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The Spoonbill at Stocks Reservoir.

13-14.05.02

by Bill Aspin.

Colour-ring details received on 16.06.02.

The Spoonbill is a female and was ringed as a nestling in the Dutch part of the Waddensea at Texel de Schorren (5308N - 0454E) on 12.06.1999, thus making it a 3rd Summer/4th Cal year bird. It has been reported on 3 occasions as follows:

The first sighting was made at Main-et-Loire Bohalle, France, on 03.05.02, 1056 days after ringing, having traveled 720km from the location in Holland where it was ringed.

12 days later, the Spoonbill was Stocks Reservoir, Lancashire, UK, 1068 days after ringing.

Finally, the most recent sighting of the bird comes from Leighton Moss, Lancs, UK, 5 days after the Stocks Reservoir occurrence, on 19.05.02

Just before mid-day on Monday 13th May 2002, Burnley birder Allan Holmes was amazed to see a Spoonbill in flight over Stocks Reservoir. Fortunately the bird landed on the shoreline opposite the hide and Allen promptly rang the news to various east lancs birders.

The Spoonbill, eventually settled in the Hodder inlet, where it remained for the rest of the day, enabling most local birders to see it.

The bird spent most of the evening almost motionless, looking very sorry for itself, huddled on a mud-bank below the cormorant tree's with it's head pointing down at the water, prompting observers to speculate as to whether the bird was ill. Indeed, it was not noted feeding at all during the first day of it's stay.

Fortunately, the bird remained until 11.30hrs the next day, when it flew strongly to the east.

This is the second East Lancs record of Spoonbill, following 1 seen by a single observer, Margaret Clark, at Walverden Reservoir, grid ref: SD872366, for 30 minutes on the evening of  4th June 2000.

Interestingly, the stocks bird bore two green colour rings, one on each leg, with the lettering ' EJ ' inscribed. Initial investigations suggest that the bird is of Dutch origin - the full details will be added to this article as soon as they are received.

The Spoonbill was excellently photographed by both Tony Disley and Margaret Breaks.