now closed) across the M27
- the gull landed on the water, the bag filled with
water and pulled the gull down to the bottom of the
lake after its struggles to take off exhausted
it."
COLOUR-RINGED
GODWIT RECORDS
in
Emsworth Harbour - Season
2011-12
Observers
- Brian
Fellows, Richard Somerscocks, Caroline French, Heather
Mills
Number
of sightings of each colour-ringed Godwit - to 29
January 2012
Last winter's figures are included for
comparison
2011-12
|
N
|
2010-11
|
N
|
G+BG
|
18
|
G+BG
|
11
|
G+BW
|
39
|
G+BY
|
2
|
G+GY
|
5
|
G+LG
|
1
|
G+LL
|
2
|
G+GY
|
4
|
G+WR
|
45
|
G+WR
|
22
|
L+GN
|
1
|
G+YB
|
1
|
L+LL
|
24
|
L+GL
|
1
|
L+OG
|
1
|
L+LL
|
4
|
L+OL
|
1
|
L+LN
|
1
|
L+ON
|
1
|
L+WR
|
2
|
L+RG
|
1
|
O+BG
|
6
|
L+WN
|
2
|
O+RO
|
11
|
O+GB
|
12
|
R+GL
|
6
|
O+GL
|
2
|
R+YN
|
1
|
O+OL
|
1
|
W+GO
|
14
|
R+GL
|
14
|
W+WN
|
2
|
R+GN
|
4
|
Y+GW
|
2
|
W+GO
|
19
|
Y+LN
|
12
|
W+LW
|
1
|
Y+LW
|
5
|
W+RN
|
1
|
Y+RN
|
1
|
W+RW
|
0
|
Y+YN
|
1
|
W+WN
|
44
|
Y+WL
|
1
|
Y+RN
|
5
|
LY+RO
|
2
|
Y+WN
|
1
|
OY+LR
|
2
|
LY+OX
|
1
|
YN+LX
|
1
|
OY+LR
|
12
|
WO+LW-flag
|
12
|
WO+LW
flag
|
10
|
RYL+RLY
|
8
|
YOL+YRY
|
2
|
ROL+RLR
|
17
|
ROL+RLR
|
35
|
|
|
RYL+RLY
|
14
|
|
|
PHOTOS
OF COLOUR-RINGED SIGHTINGS IN 2011-12
G+BG
Regular in Emsworth
from Sep to Nov 2010. First sighting this season on
Sep 16 2011
G+BW
A new one for Emsworth
Harbour in 2011-12 - First sighting
12-Aug-11
G+GY
Four sightings Aug -
Oct in 2010. First sighting this season 16
Sep
We have no photo for
2011 as yet. Here is one I took in Emsworth in October
2008.
G+LL
G+LL was ringed on
13-Aug-08 at Farlington Marshes. First Emsworth record
9 January 2012. Never recorded before in Emsworth
Harbour. I last saw it last on Pagham Harbour north
fields in November 2008, but Richard Somerscocks found
it on Shut Lake, Farlington Marshes on 11-Aug-11.
Today, the left leg ring occasionally looked blue in
some lights, but I am fairly sure it was green.
G+WR
G+WR was ringed at
Farlington Marshes on 10Sept08 as adult male. It has
been a regular wintering bird in Emsworth Harbour
since then. Last winter it was here from Sept to Jan.
First sighting 2011-12 was on 8 Aug.
L+GN
First record for
Emsworth Harbour - 2 January 2012. I have only had two
previous sightings of it: on 14-Nov-08 at Farlington
Marshes and on 16-Mar-10 in 'Texaco Bay' North
Hayling.
L+LL
First seen in Emsworth
in Nov 2009. Seen 4 times in Emsworth last winter
between Nov and Jan. First sighting in Emsworth in
2011-12 was on 24 Sept.
L+OG
We had 7 sightings of
this one in Emsworth Harbour in Dec-08 and Jan-09, but
no others until 3 Dec 2011 when Richard got this shot
of it. Richard also saw it at Chalkdock, Langstone on
26 November 2011.
L+OL
First Emsworth
sighting - 14 January 2012. Richard Somerscocks did
see it at Farlington Marshes on 04-Sep-10.
L+ON
First Emsworth
sighting on 4 Nov 2011 - Richard did not get a good
photo of L+ON so here is one he took on 11 August 2011
at Farlington while it was still in its summer
plumage.
L+RG
4 Nov 2011 - A first
for Emsworth. My only previous sighting was on 16 Mar
2011 in the Texaco Bay', North Hayling. The lime ring
looked yellowish in bright sunshine, but was certainly
lime.
L+WN
L+WN - 25 Sept 2011 -
First sighting this season. My only other record was a
sighting by Anne de Potier in Nutbourne Bay on
10-Dec-10
O+GB
First sighting in
Emsworth on 3 Dec 2011. We have no previous records of
this combination before then.
