How You Can Help

Are you a bird watcher? If so you can help! 

If you are not a bird watcher, don't worry, you can still help support my research by donating money (details at bottom of page)

 

You can just about make out that this code says '3Y+'

*Sightings of our Logged Birds.  

As you can see from this photo our logged birds have a blue colour ring on each leg with a white 2 letter/number code ending in a + symbol. 

Any extra data on the whereabouts of our birds will be really useful -particularly now the logged chicks have fledged. Any sightings of these chicks in Portugal over the winter will be very exciting data.

The logged adults and chicks are mainly located in the South of Portugal around the towns of Avis, Beja, Evora and the village of Ermidas do Sado -but this is all changing now that the breeding season is over. 

Check the BTO website for live locations of each bird. I shall also keep you posted!

 

*Ideally we need the following information:

Ring number	Location	Date	Time	Habitat type	In flock?	Activity
Eg 30+	Place name or GPS co-ordinates			Eg ricefield/arable/cork oak grassland etc	Approx number in flock	Eg Feeding/standing/ on nest etc…

(Don't worry if you don't record it all, just knowing the location, date and approximate time of the sighting will be helpful!) You will not see the loggers on the birds as these have sunk down into the feathers.

The 15 logged adult ring numbers are: 

                            30+ to 39+, also 3A+ then 3V+ to 3X+ consecutively. 

The 10 logged chicks ring numbers are:
                         3C+, 3E+, 3F+, 3H+, 3J+ to 3N+ consecutively and 3P+

*Winter Ring Records

(Sightings November - April)

Many white storks have colour rings that can be easily read by telescope and sometimes with binoculars. Additional ring data from white storks sighted in Portugal, Spain and anywhere in Africa between August and April would really help my understanding of whether an individual decided to migrate or not during the winter. I am primarily interested in birds whose ring numbers start or end with a + symbol as these birds were ringed in Portugal. 

*Please let me know when and where the bird was sighted, ring colour and number. I will also pass this data on to the collator of Portuguese ring records.

*Portuguese rings may be yellow, green, red or blue, but they will all have a '+' either at the start or end. Most birds are ringed on 1 leg only, but more recently birds have been ringed on both legs to make them easier to detect and read.

SUBMIT ALL RECORDS TO MY EMAIL n.gilbert@uea.ac.uk 

*SUPPORT A STORK*

Fitting the loggers to the storks is just the beginning of this exciting monitoring project. I have field work expenses and technology costs that I do not yet have funded. Visiting storks in colonies across Portugal requires lots of driving and repeat visits to check on breeding progress. Donations from my readers partially assisted me in fitting data loggers to chicks in the colonies of my currently logged birds to compare the chicks migratory strategy with that of  their landfill loving parents. Is the urge to migrate to Africa stronger than the learned behaviour of staying resident in Portugal? If I can raise more funds I will fit more loggers to resident adults in November.

  Helping my research by donating money could not be easier. Click the 'Donate' button in the Links section and it will take you straight to Paypal. Any donations, large or small would really help! 

In return you will have a stork named after you, you will be updated more frequently with photos of your stork and project news, and you will be acknowledged on my website (if you wish). For larger donations an information poster with full details of the project and results will be sent to you at the end of the project in Spring 2014.

'Daniel' (35+) about to be released by Carlos Pacheco. Note one of his rings was attached upside down and reads +53

Daniel Cadwallader holding 'Aldina' (3Y+)