Doing My Bit For Science

I always find details of bird ringing recoveries absolutely fascinating. When the Blurred Birder and I were in the Algarve back in October, we came across two juvenile Greater Flamingoes at the Santa Luzia salt works, that had darvic rings on their legs. Those are the plastic rings with large lettering on, so they can be read by using optics, as long as they're close enough of course.

They were close enough for me. So when I got back home, I submitted the ring details to the Euring website, and I got some details back today.

It appears that these two young Flamingoes were ringed as chicks in July, some 250 kilometres to east, in Spain. But what surprised me is they did not originate from some coastal marsh or salt pan, but at a freshwater lagoon 50 kilometres north of Malaga, well inland.

Fantastic stuff, but why did they go to there? It also brings back fond memories of some warm weather!