O+GL
Recorded 14 January
2012. Last recorded in Emsworth way back on 27-Oct
2006. Since then most records have come from Bosham.
However, it was the only colour-ringed bird that I
recorded on the Pagham Harbour north fields when I was
there two days ago on 10-Jan-12. So this bird has
moved from Pagham presumably with some of its feeding
companions.
O+OL
Ringed as first summer
male Thorney Island 26-Jun-05. Seen mainly in
Fishbourne until this season. First sighting in
2011-12 was on July 21.
R+GL
First sighting in
Emsworth on 28 September 2011.
25 November 2011 - We
have puzzled over this one throughout the winter. Is
it GL or is it GY ? In some lights it looks one and in
others the other. My inclination is to go for GL. If
it was GY then the yellow ring would be much brighter.
I have been through all 12 records for this year and
they all show the same bird, though sometimes
described as R+GL and other times as R+GY. These
records will need to be changed to make them
consistent. I have taken a couple of photos from past
records where lime and yellow rings were used together
to illustrate this point.
Here
is Richard's photo from 25 November 2011
R+GN
A new one for Emsworth
Harbour in 2011-12 first sighting on
14-Aug-11,
W+GO
W+GO - Ringed at
Farlington on 20 Oct 1995 as an adult male. That makes
him at least 17 years old. There has been a huge
number of local sightings and some in Iceland on
breeding grounds. First seen in Emsworth Harbour on 20
Sep 1996 it has been regular each year, clocking up
over 90 sightings. It was regular Nov - Feb in 2010-11
season. First sighting this season 23 Sep. Note: The
early ringed birds, like this godwit, all have short
rings; the later ringed ones have tall
rings.
W+LW
6 November 2011 -
First ever sighting in Emsworth (Nore Barn) by Richard
Somerscocks
W+RN
29 January 2012 - a
new sighting for Emsworth this season.
W+RW
A new one for Emsworth
Harbour in 2011-12 first sighting on
14-Aug-11,
W+WN
Seen in Emsworth last
winter in October. More regular this season.
Y+RN
Y+RN was seen 3 times
in Emsworth in Nov 2009 and again in Nov 2010. In 2011
Richard Somerscocks had one sighting of it at
Farlington on 11-Aug-11 and in Emsworth on Dec 18.
Y+WN
First recorded in
Emsworth Harbour on 11 November 2011 by Brian Fellows
and Richard Somerscocks. In fact, I have no previous
records for this combination at all.
LY+OX
The X denotes a white
ring marked with an 'X'.
First sighting in
Emsworth on 9 October 2011. This bird has been seen in
the Chichester Harbour area for some years, but not
before in Emsworth Harbour to my knowledge. I last saw
it in 'Texaco Bay' North Hayling on 16-Mar-11. It was
ringed on 27.04.02 at Grafarvogur, Reykjavík,
SW Iceland.
Richard's photo is
poor and we shall try to get a better one, but Richard
was confident in accuracy of the reading.
OY+LR
OY+LR was ringed as a
chick in Iceland in July 1999 and has been a regular
Solent winterer ever since. It has often been seen in
Emsworth Harbour over the years and last year it was
here in Aug and Dec. First sighting of 2011-12 was on
25 Sept.
WO+LW
flag
First sighting in
2011-12 was on 3 November 2011. Godwit WO LW flag was
a chick ringed in north Iceland by Ruth Croger and
Pete on 13th July 2010 This was only the 4th godwit
chick that has wintered in The Solent from all over
Iceland!
4 Nov 2011 - Dudley
Hird reported WO+LWflag was last seen in Kent on
October 14th which was their 9th sighting this passage
and was first seen on August 2nd . To his knowledge it
has only been sighted in Kent and Solent. Dudley added
that the white flag was very discoloured at first but
got progressively better.
ROL+RLR
First sighting in
2011-12 was on Oct 8 2011.
ROL+RLR has been an
Emsworth regular from Oct to Jan over the past two
winters. It was ringed on 27 Oct 08 at Kingsnorth
Power Station, Medway Est. Kent as an adult
male.
RYL+RLY
First sighting in
2011-12 was on 8 October 2011
It was ringed in Kent
in autumn 2005 and has been a regular in Emsworth
Harbour ever since, usually arriving in early October
and leaving in January. In late September Dudley Hird
said RYL-RLY had been seen regularly in Kent this
passage and predicted it would be with us soon. Spot
on prediction, Dudley!
My photo of this
familiar godwit only shows the left leg, but I got a
reasonable view of both legs.
YOL+YRY
YOL YRY was ringed at
Seaton LNR, Axe Estuary, East Devon on 5 March 2011 by
Mike Tyler et al as a first summer female Note: YRY is
the marker for godwits ringed by Mike Tyler on the Axe
Estuary. Other rings from G, O, L, R or Y. All rings
are on the tibias. It was seen on Somerset Levels in
May 2011. Then went to Iceland. The first sighting of
the new season was in Emsworth on 26 Sep 2011. It was
our first ever sighting in Emsworth of a Devon ringed
godwit.