Sedge Warbler from Spain..

Mid May on the Teifi Marsh is always a peak period for Sedge Warblers on migration so we try to concentrate our ringing efforts in the reed beds when weather allows.

At this time of year, the reeds seem to grow by the day so there is a lot of trimming to do to prepare and maintain our net rides for the season. With over 600 feet of net in the reed beds that is a lot of work!

With a calm day forecast, at last we were able to open some nets this morning.
Today was typical for mid May with 70 Sedge Warblers caught before 9am.
One of the first birds had a Spanish ring engraved "Aranzadi San Sebastian". Never having seen one of these rings before, a quick bit of research found that Aranzadi is a ringing scheme funded by the Government of The Basque country.  After the crash of the ICONA-Madrid ringing scheme in 2012 the Aranzadi ringing scheme started to provide rings to other institutions that until then had been ringing with ICONA. We look forward to hearing when and where this bird was ringed as it migrated through Spain.
Of the 70 Sedge Warblers caught today, 63 were new birds, 7 retraps from previous years and the one control.
No May has surpassed 2009 when we caught 266 Sedge Warblers, with a totally unexpected 145 on our first ever CES session on the reserve.  We will be trying though - rain tomorrow but Friday looks hopeful for a repeat of today.
All of this is adding to our long term data set of birds migrating through the Teifi Marsh. This enables us to provide important information to the Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales on the importance of the Teifi Marsh as a stopover for migrants.