A friend and I were scoping at the hide on Monday when with delight Dave shouted C73 ...She's returned for another winter. Remarkable C73 is a Redshank that has been migrating from Holland to the River Exe Estuary for the last 10 year and C73 will be 11 this spring. How do i know that......
If you wish to know more....
C73 What’s in a number... but are Redshanks warming up?
Since I started my Redshank research Retrapping Adults for Survival(RAS) project in 2000 and using colour rings, birds became individuals, although they have numbers. My whole life the figures 7 and 3 are my lucky numbers... so it is not such a big surprise that C73 has became a remarkable bird.
C73: Picture Pé Stoop 2014
She is a child from C06 and A86 born in 2004 in the Normerpolder in my main study area managed by farmer Jan Mulder, who cares much about all his breeding meadow birds. I ringed her with only metal when she was in the nest during the first day, but caught her back 11 days later on the skating rink and gave her a colour ring C73. Her mother(C06) was later on the partner for the most famous Redshank in the Nths called “Bil”(C68) which was almost the oldest Redshank in European database and reached the age of 19! In 2005 C73 returned as a second year bird and started to breed on the natural skating rink in Normerpolder. In winter this meadow is full of water, and after winter farmer Jan Mulder has a agricultural nature environmental scheme to have 60% of this area with a water level of 0 to 15cm, to attract birds for roosting and breeding in the meadows around the skating rink. C73 had her first nest in second year, at 100 meters in front of the cantina of the skating-club on the wet grassland area(2 ha). This is very unusual for Redshanks, they mostly start to breed at older age. I also got her partner E03 and ringed 3 juveniles of them, but they did not fledge, after one week any alarm from the parents any more.
One year later(2006) partner E03 did not return and she was definitely charmed off E04, but no proves of a good breeding result, because I was that spring for Brent geese research in the Taimyr peninsula (Siberia) with Bart Ebbinge for over a month. We were not able to check where or what the breeding result was. She moves at the end of spring to Balgzandpolder, an inland high water roosting place close to Den Helder, where she stays from 30-6 and is the latest Redshank of my studied population, who leaves the Waddenzee area at 7 October!
In 2007 she returned very early, 11th of march. And immediately went with the new partner E04 to a wetter part in the area, with small ditches and herb rich part of the meadow. They had no success by predation of the nest by a stoat. She is seen in July again at the end of Balgzandcanal, which is a water let out at the Waddensea.
In 2008 they chose again the same part of the area in the Normerpolder and had a successful year and raised several juveniles. She is again seen close to the sluice at Balgzandcanal and even in mid September on the roosting site inland, Balgzandpolder.
Also in 2009 they used the same breeding place within 50 meters from the year before, hatched eggs but doubts about raising fledglings. She is again seen close to the sluice in late summer and at Balgzandpolder, the wet nature reserve with an observation place just inside the Waddenseadike. In October 2009 she is seen in the Exe-estuaries for the first time by an observer who has doubts whether he saw D73 or C73, when he returns to the Turf Hotel where he stays... But as I did not use the D.. at all, it must be C73 which he saw.
In 2010 male E04 did not return, but she found a new partner in C75 who was breeding besides her in the year before, but lost partner on the nest by a predator. With new partner C75 they move to another part of the polder(aprox 400 meters) on a meadow called “New Land” from farmer Jan Mulder. The nest was predated in the last week sadly enough. She is again in late summer at her favourite feeding and roosting place at Balgzandpolder and stays till half of September. On 16th of October Jeremy Barker is reading C73 at the Turf Lock in the Exe-estuary and then suddenly remembers that he saw this bird earlier at the same place... Looks in his notebook and his memory is remarkable! He finds the record of C73 at 10-11-2005 in his old notebook! And also find her back later on in November 2010. Wow, finally good prove that this bird is definitely using this area in autumn.
In 2011 she is again the first returning bird in this very dry spring and farmer Jan Mulder pumps up his meadows especially for the breeding meadow birds by the end of march. C75 is also early and they move very shortly to the breeding places from last year the ‘promising’ “New Land”. The nest is very hard to find... under leaves of sorrel. But I succeed in catching her on the nest and give her a transponder (Green Flag), so that we are able to track her movements on and off the nest for next year. Could not catch partner C75 again, but they raise chicks and have certainly fledglings in the late mowing grassland of farmer Jan Mulder. Who has an agreement with the government not to mow before 15-6 and other schedules as part of agricultural nature management schemes, especially for
the birds! And as always C73 moves late summer to Balgzandpolder till half of September. But with transponder(Green Flag) the bird is really more ‘in the picture’!
