Long Distance Meadow Pipit

Back in October last year Andy Palmer retrapped a Meadow Pipit with a ring number that was clearly not British: 9A78917. Unfortunately he didn’t get a photograph of the ring and, when trying to enter it into the online recording system, he couldn’t get the record accepted. He contacted me and I contacted Bridget Griffin at the BTO. Bridget is not just a database management guru but also one of the most helpful people you could hope to meet. She managed to identify the scheme as being Icelandic.

Andy entered the record up and we waited to hear back as to where and when it was ringed. The details arrived today. The bird was ringed in Iceland as a juvenile bird in August 2020, and recovered almost exactly 2 months later on Salisbury Plain: a distance of 1,640km in 60 days.

This is the second furthest movement of a Meadow Pipit ringed overseas and then recovered in the UK. The furthest movement was a bird ringed in southern Portugal and recovered in Derbyshire. The absolute furthest recorded movements of birds of this species ringed in the UK were two that were ringed at Spurn and made the mistake of flying 1,900km to Algeria where they were shot. Clearly, there is just so much meat on a Meadow Pipit!

Thanks to the BTO Online Ringing and Nest Recording Report for the additional information.