Mid August on the Teifi Marsh..

As in previous years, we concentrate our ringing efforts at this time of year in the reed bed between Mallard pond and Heron hide on the Teifi Marsh.

Sedge Warbler numbers migrating through the marsh so far seem to be down on previous years but yesterday there were quite a few feeding around the edge of the pond. Looking at numbers being caught in Cornwall (Early autumn in Nanjizal) it seems that the birds aren't stopping with us on route south but flying straight over. We do seem to be catching more adults than usual this year though, all with very worn feathers...

 Looking at our stats at the end of the season will be interesting.
A good hirundine roost is developing in the evening with over 200 around tonight. A couple of small roost catches have been done with Swallows and Sand Martins caught.
Swans bred successfully on Mallard pond for the first time in years and had 4 cygnets but they are now down to 3. The adult male is ringed so we should soon be able to find out when it was ringed.

Our CES site is in another part of the marsh and yesterday we did CES 11 with 64 new birds and 16 retraps. A control adult Sedge Warbler was nice and we will post when we get the original ringing details from the BTO. The other highlight of CES was an adult female Redstart. We have caught juveniles before, but not an adult. As expected at this time of year there are plenty of juvenile Reed Warblers.
As the days turn more autumnal with foggy starts, ripening berries and dewy spider's webs we are seeing an increase in Blackcap and Chiffchaff numbers.

Early (foggy) Monday morning update - Chris and Richard are out ringing again at two sites on the marsh The first bird ringed was an adult male Kingfisher. Although we have ringed 43 on the reserve in the last 6 years this is the first adult male.