Snow in March !

Small numbers of Snow Buntings are regular winter visitors to the man- made breakwater at Fishguard.
The female above was one of three seen in November 2011. From other photographs taken and monthly WeBS counts there do seem to be different birds using the breakwater. The answer to the question of whether they are wintering or passage birds and from where, came a step closer today when we caught the first of what is an ongoing project with permission from Stenna Line.
This was a first year male of the ssp nivalis. Mike Young-Powell was with us today as he has a special interest in Snow Bunting races and led to some interesting discussions as we watched the birds. We suspect that one of them was a male of the Icelandic ssp insulae.
Yesterday we had a good morning on the reserve checking nets and tidying net rides ready for the CES season ahead.
The first Chiffchaff of the year was the highlight of a few birds ringed.

We are grateful for the continuing support of Environment Wales with funding from the Welsh Government. The grant enabled us to purchase some tools which were put to good use yesterday.
Also the funding of a digital projector has been a great aid for talks about ringing that we have given to local groups.