At long last!!!...

At long last, the sightings from other than Strangford Lough are starting to increase.
Most amazing is a re-sighting of 3XYY from NORWAY!! This is within the normal distribution for birds from the East Atlantic hrota flyway population, which breed on Svalbard and Greenland, and which are normally fairly separate from ours (although we get occasional cross-overs). It is particularly interesting because this bird went on its "traditional" flyway route (ours), being recorded this spring from Iceland, and then, by chance, during the Group's expedition to the Canadian breeding grounds. The photo which accompanied the record shows no obvious metal ring (which ours does), but the East Atlantic guys say it isn't one of theirs, so I guess the ring must have slipped down! This bird normally ends up in Jersey, so watch this space!!
Kieran Griffin reports that he has been able to ring-read his local patch again, on 27 September, at Cromane, in Castlemaine Harbour, Co. Kerry. Larry Lenehan has had his first bird at Laytown, Co. Meath yesterday, 30 September, of a bird, NCRY, which we had previously recorded on Strangford Lough, and today Tom Carroll reports that SSRR is now present, with its unringed associate, at the North Bull Causeway, Dublin - interesting because not only is it the first Dublin sighting of the winter, but that I had recorded it eight hours before on Strangford Lough!!
Co-ordinated core ring-reading at Strangford Lough to date has mainly been carried out by Alex Portig and myself. We have just compared notes, and, to date, only a handful of the 183 RB birds we caught on Axel Heiberg Island have been recorded (just one association, got today - PPRB and SXRB, and NO families). Wondering whether these very northerly birds will be the last to come in? Again, watch this space!!