WINTER VISITORS AT BIRNIE LOCH

Birnie/Gaddon Lochs are a Local Nature Reserve (LNR) next to Collessie in Fife, created in the 1990's from sand and gravel quarries when the minerals ran out. The number of wigeon over-wintering at the site has now risen to over 1000. Over the last few years Fife Ranger Service and the Tay Ringing Group has been catching and ringing wigeon at Birnie/Gaddon Lochs in order to find out where they go in the summer and what their movements are in the winter, whether they come back to Fife every year or whether they go elsewhere.

We have now had a few rings returned to us or have recaptured previously ringed birds, enough to begin to answer some of these questions. We have recaptured wigeon we ringed on site in previous years and earlier this year two of our rings were returned from birds shot in the Borders and on the Moray Firth, so we know that the birds come back to Scotland in the winter.

We now have another tantalising piece of the picture, from a wigeon shot in Sweden. An adult male wigeon we ringed at Gaddon Loch in January 2003 was shot at Jordberga, near Malmo in southern Sweden last November (it takes a while for the records to reach us); it had survived 656 days. This brings us a little more information, but even more questions. Was it on its way back to Scotland when it was intercepted during a stop in Sweden? Were its breeding grounds in Sweden or further East? Was the winter so mild that it decided Malmo was a nicer winter resort? We will never know the answers to these questions regarding this individual, but as more records come in we will be able to piece together an idea of the distribution of our wigeon around Europe. So far Scandinavia is the most popular place for ringed birds associated with Birnie Loch, for we have four records of black-headed and common gulls from Norway, Sweden and Finland, and now this wigeon!

Tony Wilson, Fife Ranger Service