Roller takes boat ride off Lundy Island

05/07/2019

A European Roller was seen and photographed on a boat in the Bristol Channel between Milford and Lundy Island, Devon, on 30 June 2019.

The bird arrived on deck when the vessel was some 10 miles off Lundy and stayed with the bewildered crew for some time until the boat came within a few miles of the island.

Skipper David Milledge explained: "It stayed with us for about two hours, mainly perched on the crosstrees high on the mast. It took a few short flights but always returned to perch.

"It was about the size of a large thrush. When we looked in the book it was rather the colour of the bee-eater, but the tail was fan-shaped with no central tail feathers."

David sent the photos to Lundy Warden Dean Jones, who was able to confirm that the bird was indeed a European Roller, an identified which David had suspected, and then kindly passed the news onto BirdGuides. The bird is presumed to have flown towards Lundy, as it was seen leaving the boat not far from the island, but was not seen there and news only came to light on the evening of 4 July.

Find out more about Lundy Island at lundybirds.blogspot.com and www.landmarktrust.org.uk/lundyisland.

Source

Uncovered: European roller's route between Africa, Europe

Date:October 20, 2015

Source:Plataforma SINC

Its blue and brown-coloured plumage is undoubtedly the most distinctive feature of the European roller, a threatened migratory bird. Up until now, little was known about this bird's migration patterns and wintering. For the first time, scientists from nine countries reveal the routes between the southern part of Africa and Europe taken by a considerable part of this species which is currently in a fragile state of conservation. Researchers have been able to uncover this information with the help of geolocators and satellite transmissions.

It breeds in Europe, crosses the Mediterranean via different routes, rests in Sub-Saharan Africa and winters in the southern part of Africa. Each year, the European roller (Coracias garrulus) covers close to ten thousand kilometres to breed and to winter over a route that was practically unknown up until now.

A team of scientists from nine countries (Spain, United Kingdom, Portugal, France, Austria, Switzerland, Montenegro, Lithuania and Cyprus) utilised data obtained from geolocators, satellite transmissions and bird ringing to examine the migration and wintering of this bird throughout a large part of the area where it is located. The results are published in the 'Diversity and Distributions' journal.

Thanks to this research, scientists have been able to ''uncover migration routes, resting areas and wintering grounds in addition to the degree of migratory connectivity in different populations of this species,'' explains Deseada Parejo, a researcher for the department of Anatomy, Cellular Biology and Zoology at the University of Extremadura (Spain) and co-author of the study.

Continued ...