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A follow-up to the information about reading bands
on Little Terns from Clive and Hugo:
We (the Little Tern Taskforce, based in Gippsland
Victoria) and the Victorian Wader Study Group have been banding Little Terns
(and other terns) for ten years, and now have 996 traps or retraps. NSW
has also been busy banding over the years. So there is a lot to be gained
from reporting resightings to ABBBS. We assume that all these
birds pass along the east coats of Australia twice each year - some on their way
to Japan, others ?? - so they may be passing near YOU.
Many of the birds have individual colour bands or
flags (2 on one leg, one plus metal on the other), others just have a flag on
one leg and metal band on the other. To get the most out of your
resightings, it would be useful if you could record:
- date and location and your contact name and
address
- colour sequences (top and bottom, left and right legs, including
position of metal band). In particular note if green is dark green or
light green - we use both. Also note if they are flags (most) or bands (a
few may still have these) - they won't have both. Also note if the colour
is not obvious, or where a band may be missing: please don't leave a
blank in your record as it could mean either that you didn't record a
hard-to-see band or that the band was not there.
- plumage (breeding, non-breeding, transitional, immature)
- position (roosting on beach, in breeding colony, etc)
- behaviour, particularly breeding behaviour
- and anything else of interest
All our banded birds have been classed as northern breeders or southern
breeders based on moult pattern. The additional information you supply
allows us to use a check character to support the identity derived from the
banding sequence as well as adding to our knowledge about each bird.
We look forward to the reports.
Peter Mitchell
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