Recoveries by Condition for Black-tailed Godwit

There are very few recoveries before 1961. After 2009, most recoveries are of live birds identified by their colour rings. The overall proportion of live recoveries is 86%, 93% after 1990.

Annual Movements for Black-tailed Godwit

Several tracking studies provide details on annual movements. Dutch limosa first move to stopover sites in the Mediterranean and the Bay of Biscay, where some (15%) stay for the winter, while the majority conitnue to W Africa; a few fly nonstop to W Africa (Hooijmeijer et al. 2014, Verhoeven et al. 2021). A recent tracking analysis reported high inter- and intra-individual variation in migratory behaviour across years, and higher mortality during the Sahara crossing (Senner et al. 2019). Arrivals at breeding sites in Iceland advanced by 10 days between 1998 and 2009 (Gunnarsson 2010).

Connectivity by Month by Region for Black-tailed Godwit

Icelandic birds witering in Spain and Portugal start to move N in Feb, many staging in the British Isles and the Netherlands (Alves et al. 2011). The first arrivals in Iceland are in the second half of Apr, with last departures from the British Isles in early May. Birds return to the wintering grounds at the end of Jul, leaving in the second half of Apr. Continental breeders (W and C regions) return to their breeding grounds during the second half of March, with the first SW movements to the Atlantic coast noted in mid-Jul, peaking in the first half of Aug.

Recoveries by Condition for Audouin's Gull

A higher majority (97%) of the recoveries are due to birds seen alive, mostly identified with leg ring(s). Shooting is marginal in this species, in part due to the fact that the species was critically threatened in former times. Ringing effort with PVC ring(s) has been absolutely useful for the understanding of species spatial ecology and to identify key non-breeding quarters (Bécares et al. 2016).

Annual Movements for Audouin's Gull

Ring-recovery data are abundant and allow a good comprehension of the migration and main spatial use of the species, though remote-tracking provides complementary data, especially for a better understanding of spatial ecology in/around breeding quarters (Bécares et al. 2016). Breeding grounds left as early as Jul. Arrival to winter quarters from Aug to even Jan-Feb (Bécares et al. 2016). Spring migration is fast, mostly from Mar to Apr.

Connectivity by Month by Region for Audouin's Gull

Similar temporal patterns between regions, so see ‘Annual movements’.

Recoveries by Condition for Black Redstart

Number of encounters increased after 2000, with annually less than 200 encounters before 2000 and from 2004 most times between 400 – 600 encounters. Most encounters are from April to October. Vast majority of encounters are from Central Europe.
Recoveries with condition ‘dead shot’or ‘dead, intentionally taken’ are concentrated along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, these are all before 1990. In recent decades, 80% of all recoveries are ringing recoveries.

Annual Movements for Black Redstart

Birds start leaving the wintering areas in February and most birds arrive in their breeding areas in March. In April, only few birds remain in the wintering areas. Most Scandinavian birds arrive only in April or later in their breeding areas.
Migration back to the wintering areas starts in September, in October there are many recoveries in Spain, the last ones arrive in November. SE birds pass Greece in October and arrive in Cyprus in November. In January and February there are some recoveries in Lebanon and Israel.
Both in spring as in fall there is no clear difference in timing of migration between SW and SE birds.

Connectivity by Month by Region for Black Redstart

Birds breeding in Central Europe that winter in Southwest-Europe and West-Africa arrive in their breeding area starting from March. Birds that winter in Southeast-Europe and in Britain seem to arrive later in Central Europe, in April and May. Few birds in Central Europe are resident. South-Scandinavian breeders that winter in South-Europe and North-Africa seem to arrive in the breeding area only in June, while birds that winter further north arrive in April and May. Birds breeding in West-Europe that winter in southwest Europe arrive in the breeding area from March while birds wintering in North-Africa arrive in April and May. Winter recoveries in Britain are mainly from birds breeding in Central Europe or from resident birds.

Recoveries by Condition for Rook

Over half of recoveries are of dead birds (>56%), most of which have been shot for different reasons (not generally explained; 19% of all recoveries), including crop protection and nature conservation. There was a switch to a majority of birds reported alive (75%) after 1990, including a large proportion of recaptures by ringers. This introduces different biases to the data before and after 1990.

Annual Movements for Rook

Birds breeding in the British Isles remain for the winter, as do those in W Europe. Most birds from the E and C populations move SW from early Sep-Nov, although some remain in their breeding region in winter. In Scandinavia, breeding grounds are almost empty Dec-Jan; most birds have left the wintering grounds by May, and the first non-breeding records in the winter quarters are in Oct.

Connectivity by Month by Region for Rook

Migratory populations are present on their N breeding grounds as early as Mar, while late birds leave the wintering grounds in W Europe in May. Mar-Apr are the main months when wintering Rooks move progressively NE, most being on the breeding grounds in May. After the breeding season, movements to the SW are mainly in Oct, with some in early Nov. The same applies to breeding birds from N, C and E Europe.

