Help with White Stork leg rings (1 Viewer)

NGilbert said:

Hi there,

I am a PhD student at the University of East Anglia. My research is looking at the differences in breeding success between migrant and non migrant White Storks on the Iberian Peninsula, particularly in Portugal. You may know increasing numbers of White Storks are choosing to over-winter in Iberia rather than migrate south to Africa (probably due to milder winters and abundant food from local rubbish tips). I am comparing the annual breeding productivity of migrant versus non migrants to try and understand the impact their migratory decisions may be having on the populations.

Last winter I carried out a month long census of over wintering birds in Portugal to read as many coloured leg identification rings as possible to identify the wintering birds. What I also hope to do is try and gain better confirmation of which birds migrated. What would really be helpful is to find people who may live or have been on holiday anywhere in Africa, or have seen birds migrating over Gibraltar, who read any White Stork leg rings. Would you be willing to submit to me any white stork ring records read between July 2011 and end of March 2012? I do hope so! I would need to know as much info as possible (hopefully date and location of sighting, ring identification number and ring colour) but simply the ring number is more than welcome!

Many thanks and best wishes,

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NGilbert said:

Hi there,

I am a PhD student at the University of East Anglia. My research is looking at the differences in breeding success between migrant and non migrant White Storks on the Iberian Peninsula, particularly in Portugal. You may know increasing numbers of White Storks are choosing to over-winter in Iberia rather than migrate south to Africa (probably due to milder winters and abundant food from local rubbish tips). I am comparing the annual breeding productivity of migrant versus non migrants to try and understand the impact their migratory decisions may be having on the populations.

Last winter I carried out a month long census of over wintering birds in Portugal to read as many coloured leg identification rings as possible to identify the wintering birds. What I also hope to do is try and gain better confirmation of which birds migrated. What would really be helpful is to find people who may live or have been on holiday anywhere in Africa, or have seen birds migrating over Gibraltar, who read any White Stork leg rings. Would you be willing to submit to me any white stork ring records read between July 2011 and end of March 2012? I do hope so! I would need to know as much info as possible (hopefully date and location of sighting, ring identification number and ring colour) but simply the ring number is more than welcome!

Many thanks and best wishes,

Click to expand...

Allen S. Moore said:

NG,

Wouldn't it be better to link in with the white stork colour-ringing schemes that I guess are operating in Spain and Portugal? I certainly recorded colour-ringed storks on the Algarve coast in spring 1999 and submitted my observations to someone in Portugal, who then provided feedback. Hopefully, the organisers of the schemes will have a large amount of data which they could share with you to help you with your research.

Good luck with your work. It sounds very interesting. I'm sure that migrating to Africa and staying in Portugal have their advantages and disadvantages for the storks.

Allen

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NGilbert said:

Hi Dave and Sal,

Thank you for looking out for ringed birds for me. The PVC plastic rings are coloured and have a combination of from 3-8 numbers and letters printed on them, depending on the ringing scheme. These are generally above the knee and can be read with a telescope. The characters and ring colour will ID the bird and tell me which ringing scheme the birds belong to. Good luck!

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