Longevity of Colour rings (1 Viewer)

[Marcus Lawson]

I was wondering if anyone could help please and give me some idea as to how long plastic colour rings lasted for on birds? Specifically I'm looking at the Snow Geese of La Pérouse Bay, Canada which were ringed/banded in the late 1970's.

Many thanks,
Marcus

 

[Strandman]

I was wondering if anyone could help please and give me some idea as to how long plastic colour rings lasted for on birds? Specifically I'm looking at the Snow Geese of La Pérouse Bay, Canada which were ringed/banded in the late 1970's.

Many thanks,
Marcus

Not directly an answer in relation to something as potentially long-lived as a goose, but there's some published stuff on durability of colour rings on waders:

http://elibrary.unm.edu/sora/IWSGB/v091/p00025-p00027.pdf

Some colour combinations will survive better than others too- you have to watch out for example for orange fading to yellow and then white.

 

[Marcus Lawson]

That's a good start, thanks Ed. It's interesting to note that dark blue rings have such poor durability - almost exclusively.

I say it's interesting as the reason I'm enquiring is because a flock of 17 Snow Geese which were seen at a couple of sites in North Kent in March 1980 and then in Holland soon after. One of these birds had a blue PVC ring on the right tarsus with a metal ring on the left. This bird had been ringed as a gosling in 1977 at Perouse Bay, Manitoba.

In January 1982 a flock of seven Snow Geese appeared at Elmley, at a time when there was particularly cold weather on the near continent pushing good numbers of geese into the UK. One of the flock sported a metal ring but no plastic one.

You can guess what my motives are

Thanks again,
Marcus

 

[Strandman]

That's a good start, thanks Ed. It's interesting to note that dark blue rings have such poor durability - almost exclusively.

I say it's interesting as the reason I'm enquiring is because a flock of 17 Snow Geese which were seen at a couple of sites in North Kent in March 1980 and then in Holland soon after. One of these birds had a blue PVC ring on the right tarsus with a metal ring on the left. This bird had been ringed as a gosling in 1977 at Perouse Bay, Manitoba.

In January 1982 a flock of seven Snow Geese appeared at Elmley, at a time when there was particularly cold weather on the near continent pushing good numbers of geese into the UK. One of the flock sported a metal ring but no plastic one.

You can guess what my motives are

Thanks again,
Marcus

It can happen...

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14 May, 2006, Valdak Marshes, Norway Three pairs observed today. One of the pairs have a female with colour rings. It is the Yellow-Red (right leg) bird. Today we could see that the red ring has been lost! No Lessers were seen at Valdak yesterday (Source: Tomas Aarvak & Morten Ekker / LWfG Life project team).

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