Colour-ringed Cormorants

Birders at Attenborough Nature Reserve have noted a wintering colour-ringed Cormorant several years running and recently its origins have been traced to one of the Normandy Islands in the Chausey Archipelago in France where it was ringed on 15 May 2004. It was subsequently seen in July 2004 on Jersey before making its first appearance at ANR in October 2009.

This shows the value of colour-ringing Cormorants and lends weight to our decision to start colour-ringing the chicks which hatch at ANR in the next few weeks. We fitted metal BTO rings to 18 chicks there last year and already managed a recovery to a reservoir in Wakefield 70km away.

Jim