Irish Kentish Plover

[Bobolink44]

Anybody have any thoughts on where it's come from seeing as it's banded? Is the hebrides bird still there? Coincidence that turned up as same time as mourning dove? Photos from the galleries below:

http://www.surfbirds.com/media/gallery_photos/20071202041227.jpg
Kentish Plover (race?), Cork, Red Barn Strand, Youghal 2nd December 2007 © Michael O'Keeffe
1st Kentish in Ireland for over 10 years. The bird is ringed - where did it come from? Note: apparently pale legs.

http://www.surfbirds.com/media/gallery_photos/20071202120251.jpg
kentish plover, Co Cork, Red Barn Strand 2/12/07 © Paul Moore
First in Ireland since 1995

[AndyB]

Lots more photos on Stop Press (http://www.surfbirds.com/cgi-bin/gallery/display.cgi?gallery=gallery9)including a partial read of the ring. Any banders/ringers out there who can help track down this bird's origin?

[Bobolink44]

Mystery solved, apparently ringed in Heligoland, Germany. However, did stumble across this on the net (http://www.conservationevidence.com/ViewEntry.asp?ID=71)

[Marcus]

RBA were stating yesterday it was rung in Germany.

Marcus

[JB Kemp]

The South Uist bird still present on Mon 3rd Dec. Very similar to the Irish bird with rather pale legs, a fairly large bill for a Kentish, shoulder patches almost reaching to centre of breast, pale fringes to feathering of upperparts, small dark centred feathers to crown. A small specimen.
John

[Derek Charles]

The BTO have just confirmed that this Kentish Plover was actually a bird
confiscated from an illegal breeder in Germany. It was subsequently ringed
and released, so is not all that it might seem (and presumably not
tickable). The only other international movement of a Kentish Plover was a
bird ringed in The Netherlands.:hmpf:

Derek

[Derek Charles]

Posted by Hugh Delaney on the IBN!

Now that rings a bell! I'd heard something about this months ago as i
watch a webpage to a site in Munster, Germany called Rieselfelder,
during the summer a big find of illegally kept birds was found there,
not your usual Parrots etc but a good number of very interesting
wader species included amongst others!

From what i can make out the collector or an associate was caught
on the Finnish-Norway border with a car full of illegally obtained
wader eggs (Plovers, Stone curlew & Dotterel amongst them, also
some Tern eggs and passerines), it would then seem his intention
would have been to transport them home to Germany where he
hatched them out in his facility there, they are then sold on to
other collectors at big profit. So it seems these birds were not
bred in captivity but reared from illegally obtained eggs.
Now there's a listing conundrum!

His collection was busted in early august by 25 German police and
all the birds
(including Turnstone, Ruff, Common Tern, Skylark, Ringed Plover,
Woodchat Shrike, Curlew, Dotterel, KENTISH PLOVER!, Black-winged
Stilt, Dipper, Water Rail & Spotted Crake!) confiscated, it seems
the conservation body who took care of them subsequently must
have rung them and released them back into the wild.

For those with an grasp of German (or use alta vista babelfish) -
or if someone can translate,

http://www.komitee.de/index.php?metelen

Fanastic to have know at least one bird made it out
of this wader camp! and managed to revert a wild
existence, a Kentish with the spirit of The Great Escape!

Hugh

Derek

[AndyB]

Thanks for the update Derek. This is pretty amazing. Do Irish listers now have a dilemma?

[Derek Charles]

hello Andy.
Yes and no! The majority will not tick it including some of the top listers. Others think it should be tickable, the debate continues. It has been 15 years since the last Irish Kentish, hopefully the next one will be soon !

Derek

[AndyB]

Well I guess if it was reared in captivity, then that's more of a problem. It's a bird that was conceived in the wild, raised in captivity (presumably sensibly so that it didn't have human parents imprinted) and then released back in to the wild. Would this apply to any of the Scottish White-tailed Eagles? Too many unanswered questions. Probably safer to wait another 15 years for the next one!