Whooper Swan Ring (1 Viewer)

[POCHARD1]

Hi
On the 02/02/2007 whilst birding at WWT Martin Mere (Lancashire) I tried to read the metal ring of a Whooper Swan. Unfortunately I didn’t manage to get the full code and the Whooper walked into the water! Typical!

I asked the WWT staff at Martin Mere to see if they could trace this bird but they said that it wasn’t a WWT ringed swan. I just wondered if anyone may have seen this bird or would anyone be able to trace it with only half of the sequence?

Z630?? Was the ring.

Thanks

 

[Colin]

Hi Pochard1,
First of all, I see that this is only your second post, so welcome to BirdForum. I am sure that you will enjoy yourself here and we look forward to more posts.

The ring. Although you said that a member of staff suggested that it was not a WWT ring, I suspect that it probably was or if not, WWT would be the sponsor of the ringer who put the ring on. Almost all of the swans with metal rings like the one you partially read will be wearing a plastic ring with 3 or 4 characters on the other leg and which is much easier to read. Occasionally, the plastic one breaks and falls off and the swan is left with the metal ring only. Unfortunately in this case, you have the last two, and most significant, numbers missing and unless over one hundred rings were used in the same place on the same day which is fairly unlikely, the ringer would not be able to say when and where this ring was put on. Having said that, I know that all ringers including WWT would appreciate information being sent to them of ring sightings. It is all very valuable data. So even in this case you may not get details of this individual bird, please keep sending in the information of rings that you read. I believe there is more information on plastic rings in another thread giving email address contacts. For Whooper Swans and Bewick's Swans with plastic rings (or metal if you can read them), contact Jenny.Earle 'at' wwt.org.uk

Hope this helps.

 

[POCHARD1]

Hi Colin,

Many Thanks for your reply; I think the member of staff was one of the wardens and he went to check his notes to see if it had been ringed at Martin Mere or indeed one of the other WWT centres.

The bird didn’t have a darvic ring on, so as you say this must have fallen off. I will be at Martin Mere again soon, so I will try to read the ring again – easier said than done!

 

[kanebrides]

Hi Colin, Pochard1

I have just checked with Ailsa Hurst (Who maintains the Martin Mere Whooper database) to see if she has it on there. Unfortunately its not listed! She also has access to the main WWT Whooper and Bewick database (Via Eileen Rees) and it’s not on there either!

You could check with Jenny like Colin says, as she is the swan database manager for the WWT, although it sounds like an old ring it may have only just recently been applied to the bird and the data not added to the database at Martin Mere.

I am wondering if someone from the BTO could check the central database, perhaps Mark Grantham??
Cheers Kane

 

[Mark Grantham]

Unfortunately, this series of rings (Z63000-Z63099) were issued to several different people and groups (varying in location from Highland to Lincolnshire to Worcestershire), so we can't even guess at the origin. If you do manage to see this bird again then do get back in touch or report it via www.ring.ac

Mark Grantham
BTO Ringing Unit

 

[kanebrides]

Pochard1,

You will be pleased to know that we have managed to track Z630?? down, one of the volunteer ring readers at Martin Mere yesterday, read the ring as Z63048 and today I managed to see the bird for myself and confirmed it as Z63048.

Cheers Kane

 

[POCHARD1]

Kane

Thanks for confirming the swan; I am glad we have got the full code! It will be interesting to see where this bird has come from.

 

[POCHARD1]

I went back to WWT Martin Mere yesterday and managed to read a few more rings on Whooper Swans including the bird mentioned in our recent conversation. However I think the ring has been read wrong! Z63048 as it was reported but yesterday I am sure I saw Z63046!
Is there anyway this could be checked as I don’t want to provide the BTO with false information.

 

[nanafran]

hi i am nanafran,today i seen a swan with the ring numbers w25867,it looked very healthy,and enjoying the food people had left for the birds ,at our local duck pond at par beach/can you tell me where it may have come from.thanks

 

[luke]

You will need to report the ring the via www.ring.ac