Delivery from New Jersey

So a couple of weeks ago I spotted this little dude amongst a flock of ruddy turnstones that visit a beach we go to every so often to steal food from the beachfront restaurant there....and I noticed he was packing some bling.

Yep that's a colour flag and ring (awesome code too for the little guy: "XTC"!). Turns out he was flagged as part of the Delaware Dupont Estuary Banding initiative. From the website:

"Banding projects to study migratory shorebirds that make epic hemispheric journeys have been underway since the mid 1990’s. In recent years, the birds have been tagged with engraved markers allowing identification of individuals with spotting scopes. The combination of banding and resighting data allows greater understanding of the habitat uses and needs by imperiled species. With this understanding comes the hope of achieving the protective actions required to halt, and even reverse, the population decline exhibited by many shorebird species.

Your resighting observations count! Each report adds significantly to a greater understanding of the critical habitat needs of different species throughout their migratory routes. Resightings help determine the habitats most frequented and may lead to discovery of other as yet unknown important sites being used by shorebirds. These reports are added directly to the ongoing database. So thanks for taking the time and effort to report your observations."

So having entered my data here's the past history on XTC:

Captures:
5/17/2006 10:10:00 AM - Kimbles Beach - North, New Jersey, United States - 1172-76779 FLXTC RUTU

Resightings:
5/25/2007 - Reeds Beach - North, New Jersey, United States - 1172-76779 FLXTC RUTU
5/27/2007 - Reeds Beach - North, New Jersey, United States - 1172-76779 FLXTC RUTU
5/28/2007 - Reeds Beach - North, New Jersey, United States - 1172-76779 FLXTC RUTU
5/28/2007 - Reeds Beach - North, New Jersey, United States - 1172-76779 FLXTC RUTU
5/29/2007 - Reeds Beach - North, New Jersey, United States - 1172-76779 FLXTC RUTU
5/30/2007 - Reeds Beach - North, New Jersey, United States - 1172-76779 FLXTC RUTU
5/30/2007 - Reeds Beach - North, New Jersey, United States - 1172-76779 FLXTC RUTU
5/30/2007 - Reeds Beach - North, New Jersey, United States - 1172-76779 FLXTC RUTU
5/30/2007 - Reeds Beach - North, New Jersey, United States - 1172-76779 FLXTC RUTU
5/31/2007 - Reeds Beach - North, New Jersey, United States - 1172-76779 FLXTC RUTU
5/17/2008 - Reeds Beach - North, New Jersey, United States - 1172-76779 FLXTC RUTU
5/28/2008 - Cooks Beach - North, New Jersey, United States - 1172-76779 FLXTC RUTU
5/31/2009 - Cooks Beach - North, New Jersey, United States - 1172-76779 FLXTC RUTU

Well New Jersey explains the mob like way in which these turnstones steal your breakfast scraps I guess but he's a long way from home. I wonder where he'll turn up next...colour flagging projects are cool!