A French ringed Avocet has just returned to the Allen Pool at the RSPB Leighton Moss and Morecambe Bay Reserve. This bird is in its 14th year and excluding the regular sightings from the Allen Pool it has been recorded 138 times so we know a great deal about its movements.
It was first colour ringed as a nestling on 20 June 2008 at Saint-Moule Brittany France and remained in this area for the next three and a half years being sighted 100 times. Then it was sighted on the Allen Pool for the first time on 26th March 2012.It paired and nested that year but was back in Brittany by September. It followed this routine for the next five years usually arriving in late March or early April and departing when its chicks had fledged or when it failed. In 2013 it was back in France by 11th July. In 2014 it was back on the reserve on March 22nd but it was near Scunthorpe Lincolnshire on 31st July then to France for the winter. It followed its usual routine in 2015. In 2016 it was on the Allen Pool on April 3rd but moved to Ribble Estuary 13 days later, it was not seen the following winter but was back on the Allen Pool by March 28th 2017 then back to France until it returned to the Allen Pool on April 5th 2017 with a very similar pattern in 2018 . But for the next two years it was not seen on the Allen Pool but it was seen still in France in May 2019 and May 2020.Did it breed there? It was welcomed back to the Allen Pool in April 2021 and again this year on March 24th it has been displaying and nest scraping
