Our World Tuesday / World Bird Wednesday - Red-Headed Avocets

I don’t normally combine posts for different memes (or put the posts up this early!), but this seems to make sense here.

I was lucky enough to be involved in the banded (that’s ‘ringing’ in some parts of the world) of a large flock of Red-Headed Avocets a week or so ago. We trapped 174, which is the largest number ever caught in Australia. The birds were wonderful in the hand. The bills were incredibly delicate – the ends are much, much thinner than a grain of sand!

These birds are opportunist breeders – Australia does not always have the most reliable of seasons, so these birds can breed whenever the conditions are favourable. As a result there were all ages of birds in the flock, which lead to a bit of head scratching by the banders.





As you can see the birds are quiet relaxed in the hand – and in case you are wondering, the bird in the yellow tube is being weighed!

We place the standard metal rings on the birds, but also engraved leg ‘flags’ that can be read with a ‘scope. These birds are not easy to catch so with a bit of luck the flags will increase the amount of reported sightings of these birds.

Although the day was very hot, it was really rather remarkable.





You can see more sights from around the world at Our World Tuesday.

And you can see more birds from around the world at World Bird Wednesday.

You can also see the latest post to my other blog by clicking on the Paying Ready Attention link on the RHS of the screen.