A 29 Year Old Oystercatcher

Just received news of our oldest Oystercatcher. It was ringed by Kevin Briggs as a nestling at Arkholme on the shingle beds of the River Lune in June 1984 and was found dead just 24 km. to the south on the shores of the Lune  estuary. this is our oldest Oystercatcher to date but is well short of the national record which stands at 40 years.

Ringing by the Morecambe Bay Wader Group of large numbers of Oystercatchers has shown how our locally bred birds winter mainly within Morecambe Bay. Here they mix with birds from Iceland(7), Norway (16), Denmark (1), Faroes (9), Shetland (5), Orkney (7) and Northern  Scotland (24). The  figures refer to the number of recoveries from ringing on the east of Morecambe Bay.
John