Recoveries by Condition for Common Redstart

Numbers encountered increased from around 250 annually before the year 2000 to 500-1,000/year since then. In spring most encounters are in May, in autumn most are from the last dekad of Aug to the second dekad of Sep. Recently about 85% of encounters are recaptures by ringers. In the period 1961-1990 52% were recaptures and 37% dead birds, of which only 5.8% were of shot birds.

Annual Movements for Common Redstart

On northward passage SW Europe breeders go through NW Africa mainly from the last dekad of Mar through Apr, arriving in W and C Europe and the British Isles in Apr. Fennoscandian breeders arrive in the first two dekads of May. SE birds move through Cyprus in Apr. On autumn migration, SW birds migrate through France and Iberia from the second dekad of Aug-end Oct (France) and the first half of Nov (Iberia). Birds moving SE go through Greece in Aug–Oct and there are recoveries in Cyprus and Lebanon in Sep.

Connectivity by Month by Region for Common Redstart

The vast majority of breeders in all regions are in sites to the SW: Portugal, Spain and NW Africa in Aug-Oct. Birds breeding in central Europe and Fennoscandia are fround to the SW in Oct–Dec, they also connect to SE sites in Macedonia, Greece, Lebanon and Iran and there are some to the W in the British Isles. A few birds breeding in W Europe are to the SE in Mar-Apr in Austria, Italy and Tunisia. Some British-breeders move SE cand are in Italy, France, Malta and Algeriain in Oct with and in Tunisia and Algeria in Apr. Birds along sub-Saharan Atlantic coast in Oct–Jan are from breeding areas in the British Isles, W and C Europe and Fennoscandia. A Nov recovery in Chad connects to C Europe.

Recoveries by Condition for Savi's Warbler

Most recoveries due to birds recaptured alive (ringing recovery). Extremely few recoveries (N=1) before 1960.

Annual Movements for Savi's Warbler

Few recoveries in Africa, hampering us to infer clear, firm temporal patterns of migration, especially when birds are found in Africa. Breeding quarters left from Aug; totally vacated in Oct in Portugal (Neto et al. 2008), also rest of Europe. In Portugal, adults start to leave their breeding sites in late Aug, later than first-year birds, which leave early in Aug (Neto et al. 2008). Passage across S Europe in autumn in Aug-Sep; in spring in Apr-May. First arrivals to breeding quarters in spring in Mar, though most in Apr.

Connectivity by Month by Region for Savi's Warbler

Many more recoveries for the W flyway, especially in Europe. (1) W flyway: recoveries in autumn in Iberia mostly Aug-Sep; then no recoveries in NW Africa, and the few ones in W Africa in Jan-Mar. Few recoveries in spring in Europe, just some in Apr-May mostly along the coast of E Iberia. (2) E flyway: recoveries in autumn concentrated in NE Balkan region, surprisingly no recoveries in this period in S Balkan peninsula (except a bird in Nov). Recoveries in E Mediterranean (Cyprus, Turkey) in Apr-May, thus relative to spring passage back to breeding quarters.

Recoveries by Condition for Common Shelduck

Protected species throughout most of Europe, game species in Russia but apparently not intensively hunted. Most encounters recorded in NW & W Europe (ca. 80%). Before 1960 about 22% of all recoveries were from dead birds as a result of shooting/ hunting; due to species protection this factor was subsequently reduced largely to just less than 1% after 1991. Inversely, the share of alive ringing recoveries significantly increased to nearly half (49%) of all recoveries after 1991. In total, the recoveries based on alive birds after 1991 constituted ca. 90% of the whole dataset (11% coming from colour ringing projects).

Most encounters are obtained after 2000. About half of all encounters (ca. 54%) are obtained in Dec-Mar.

Very limited number of encounters from SE Europe.

Annual Movements for Common Shelduck

Adults usually show high level of breeding site-fidelity and most of them are sedentary during Apr-Jun (Patterson 1982). The species undergoes a flightless wing-moult lasting about a month in late summer and autumn at suitable locations where big concentrations are formed (North, Black and Caspian Seas, locally on British Isles) (Kistchinski 1979, Wernham et al. 2002). Tracking study of four birds having moult migration from UK to Wadden Sea revealed a mean flight speed of 30.3 knots and altitudes of up to 354 m (Green et al. 2019). Moult migration/ post-breeding dispersion starts in Jul but it is more evident in Aug. After moulting the birds can either stay on the moulting sites during winter, or continue to other wintering sites or return to their breeding sites to overwinter.

Very cold winters could induce long-distance movements further S (Scott, Rose, 1996).

Connectivity by Month by Region for Common Shelduck

Most birds from NW, W & N Europe, even some from the Mediterranean parts of Spain and France, are encountered at their common moulting areas in the Wadden Sea from late summer to mid-spring, and along the Atlantic coasts of W Europe mostly in autumn and winter. Regarding E European populations, some birds from the Baltic Sea region are subsequently encountered SW from their breeding grounds – in the North Sea region, from late summer to mid-spring (mostly during the winter). Similarly, some birds from the Black/ Caspian Sea region are heading SW in late autumn and winter, reaching the C & E Mediterranean (incl. N Africa). Very few C European birds take SE routes towards Balkan Peninsula where are encountered during winter.

