Recoveries by Condition for Northern Lapwing

There is a large majority of dead recoveries from hunted birds, as the lapwing is a game species in most of Europe. The increasing effort in colour ringing increased the proportion of live recoveries to over 60% after 1990, but the numbers of re-encounters was high even before 1960 (and started in 1910!).

Annual Movements for Northern Lapwing

There are some movements within wintering regions in case of harsh climatic conditions. Tracking of Dutch birds (Eichhorn et al. 2017) reported that birds from a colony had widely separated wintering grounds, from the colony to Ireland and Morocco, but individuals are faithful to their wintering area. Movements are direct and fast, some birds covering 2000 km within 2-4 days. A large variation in migration strategies supports the species’ responsiveness to recent climate change (shortened migration distance, advanced breeding timing).

Connectivity by Month by Region for Northern Lapwing

Only birds from the North, Central and East Europe leave completely their breeding grounds between September and November, and mainly start the spring migration in March (February in Mediterranean countries), with arrivals on breeding grounds done achieved in May. In the North-West and West, birds are present year-round and wintering grounds in the South-West are largely empty in March, and provide again numerous recoveries in December.

Recoveries by Condition for Common Redshank

The majority of recoveries concern live birds, recaptured by ringers or relocated from colour rings, with a classical reduction in dead recoveries (from ~50% before 1960 to 7% after 1990) in correlation with an increase in recovery numbers.

Annual Movements for Common Redshank

Redshank from Scandinavia and north-west Russia migrate along the western coasts of Europe into Iberia, wintering around the Mediterranean and in west Africa, and very few continental Redshank visit Britain (Ogilvie 1963). Eastern redshanks migrate over the continent to reach the eastern Mediteranean basin.

Connectivity by Month by Region for Common Redshank

In Iceland, birds of ssp. robusta are present mainly from May to August, with few recoveries in April and September, while movements to the British Isles are mainly noted in April and August. In northern Europe, breeding birds are present from May to July, already moved to West Europe in August and move back to the North in April. Birds from the West region which migrate SW are on the move in September-October and April in the South-West, with recoveries in Africa in November-January. The spring recoveries of eastern birds in Central Europe are from May, with returns to SE Europe from September onwards.

Recoveries by Condition for Dunlin

Most encounters are obtained after the mid-1970s. They come mainly from Jul-Sep – 52% combined (late breeding season and early autumn migration). Most encounters from late Aug to mid-Oct are based primarily on juvenile birds. Majority of encounters (ca. 93%) are recorded in NW, N, C and W Europe (36, 24, 23 and 10% respectively). The encounters based on dead birds decreased markedly over the years: from 74% pre-1960 to 5% after 1991; those based on alive birds considerably increased from 18% before 1960 to 95% after 1991. The latter is mostly due to ringing recoveries and colour mark records. Shooting as а factor has been largely reduced from 56% pre-1960 to less than 1% after 1991.

Most of the distant (>=50 km) recoveries are less than 2000km away (but some are more than 5000km).

Annual Movements for Dunlin

Post-breeding movements start late Jun-Jul, adults preceding juveniles about a month (Delany et al. 2009, Noskov et al. 2016). Autumn migration is evident mostly Aug-Nov, depending on latitude and region. N & NW African coasts are reached as early as Aug, the birds stay in their wintering grounds (S to W Africa) mainly until Mar-Apr, sometimes until mid-May. Major wintering regions in Africa are some coastal habitats in Tunisia, Morocco and from Mauritania to Guinea. 

Breeding sites are usually occupied in Apr-May, those in high Arctic – in Jun.

Tracked birds from the Baltic breeding population used staging sites at Wadden Sea and locally in W Europe to and from their wintering sites in Mauritania, showing rapid jump migration in the autumn and slower skipping type spring migration (Pakanen et al. 2018).