She is seen by Antony Bellamy second half of October and by her old friend Jeremy Barker in late November. But now she is really wintering in this area, half of December seen by Charles Fleming and at the first day of 2012 by Jeremy Barker again. So now really convinced that she is wintering in SW- England. On the third of March she is still at the Exe estuary, seen by Lesley Carr and I mailed him that within a week she maybe will arrive in the breeding area... Which she does, because during our monthly Waddensea counting transect we see one
Redshank at the high tide roosting place outside the dike at Normerven and YES, there she is! Her breeding season in 2012 is confusing me, because although her partner from last year C75 arrives, she moved with a unringed male to the east in a small nature-reserve meadow named Marskepolder, just inside the dike of the high-tide roosting place Normerven. In the beginning of April and May I see her displaying with a new guy, while her old partner is breeding in the old breeding-area Normerpolder with a new chick... I think because he arrived too late to ‘meet and greet’ with her... And according to her behaviour I don’t think she had a successful breeding season with him in 2012. From early July to begin of October she is at her favourite ‘late summer ‘ holiday place the Balgzand area close to Den Helder in the SW-corner of the Waddensea. She shows up again on New Year’s day 2013 in the Exe, seen by James Diamond, to confirm she is really wintering at the same place again.
She is again one of the first birds to return in my study-area, in the very, very cold spring in 2013. And returns to her old, very well know, Normerpolder with a unringed male. Because there are so many redshanks breeding in this area(25 pairs and also 20 pair of godwits) and the fact that this meadow has a set-a-side mowing schedule of 15-6, I did not want to disturb too much the centre of the breeding area for the birds. So I did not find her nest, but new she was breeding there with the unringed partner. And they definitely got several chicks fledged, because she is alarming on poles in the area for almost 3 weeks, and it takes 24 days for Redshank chicks before they are able to fly. There is no sign of her at her normal late summer place in Balgzandpolder, but she must have been there. She turns up on the 15 of December in the Exe again, seen by Anthony Bellamy.
In 2014 she is again the first arrival of my almost 100 birds colour ringed population of Redshanks in my study area, the former island of Wieringen, which was connected in 1929 to the mainland of the province of North-Holland. Some history: 3 years later North Holland was connected by the province of Friesland by the 32km long Afsluitdijk, and the Southern Sea became lake Ijsselmeer with now a day’s several polders in it. She immediately starts to display on the same meadow as in 2013, called “Long Acers”. I detected her also by the transponder on the nest, and her partner is still unringed sadly enough, because they hatched very quick after finding the nest and could not got the male trapped. But we have a week of her breeding rhythm during the last week, on which you can see that she is a normally day time breeder.
In Redshanks mostly the female is doing the day shift on the nest, and male are mostly night breeders, but they can change this rhythm... As you see on the 8th of May, when C73 is doing a day shift, but also the night shift! Maybe because her partner did not show up in the evening...? I did not got the juveniles ringed, they were just like the year before too smart and too fast in hatching. But C73 definitely got one or more chicks fledged, because she was alarming for her chicks in the area until the end of may. She did the usual summer holiday at Balgzandpolder close to Den Helder, and was all ready on the 6th of November seen by David Boult. And now in January seen again by two different observers, but both David’s named Boult and Cawthraw.
The actogram of the breeding rhythm of C73 and partner in 2014, blue is C73 on the nest.
In her life time she had 6 successful breeding seasons up till now as far as I know. I always use her in my presentations as being a very good story off course! Specially while most of my redshanks, as far as I know, are wintering in Portugal, Spain and even up to Guinea Bissau in Africa.
The overview of the area which C73 uses, with on the right hand the breeding territory on the former isle of Wieringen, and on the left the ‘summer-holiday’ place for C73. As you can see on this picture is that she uses the same kind of feeding and roosting spots, both in summer/autumn and in the autumn/wintering place in the Exe-estuary! Both a canal, with a water let out on the sea, where she is feeding along the small dikes of the water release to the sea. The only difference is that in NW- Holland the water let out is up to the north, and in the Exe the opposite way, to the south!
Wintering place for her 10th anniversary at Topsham, Exe estuary, Devon, UK, only 630 km away
from her breeding territory, which provides her to be always one of the first arrivals on the breeding grounds, and pick up a good territory...
The overview of the breeding territory of C73 on the former isle of Wieringen, the Nths. In the north outside the dike you see the high water roosting place where she mostly feeds also along a small stone dike with brick’s, and where I pick her mostly up for the first arrival in spring.
My main study area, 1 km of my home, where I started to do meadow bird protection with farmer Jan Mulder in a 40 hectare plot on his land. This year we celebrate our 25th year of cooperation and my 20th season in Redshank study, which I started in 1996. You see the different mowing schemes on the right, which avoid mowing of nests and chicks of lapwings, oystercatchers, godwits and
redshanks. Blue are Oystercatcher 20 nests, White are Lapwings(16 pairs), Brownish are Avocets(27 pairs also on skating rink, where farmer Jan Mulder puts shells to attract them for breeding), Red are godwits(21 pairs) and Green are the Redshanks, with this year almost 40 pairs, a new record over all!
Very curious when she comes back for her 11th breeding season at Normerpolder. Hope to get a new reports from along the flyway.
Wim Tijsen, Poelweg 12, 1778 KB, The Netherlands. wimtijsen@ziggo.nl
So if you see C73 anywhere between Devon and Holland please report your sighting...the old girl deserves a mention!