The birds wintering in Caspian Sea originate from C Asia (Kistchinski 1979).

Recoveries by Condition for Cory's Shearwater

Birds recovered between different breeding colonies are alive, but long-distant recoveries concern individuals found dead. Numerically, these dead recoveries represent almost nothing compared to the huge amount of live recoveries on breeding colonies.

Annual Movements for Cory's Shearwater

The recoveries of ringed shearwaters neat the Straits of Gibraltar are from October and November, so diomedea outing the Mediterranean basin probably do so at the end of the breeding season, with juveniles reaching the Atlantic. Observations in the Indian Ocean, and further North in the Red Sea, indicate that some birds perform a clockwise migration around Africa to re-enter the Mediterranean Sea by flying over land in the Middle East. Tracked diomedea from Greece (Ristow et al. 2000) left the Mediterranean by early December, to reach the eastern tropical Atlantic in January/February, the Mid-Atlantic Ridge (even in equatorial waters); they started their return migration in March/April.

Connectivity by Month by Region for Cory's Shearwater

Distant recoveries have been obtained at various months and seasons, so represent the non-breeding dispersion of immatures rather than yearly seasonal movements. For diomedea, within Mediterranean recoveries away from the breeding colonies are mainly from the autumn in the Gulf of Lion, off France, and the western Mediterranean (October-November). For borealis, recoveries off northern Brazil are from June-July, those from southern Brazil are from January to May.

Recoveries by Condition for European Stonechat

Until 1960 33% of the recoveries were dead birds: 22% were intentionally taken and 7,6% shot. From 1961 to 1990 41% concerned dead birds: 29% was intentionally taken and 9,6% was shot. From 1991 almost all recoveries concerned alive birds.
Most dead birds were intentionally taken or shot at the coasts of Spain, Morocco and Algeria. A few birds were shot in S France and Italy. From 1991 28% of the recoveries was identified by colour marks.

Annual Movements for European Stonechat

From Nov - Feb birds are concentrated in the UK, the coasts of Portugal, Spain, Morocco and Algeria and in Italy. In Mar - Apr numbers in the Low Countries and C and E Europe increase, a few birds are still in N Africa. From May - Aug birds are concentrated in Spain, the UK, the Low Countries, N Italy and C and E Europe. In Sep numbers in France and S Europe increase, the first birds arrive in N Africa. In Oct numbers in the Low Countries and C and E Europe decrease, there is a hotspot in S Spain and numbers in N Africa increase.

Connectivity by Month by Region for European Stonechat

Breeders in S Norway are reported from the Netherlands (May), N Germany (Nov) and S Sweden (Jan). Breeders in the UK are found from Sep - Apr in the S UK, in W and S France and in N, E and S Spain. From Nov - Feb recoveries come from Mallorca, the N coast of Morocco and Algeria and one in Aug from W coast of Morocco. Breeders of the Low Countries and France are reported in France from Sep - Nov and in SE Spain, Morocco and Algeria from Oct - Mar. For C and E Europe breeders most recoveries come from the coasts of Morocco and Algeria (Oct - Apr). Also reports come from S France and S Spain (Oct - Feb), Mallorca (Jan - Feb), Italy (Sep - Oct) and Greece (Nov).

Recoveries by Condition for Eurasian Curlew

Hunting stopped in Great Britain (1982), Denmark (1994; Laursen 2005), Ireland (2012), with a partial (2008 onwards), then complete (from 2020), moratorium in France. Most recoveries from these countries are of dead birds, as are those from Spain and Italy - leading to heterogeneity in regional recovery rates. There are few resightings of colour-marked birds. Most live recoveries are on the  breeding grounds.

Annual Movements for Eurasian Curlew

Fennoscandian birds reach breeding sites from Apr, and are back on wintering sites from Jun (mainly Jul). In C Europe, birds arrive on breeding sites in Mar, and are on wintering sites from Jul. In SW Europe, the first breeders arrive at the end of Feb. First-calendar year birds migrate later than adults, leaving from mid-Jul to Aug, sometimes migrating later. Recent data from satellite tags (e.g. Jiguet et al. 2021) show that Curlew wintering in W France migrate to Russia, Belarus and Finland, but also Austria, Belgium, Sweden and the Baltic states, arriving in mid-Apr-early May, migrating across the continent in less than a week.  They left mostly in Jun, reaching wintering sites mid-July, having taken a coastal route with stopovers in the Wadden Sea and taking 2-3 weeks.

Connectivity by Month by Region for Eurasian Curlew

Birds wintering in W Europe (Netherlands, France and Spain) are mainly encountered breeding in Fennoscandia, N Russia and C Europe. Breeders from Fennoscandia and the Baltic states migrate SW to winter mainly in the British Isles, the Wadden Sea and France. Breeders from central Europe, including Germany and the Netherlands, are found on the Wadden Sea and European Atlantic coasts, including the British Isles, down to Spain. Breeders from France and Belgium winter from France to Morocco, mainly along the Atlantic coast of Iberia. Breeders from the British Isles winter mainly on British and Irish coasts, although some also cross the Channel.