End of the road for Timitoo

Some sad news I'm afraid.

The young crane that was caught and colour ringed White Black Green on 26th July, and nicknamed 'Timitoo' has been found dead.

It was quickly back with its parents, Timmy and Michaela, and was captured on a trail camera at dawn on 28th July and then again on 29th.  See below...

 Timitoo captured on trail-cam 28th July closely followed by...

 Male parent Timmy - ringed Red Black White.

However, from 1st August the parents were observed a couple of times on their own and the chick was not obvious... so the monitoring team used the radio tracker to located the bird (picking up the signal from the radio tag fitted during the ringing process) and were led to the roost area where we know this pair had been spending the hours of darkness.     Wading out to small island,  they discovered the remains shown below.

 Remains of Timitoo - August 6th 2018

It is not clear how or why this bird died.  Perhaps it picked up a disease or injury and then died at the roost - or perhaps it was attacked by a predator, made its way back, injured, to the roost and then died. 

The only good news is that this pair - Timmy and Michaela successfully fledged 2 chicks in 2017 (although one of these was later lost, post fledging) and we are sure they will be back to try again in 2019.

About the author

Damon’s role is to act as the hub of the project - making sure everyone involved knows what is going on and that it is all running smoothly. He is also responsible for project community awareness work in Somerset, construction of the release enclosure, and running the post release monitoring work in Somerset.  Damon works alongside the RSPB reserve teams in Somerset.