Woodcocks are leaving ? But finches continue !

Perhaps our final Woodcock session of the season last night, just 1 bird seen under a sky full of stars, and with a brightening moon rising earlier each night.

This was our route on Sunday 10th March at our Boncath site, where we retrapped one and saw another ten Woodcock. We did catch a Fieldfare and a Redwing on the higher slopes as a nice bonus.

This was a typical night, taking 2 hours to walk the 5.1km climbing 323m. GPS is used to track our route on each visit and plots each capture, both original ringing and retrapping, adding value to the ringing data.

Back to finches and details of our recent controls, both firsts of each species for the Group;-
Siskin Y543478 was ringed in Surrey as 2nd calendar year female on the on the 16th March 2012, and controlled in Boncath on 31st January 2013.

We have now ringed over 300 Siskins in 2013, and with a Belgian control already, it will be interesting what movements will hopefully follow.
Greenfinch TP09596 was ringed in Kent as a 1st year male on the 24th November 2011, and contolled in Llechryd on the 26th January 2013.
Will Bramblings provide our next recovery ?
.....Bramblings are still present in our two garden ringing sites above....with good numbers of Siskins and increasing numbers of other finches particularly Goldfinches.

Redpoll is new but Siskins are the study....

Garden ringing is continuing to turn up some surprises.
Having never seen a Redpoll in my garden before,  this male Lesser Redpoll turned up unexpectedly in the net on Friday.

Today with a frosty start then bright sun the total catch was low but the star bird was a Siskin that Richard had ringed in his garden, nearly 4 miles away, on the 1st March. As this is now the second Siskin to have moved between the sites (one in each direction) we have had a closer look at the map and there is almost continuous woodland including  Rhos y Gilwen wood between the gardens.

The total number of Siskins ringed so far this year, nearly all in February are 165 in Richard's twenty foot net and 110 in my twelve foot net. Not forgetting the control with a Belgian ring in my garden and a British control in Richard's.
In both gardens the Siskins are coming to Sunflower hearts.

With the moon now rising later we will back out on the hills with the lamp to look for the last Woodcock before they leave. Hopefully some wet, windy weather will be along to help !

Update - another two Siskins ringed in Richard's garden early last month caught in mine today - Monday !

Hello! Another One.

A tidy session in Wendy's garden this morning, with appetites sharpened by a bit of a frost, produced a total of 33 new birds (of which 12 were Siskins), and 14 retraps (of which 10 were from previous years).

Star bird of the morning was this adult male Brambling, providing a nice contrast with the female of a few days ago, and upping TRG's Brambling total by 100%.

Surprise!

This being my first post on the TRG Blog, a few words of introduction for those whom I haven't met yet: Formerly with Grampian Ringing Group, and latterly with Cardiff Bird Ringers, I'm in the process of renovating a house at Llandudoch (aka St.Dogs) which will become my permanent home in due course, hopefully in time for me to pitch in with the Teifi Marshes CES this coming season. My ringing interests are all-encompassing, i.e. anything I can catch; but in particular I'll be hoping to get a few TRG RAS projects off the ground, once we've all decided what would be most viable.

Brambling a group first but a Siskin twice.......!

Rather a nice surprise to find a Brambling in my garden net this weekend. One had been around the feeders a few weeks ago in the snow but not seen since. This was a new species for the group as they aren't very common this far west.

Even more surprising was that my handy in house photographer came out to take pictures of  the bird in the middle of a rugby match, Wales beating Italy !

Richard was ringing with Karen in his garden today and they were very surprised to catch a second calendar year male Siskin that she had ringed in my garden 10 days previously.

 

 

A distance of 3.93 miles between sites, from the Teifi valley up to the hills of the Preselis.

Is his feeding based on random winter wanderings ? 

With 200 Siskin ringed at the two sites in the last 4 weeks, and 2 controls already,  answers are perhaps on the way ....

Belgian ringed Siskin

This is the fourth winter of ringing Siskins on a small scale in the garden with just a 12 foot net near a Nyjer feeder. On the day when we ringed the 200th Siskin, at last, a foreign control.  This female had a Brussels ring.

Also a retrap Siskin from February 2011.
Other birds today included 13 Goldfinches and a Treecreeper.

Richard was ringing at the same time at his new garden site at a higher elevation as a comparison. He caught 28 new Siskins bringing his total this year to 61 already and a control.

Four Woodcock wonders....!!

Wendy and I caught this beauty tonight, showing the characteristic ageing of an adult, with whitish tips to the primary coverts and very flat tips to the inner primaries. This, the third winter that we have caught this bird in the same pasture field on the same farm at our Boncath site !

Last night up on the Frenni with Bethan, two more retraps and three new birds. The first retrap we ringed on this same site 14th Feb 2012. The second retrap had been ringed on the Frenni by Paddy on 14th January 2012 whilst we were in Uganda ! What a Pembs team effort !

Our fourth wonder to come to light today...... ringed as a first winter on the Frenni by Paddy on 10th November 2010 but was shot on the Stackpole Estate in South  Pembs on 17th January 2013, an interesting movement and change in wintering area.....

Woodcock to Woodpeckers via Siskins

Last night out on the slopes of Frenni with Bethan, her first night out with the lamp and what a start !
First bird under the net a Skylark, a few winter up here, but infrequently caught.

Then 2 woodcock, both juveniles, mostly adults so far........so a great start to a week of decreasing moon.

In the garden last week with one twenty foot net.......a novelty for me and in short pre-work sessions too....but amongst 25 Siskins we had one nice control, and four Great Spotted Woodpecker. Three females and one male who together did less damage to the hands than this female in Costa Rica...

 Hairy Woodpecker was a nice surprise to band in Costa Rica too...

 Back to the hills..............