Connectivity by Month by Region for Dunlin

General migration patterns are also supported by genetic evidence – Greenland, Iceland & N European populations are predominant in the W African wintering grounds, while those wintering in W Europe originate from more eastern breeding grounds (e.g. N Russia) (Lopes et al. 2008).

Wadden Sea, Wash (UK), the Baltic Sea and Azov-Black Seas are important moulting grounds for the species (Delany et al. 2009). SW Europe, as well as N & NW Africa serve as stopover and wintering regions for migration routes of broad geographic range (Lopes et al. 2005, Thorup et al. 2009).

Possible loop migration in Europe has been suggested (Bairlein et al. 2014).

Black Sea region spring encounters suggest overland routes across E Europe to the W Siberia, which breeders undertake the longest routes within the region. W Siberian birds are encountered wintering in the Caspian Sea region from late autumn to late spring (Ilichev 1985).

Recoveries by Condition for Common Swift

Two-thirds of recoveries are dead birds, evenly spread over the entire range. Only a small fraction of these were shot, all in S Europe and Africa. Almost 20% of recoveries refer to alive birds of which most are recovered by certified ringers, especially in the UK, C Europe and Finland. The remainder of recoveries refers to birds found dead or wounded. Less than 1% of recoveries refer to birds being shot. The fraction of alive recoveries has increased over the past decades.

Annual Movements for Common Swift

Birds depart from the African wintering grounds in March-April to arrive at the European breeding grounds late April-May. Recoveries from important stopovers along the migratory route within Africa are missing. Swifts from northern populations arrive later at the breeding grounds than southern populations. The breeding grounds are departed in August, and by this time some birds are already encountered at the C African wintering grounds. During winter, some populations shift to more south-eastern wintering grounds.

Connectivity by Month by Region for Common Swift

Encounters during April-June and August-September connect Swift populations from the British Isles, the Low Countries, C Europe and Fennoscandia to Iberia and NW Africa, suggesting that this western route is used during both autumn and spring migration. Overall, birds are encountered in C Africa during October-November while birds are encountered in SE Africa during December-February. Tracking of Swifts has confirmed that NW European but not Fennoscandian birds shift from C Africa to SE Africa in the course of the wintering period (Klaassen et al. 2014). Although there are no recoveries from this area, tracking studies revealed the importance of Liberia as a stopover before crossing the Sahara during spring migration in April, at least for the NW European and Fennoscandian populations (Åkesson et al. 2012).

Recoveries by Condition for Western Jackdaw

Most eraly recoveries are of birds found dead, but the recent development of colour-ringing schemes has shifted the balance towards a majority of live resightings. There is still a large proportion of shot-dead recoveries, as Jackdaws are considered to be an agricultural pest in some European countries and regulated as such.

Annual Movements for Western Jackdaw

SW  movements from C, E and N Europe towards occur mainly in Oct and Apr, but most individuals, paticularly of the subspecies spermologus and monedula, are resident or disperse locally in winter. Long-distance movements are few and concern northern monedula and eastern soemmerringii. Two tracking studies of spermologus confirm residency and short-distance winter dispersal.

Connectivity by Month by Region for Western Jackdaw

Birds breeding in the N move to the SW from early Oct onwards (Kjellén 2019), with winter records mostly along North Sea countries, rarely down to the Mediterranean. Last departures of northern birds from western Europe is in early May. Birds breeding in Central Europe move from mid-Oct onwards, and are back in breeding regions from early Apr. Long-distance recoveries of breeders from E Europe are few, they have been recorded from the end of Oct to mid-Feb, but may well occur over a longer period.

Recoveries by Condition for Pink-footed Goose

As for other geese, the vast majority (almost 95%) of recoveries before 1991 were of dead birds, although 25%  were of recaptures of live birds before 1961, reflecting the catching in the 1950s. More-recent records are largely of marked individuals identified from neck rings (85%). The heterogeneities in recovery conditions and dichotomy in recovery periods will probably not impact the migration pattern of the species, although climate change may have had an effect on phenology.

