CES, nest boxes and Mwnt

A summary of what the group has been doing in the last 2 weeks.
The first 2 CES sessions were completed in good weather conditions, calm and cloudy.
CES 1 saw the first juvenile birds of 3 species - Long-tailed Tits, Blackbird and Dunnock
69 birds were caught (38 new)
The oldest retrap was a Reed Warbler ringed in 2013 and retrapped each year since.

Previous CES 1 totals in the last 6 years have mostly been similar  (58,65,64,42,81,156) The abnormally high total in 2016 was due to CES 1 coinciding with a fall of 102 migrant Sedge Warblers that morning.

The first juvenile Robins were ringed at CES 2 on the 17th May.

Juvenile Robin

Juvenile numbers were 9 Robins, 3 Blackbirds, 11 Long-tailed Tits and 3 Dunnocks.
74 birds were caught of which 46 were new.
The oldest retrap was a Blackbird ringed as an adult in 2010 and only recaptured once since then in 2014.
5 retrap Reed Warblers were 1 each from 2012 and 2015 and 3 from 2014.

Nest boxes at Ffynone wood, Pengelli and various sites in the Towy Valley are being checked regularly. Also some open nests are being monitored.
Marsh Tits, Nuthatches, Dippers, Linnets and Grey Wagtail pulli have been ringed.

Pied Flycatcher nest with 7 eggs

At Mwnt, our Linnet RAS project is going well with a satisfying number of last years birds retrapped this breeding season. A smart male Wheatear was a nice addition to the Linnets caught in a Whoosh net.

Male Wheatear

News of a few recoveries from the BTO...

This male swan, pictured here keeping a watchful as we ringed one of his cygnets in February, was ringed in 2006 as an adult at St Dogmaels.

He is at least 11 years old and breeding again on Mallard pond on the Teifi Marsh but this year with only 1 cygnet.

A couple of Siskins ringed in our gardens late winter last year were in Scotland instead at the same time this year.
Siskin Z802913 ringed Boncath 28th March 2016 , controlled on 11th March 2017 in Shebster, Highland
Siskin Z802778 ringed Llechryd 8th April 2016, controlled in Killiegowan, Dumfries and Galloway on 4th April 2017

Another Siskin movement, S574004 was ringed in Llanfynydd on 20th March 2017 and 43 days later was 299km NNE in West Burton, North Yorkshire. Unfortunately this was reported dead after hitting a window.
Another bird found dead had been killed by a cat. Z511166 was ringed in Llechryd 0n 28th October 2015 and reported in Sucre-sur-Edre, Loire-Atlantique, France on 6th March 2017

While most of the regulars of the group were away we were very grateful that Alastair Wilson and Ros Green were able to continue our migration monitoring on the Teifi Marsh. Amongst the Sedge Warblers they caught on 4th May was a control, ringed last September on its first autumn migration at Hengistbury Head in Dorset.

The last recent recovery was Sedge Warbler S161774 ringed on the Teifi Marsh on 15th August 2016 and controlled In Jonkershove, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium 14 days later on the 29th August.

A busy week ahead with CES 3 to complete, nest boxes to check and pulli to ring, 2 of the group off to Skokholm Island ringing, Chough ringing on Ramsey and 2 of the group helping with the biannual count of seabirds on Cardigan Island.