European Wigeons are in good hands after Essex & Suffolk Water, the University of Essex and local wildlife groups teamed up to ring and track the migrating water birds.
It is part of a project to better understand how wildlife use the landscapes around them for feeding, roosting and escaping threats. The European Wigeon, which is a breed of duck, may have travelled up to 4,000 kilometers before arriving at Abberton Reservoir in Essex – that’s like travelling to the Ukraine from Essex.
To collect the data, the research teams need volunteers to be able to recognise and count these ducks. This led to a collaborative project between Essex & Suffolk Water, the Abberton Ringing and Research Group, the Southern Colour Ringing Group, the University of Essex, British Trust for Ornithology, and the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust.
Colour ringing involves catching birds and placing an individually coded, brightly coloured tag on their leg that is visible from a distance so that when spotted and reported, its movement can be recorded. Catching the birds also allows teams to record the age, weight, species, and gender, and understand more about them. It can only be carried out by licensed volunteers.
Charlotte Bradley, Conservation Specialist at Essex & Suffolk Water, said: “The European Wigeon is one of our designated species for Abberton, which is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI site) so we’re very pleased to be part of this collaborative project to understand more about the movements of this beautiful bird.
“The first day of ringing was incredibly successful and we will now be able to track those birds and start to get data back about their movements.”
Professor Tom Cameron, Professor of Applied Ecology at the University of Essex, added: “Through ringing and tracking with GPS tags, we have a relatively good handle of connectivity between wintering and summering grounds for many migrant waterbirds, but we have less understanding of how birds use the landscapes around them, and how and why they choose the habitats they do for feeding, roosting and to escape threats.
“That is the focus of a new project that will ask how wildlife use landscapes, how they respond to land-use, protected area status, as well as natural events such as winter rainfall and climate. How do we balance the need to produce safe drinking water while maintaining the ecological status of reservoirs? What can we conclude if birds choose to move from one habitat to another? Does provision of more winter habitat result in more waterbirds?”
Bird ringing and colour ringing are licensed activities, and their success is heavily dependent on volunteer birdwatchers and citizen scientists reporting the species, location, colour and ring code for birds they see.
Anyone who wants to assist the research team by reporting colour rings, can do so to the British Trust for Ornithology or to ducks@essex.ac.uk.