Devon and Cornwall Wader Ringing Group

03 October 2020

Oystercatcher M5 breeding in Norway © Knut-Sverre HornOf the thousands of sightings of the colour-ringed Oystercatcher of this project, a sighting of 'M5' by Knut-Sverre Horn is one of the most extraordinary. It was re-sighted on 6 June 2020 apparently with a mate at Ekkerøy in Finnmark, northern Norway. Since February 2018, there have been three other Oystercatcher seen on breeding sites in Norway, but these sites are in the far southwest of the country, around the coast about a 1,000 miles away. In a straight line, the sighting of 'M5' is more than 1,700 miles (2,200 miles around the coasts) from Dawlish Warren, where it was ringed on 4 February 2018.

After ringing, 'M5' remained on the Exe Estuary until 24 March 2018, then after the breeding season re-appeared on 17 August 2018 to spend the winter on the Exe Estuary until 21 March 2019. Again, it re-appeared after the breeding season on 9 Aug 2019 and we last saw it on 8 March 2020. Over the winters has not been seen before further than 2 miles away from where it was ringed!

The full life-history of this bird and a map of its known movements can be seen here.

21 December 2019

Click image to view videoThanks to the excellent analysis by Joanne Morten, a PhD student at the University of Exeter, we can share the 2018/19 winter results from the ten trackers fitted to adult Oystercatchers at Dawlish Warren on 12 November 2018. In the video, each coloured track represents the history of one Oystercatcher. You can clearly see how the birds use the wider Exe Estuary and usually return to the Dawlish Warren roost on the high tides.

10 November 2018

With renewed interest over the plight of wading birds on the Exe Estaury and more widely in the South-west, the Devon and Cornwall Wader Ringing Group was relaunched with an inaugural AGM on 9 November 2018.