Annual Movements for Pink-footed Goose

Tracking data for the spring migration of birds breeding in Svalbard in the early 2010s showed that the birds wintered mainly in Denmark, but also in the Dutch Wadden Sea and in Belgium(Chudzińska et al. 2016). Most departures from Denmark to S Norway occurred in the first two dekads of April with most birds staging in Nord Trøndelag in late Apr and then in the Vesterålen islands in early May, arriving in Svalbard in mid-May (Tombre et al. 2008). A larger sample of birds has been tagged in Denmark very recently, but the data is not yet openly accessible. The very large increase of the NW populations wintering in Britain certainly drives the pattern of recent recoveries, although tracking data concern only NE birds.

Connectivity by Month by Region for Pink-footed Goose

Birds breeding in Greenland and Iceland cross the ocean to reach their wintering grounds in the British Isles, with most birds on the move from mid-Sep onwards;there are no records in Iceland at the end of Oct. Birds return to Iceland from the beginning of April and to Greenland in May, although a few birds over-summer in Britain. Moult migration of non- and failed breeders to Greenland, returning to Iceland late Sep to early Oct. Svalbard birds wintering around the N Sea start to move N at the beginning of Apr, migrating along the Norwegian coast to reach Svalbard during mid-May (Madsen et al. 1997). The first obvious southward movements from Svalbard occur during the second half of Sep, while most individuals are on the wintering grounds by mid-Oct. As most encounters are from two widely spaced, discrete time periods, this could influence the observed patterns of movement.

Recoveries by Condition for Lesser Whitethroat

Overall, most (~95%) of recoveries are of birds seen alive, mainly recaptures by ringers (~90%). However, before 1961 most recoveries were of birds found dead (including shot), sick or wounded (overall ~75%). This pattern changed during 1961-1990, when the percentage of birds found dead, sick or wounded fell to ~15%. From 1991 to present most recoveries (>94%) are of birds recaptured in ringing campaigns.

Annual Movements for Lesser Whitethroat

Autumn migration is evident in Aug, when some birds are already in the eastern Mediterranean. There are encounters in Africa Dec-Apr, although there are very few data for this region. Birds start to arrive on the breeding grounds in W/C Europe in Apr-May in Scandinavia. Passage through Israel in spring is negatively correlated with precipitation in the winter quarters in Feb, with higher levels of precipitation seemingly accelerating fat deposition and timing of spring migration (Aloni et al. 2017). Adults migrate earlier than juveniles (Zduniak & Yosef 2012).

Connectivity by Month by Region for Lesser Whitethroat

There is a similar pattern for all European populations; for details see ‘Annual movements’.

Recoveries by Condition for Common Buzzard

Until 1960 86% of the recoveries were dead birds, including 43% shot birds. From 1961 to 1990 87% concerned dead birds, including 11% shot birds. From 1991, 56% concerned dead birds, and only about 1% was shot.
Most buzzards were shot in Denmark, Belgium and SE France. Also many shot birds in E Netherlands, W, C and S France, Czechia, N Italy, Greece and Georgia. Less shot on the British Isles, S Fennoscandia, Spain, Portugal, the Balkan, Near East and East Europe.

Annual Movements for Common Buzzard

From Dec - Feb birds are highly concentrated in Denmark, the Low countries and C Europe, also many birds in France and the UK, fewer in Spain, Italy, S Fennoscandia, SW Europe and few in Near East, NW, W and SE Africa. By Mar most birds have left Africa and the Balkan, small increase in S Finland and E Europe. In Apr - May further increase in S Fennoscandia and E Europe, less birds in S Europe and France. In Jun - Jul few birds in SE Europe and Near East. In Aug - Sep small increase in SE Europe and Near East. In Oct most birds left C and N Fennoscandia, more birds in France and S Europe and first in W and SE Africa. In Nov fewer birds in Finland and E Europe, small increase in NW Africa.

