May migrants and arrivals

We continued our migration monitoring on the Teifi Marshes for the first 2 weeks of May.  Daily early starts when weather allowed were often rewarded with a colourful sunrise over the reeds.

Dawn over the Teifi

On the 1st May 2 Sedge Warblers ringed elsewhere where caught along with 25 new Sedge Warblers and another on the 2nd. Two with a French ring and one with a Jersey ring.  News of the ringing details are awaited.

237 Sedge Warblers have been ringed so far this season, 6 from previous years and the 3 controls. Numbers of Reed Warblers as usual are lower. 21 new and 6 returning birds from previous years. The oldest so far this year was ringed in 2016 and she bred on the reserve last year. Hopefully over the next couple of weeks a more normal number of returning Reed Warblers will be recorded.

We are always happy to welcome ringers from other groups when they are on holiday in the area. Adam from Wiltshire joined us for a morning of mostly Sedge Warblers including the French control

Sedge Warbler with a French ring

We continue with nest record monitoring including several Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales woodlands ; Pengelli, Coed Simdde Llwyd and Pant Da. Other woodland nest boxes are in the Gwaun Valley and Ffynone Wood. Pied Flycatchers are now sitting and several adult females have been ringed. A Redstart is nesting in one of the Gwaun Valley boxes for the first time

Redstart nest 

Some open nests are being recorded too. This is a Meadow Pipit nest on the coast

Meadow Pipits

Andrew has just found an unusual nest while chccking his Dipper sites. It seems to be a Grey Wagtail nest attached to a Dipper nest.

Chris's Linnet Whoosh net site is developing well, though as pairs are nesting, a lull in current activity.

We are trying to develop CES  style / weekly ringing at key sites. On the Teifi Marshes, these include Mallard, and Pentood - the sites for both Reed Warbler RAS and Reed Bunting RAS and colour-ringing. Also Teifi P - the old CES site near the river view point. 

Ty Rhyg, Cors Caron and the Cors Dyfi are under consideration as we ring them and wish to standardise our recording.

Whinchat - Cors Caron

The earliest we have tried catching Storm Petrels is early June. This year we decided to try a bit earlier and were successful on the 20th May with one caught at Mwnt just before midnight. 

Storm Petrel at Mwnt

The colour rings on a Bar-tailed Godwit seen at the Teifi Estuary on 05/05/2023 were reported. it was a bird ringed on 26/09/2022 at Moeze, France

Recently received news of birds encountered elsewhere...

Chiffchaff    KCC995    

  

Ringed    Teifi Marshes 10/08/2021  

Re-encountered   Parque Nacional de Donana, Huelva, Spain 10/10/2022 426 days 1,674 km S

Chaffinch  ADH7233

    

Ringed  Ffarmers, Carmarthenshire 15/03/2020

Taken by a cat  Rhandirmwyn, Carmarthenshire 30/04/2022 2930 days 14km

For the next month we will be concentrating our efforts on nest recording, garden CES and Storm Petrels in the next new moon phase.

(Wendy J and Rich D)