Colour-ringed CORMORANT at Piccotts End Pools

Cormorants 'drying' at Piccotts End Pools



After looking at my distant record shots of the 7 CORMORANTS at Piccotts End Pools yesterday, I noticed that the oldest looking & most well-built bird is ringed. It has a regular metal BTO style ring on it's right leg & a large white ring on the left leg that reads ' ZZ1 ' or ' ZZI ', read upwards from the foot, in what appears to be black text. I would be very interested to find out any info about this bird as it would be great to know where it came from & where it has been.



The colour-ringed Cormorant at Piccotts End Pools

[EDIT 20/09/11: Even though the bird appears sub-adult & so, hard to ID confidently, I have a feeling that this is a 'carbo' subspecies rather than the 'sinensis' birds that appear in Hertfordshire much more regularly. Despite the far from ideal lighting, the rear edges of the yellow gular pouch do appear to be at an acute angle & the bird does look 'thicker-set' overall. Both of these features would fit with 'carbo' which is usually associated with the coast, & so I wonder if this bird is a 'coastal carbo' that has been displaced inland, as with many seabirds over the last week, as the remnents of Hurricane Katia hit Ireland, Scotland, Wales & Northern England?]

 

A close-up of the colour-ringed Cormorant at Piccotts End Pools - colour ring reads 'ZZ1 or ZZI'



A close-up of the colour-ring & BTO ring worn by the Cormorant at Piccotts End Pools - colour ring reads 'ZZ1' or 'ZZI'



To see the outcome of the investigation, click > HERE <.