Connectivity by Month by Region for Common Buzzard

C Norway breeders are found in S Sweden (Sep - Feb); from S Norway, Sweden and Finland most are found in Denmark, the Low Countries and France (Sep - Mar, most Dec - Jan), also C and SW Europe and Italy (most Dec - Jan) and few from NW and W Africa (Oct - Apr). From Finland also recoveries in the Balkan, Greece, Black Sea area and Near East (Aug - Mar), also Saudi Arabia (Oct, May) and E Africa (Oct - Apr). From UK breeders one is found in Germany (Jan), France (Sep) and Ireland (Oct). Breeders of the Low Countries are found in N France (Sep - Apr) and NW Germany (Aug - Apr). Breeders of C and E Europe are most found in W Europe (Sep - Apr, most Dec - Jan), also in the Balkan, Greece, Italy and Spain (most Nov - Feb). From E Europe also recoveries in Near East (Jan - May) and Burundi (Feb).

Recoveries by Condition for Mediterranean Gull

Overall, most recoveries due to birds seen alive (ca.95%). 77% of recoveries identified with leg ring(s) and 9.5% with metal rings. Patterns of recovery condition different between periods. Before 1960, few recoveries due to birds seen alive (ca.0.4%), whilst 68% of recoveries dead by shot. Between 1961-1990, 60% still owing to dead recoveries (21% shot), and alive recoveries start to gain weight (ca.25%). From 1991- to present, recoveries due to birds seen alive comprise more than 97% of the total and no shot dead recoveries reported.

Annual Movements for Mediterranean Gull

Return to colonies in spring mostly by Apr, egg laying period mainly in May. Leaving breeding quarters from late Jun, migration mainly coastal (Olsen & Larsson 2004).

Connectivity by Month by Region for Mediterranean Gull

C European birds reach their breeding sites in spring in Apr; post-breeding migration can start in Jun/Jul. According to literature, most juveniles stay close to breeding grounds for the first winter (Olsen & Larsson 2004). Other European populations follow similar temporary pattern as deducted from ring-recovery data. 

Recoveries by Condition for Northern Wheatear

Annual numbers encountered were most time below 100 until the year 2001. Then the numbers increased to a maximum of 1335 in 2009. After 2009 the annual numbers fluctuated around 500. In spring most encounters are between 21 May and 20 June, in fall the peak lies between 19 August and 8 September.
Before 1960 about 77% of the recoveries were dead birds, including 20% birds that were shot. Between 1960 – 1990 the percentage of dead birds decreased to 36% and the percentage alive recoveries increased from 13% to 58%. After 1991 the percentage alive recoveries was 97%.

Annual Movements for Northern Wheatear

In December - February only a few birds are left in Europe. In March the first migrants appear in North-Africa and South-Europe and especially in UK also arrive in their breeding areas. In April many birds arrive in their breeding areas in West- and Central Europe, UK and South-Fennoscandia. In April there are also still migrating birds in North-Africa and South-Europe. In May most birds have arrived in their breeding areas, also in Iceland and North-Fennoscandia. In August the first birds are migrating back through South-West Europe and some already arrived in North-Africa. In September most birds have left their breeding areas and are on migration in South-West Europe and North-Africa. In October the last birds are leaving Europe.

Connectivity by Month by Region for Northern Wheatear

April and September – October encounters in Morocco, Algeria and Tunesia connect to all breeding areas except Iceland. April encounters in Italy and Central Europe connect to Fennoscandia. September encounters in Italy connect to Finland and North-Norway. March encounters in West-Europe connect to UK. April – May encounters in West-Europe connect to UK and Fennoscandia. September – October encounters in Iberia and SW France connect to all breeding areas. Iceland birds (leucorhoa) have connections with UK in April and to UK or straight to West coast of France in September, without any connections further north along North Sea coast. Encounters in November – December in Iberia connect to West- and Central Europe.