A magnifying glass provided the words Helsinki - Finland!
By Rick
A magnifying glass provided the words Helsinki - Finland!
Scientists monitoring at Mount Moreland - South Africa’s largest Barn Swallow Hirundo rustica roost - have captured their first overseas ringed bird from a festively snowy location. The young Barn Swallow had flown all the way from Finland – a total of 11,000 km! “This is an amazing Christmas gift”, said Hilary Vickers of the Lake Victoria Conservancy – sponsors of the Mount Moreland ringing programme.
“We were carefully fitting the swallows with rings so we can monitor their movements when we spotted a bird already carrying one”, said Mount Moreland bird-ringer Andrew Pickles. “A magnifying glass provided the words Helsinki - Finland!”
The Barn Swallow undertakes one of the world’s most remarkable migrations, with many individuals flying thousands of miles in spring to breed in Europe and then repeating the feat in the autumn, to spend the boreal winter in southern Africa.
The Finnish Barn Swallow is the first record of an overseas ringed bird being caught at Mount Moreland. However, it is likely that swallows travel from a number of European countries to the site.
The Mount Moreland team is now awaiting details from the Finnish bird ringing data centre. This will give the exact location of where and when the bird was ringed. What is already known is that the swallow is an immature bird visiting South Africa for the first time. “It probably hatched in Finland in June so would be about six months old”, said Lauri Hänninen from BirdLife FINLAND (BirdLife in Finland).
Mount Moreland is part of the Lake Victoria Wetlands, and is the biggest roost site for Barn Swallows in South Africa. The first Barn Swallows arrived at Mount Moreland this year on 29 September. The numbers have now reached their peak and it is now possible to witness up to 3 million birds during an evening from a special viewing area on site.
“The swallows gather together about half an hour before sunset, and provide a soul-stirring sight as they fly in their vast numbers over the Lake Victoria Wetlands”, commented Mark Anderson – Director of BirdLife South Africa (BirdLife in South Africa). “As dusk falls, the swallows suddenly drop into the reed-beds and are all gone”. (more…)
January 2nd, 2009 at 11:15 pm
very cool!