Below is a correspondence between Viv Evans and Adrienne Stratford which I'm sure will be of interest to blog readers.
Look who it is.
I believe it’s the Cilan Head female now in her 15th year. Crop has the GR /date. It shows the rings quite clearly. She was on her own grubbing about nosily on the cliff edge of Banc Bach Y Rhowyn part of the Bird’s Rock area.
Regards
Viv
Thank you,
Viv,
That’s very good news that
she’s survived (most of) another winter + yes, that’s right: she was hatched in
2006 at Cilan Head (ca 65 km), so she’ll be 15 this spring. It’ll be
interesting to see if she still has a colour-ringed partner this year – I hope
nothing bad has befallen him if she’s on her own… Also interesting to see how
little there remains of her originally blue + white striped ring, which has now
largely worn away + without a trace of blue.
Thanks
again,
Best
wishes,
Adrienne
The
colour-ringing is all part of a
long-running study of choughs in mid + North Wales by Tony Cross + myself,
during which more than 6,000 individuals have been marked over the past 30
years, with life histories recorded for many of these birds, shedding light on
their movements, social + nesting behaviour, longevity
etc.