Breeding bird studies....

During ongoing Linnet and House Sparrow RAS (retrapping Adults for Survival) studies we are seeing returning adults amongst the many juveniles. This early in the season it is difficult to analyse as most adults are on second broods. Chris and Andy will summarise later in the season.

Coastal habitat at the North Pembs Linnet RAS site

A juvenile (3JP) Reed Warbler  ringed on the 6th June was the earliest date for us by 12 days. By the 14th of July we have ringed 56 juvenile birds presume most fledged on the Teifi Marshes, our RAS study site now in its 9th year. We have fewer returning ringed adults at this stage of the season but we are still encountering new ringed adults for RAS and a surprising number of unringed adults. 

Our first juvenile Sedge Warblers were caught on the 28th June.

The Teifi Marshes Reed Bunting RAS and colour ringing is continuing into its 12th year, and our RAS season for this species continues until 30th September. As with all our RAS studies, a small summary in a forthcoming post.

New photographers on the reserve are coming on board with looking for colour rings and reporting them to us. This one that was ringed in 2017 and  sent to us recently.

Pied Flycatchers

In Pengelli Forest North Pembs, out of fifty boxes, five were used by Pied Flycatchers. Five adult females and thirty pulli were ringed and all fledged. All figures from this year's work are very high by recent years. Occupancy, eggs laid, v low infertility and high fledging rate.

Pied Flycatchers in Ffynone

Pied Flycatchers were first proved to breed in Pembs in 1979 in Ffynone where they still breed. In Ffynone wood, only four boxes put up by a local school several years ago remain. One near the waterfall was used this year by Pied Flycatchers and 5 young fledged.

Pengelli is owned by the Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales and has a nest box scheme primarily for Pied Flycathers which started in the early 1980's.

In the years 1984-1987 average box occupancy by Pied Flys was  11.5 pairs p a  (range 8 -14 pairs).  This level was not maintained for long.

When the TRG took over monitoring on behalf of WTSWW in 2011 occupancy was 3/4 pairs and from 0 to 21 pulli ringed in each year until this year (30  pulli ringed and fledged). 

Reasons for a more successful 2023 breeding season may be easier to understand next year. Return rate of  "Pengelli' adults and weather / food availabilty.  Historical Pengelli data from Nathan Walton (WTSWW)

Of boxes in the Gwaun Valley (PCNP) only two box were used and 11 fledged.

Rheidol Valley woods (WTSWW) 

No change in Pied Flycatcher box uptake at Coed Simdde Llwyd, but attempts were down at Pant Da (10 attempts compared to 15 in 2022).

Unusual loss of young during chick stage, with some broods only fledging 3, 4, or 5 chicks when the average is 6/7.  Luckily, only two nests were totally lost and this was due to predation; one unknown predator, and one woodpecker (judging by the size of the hole!) One adult male found dead in the same box a great tit was found dead in the week before – but no sign of nesting!

Across the two woodlands all broods were ringed, (91 young), 6 new males, 9 new females, and one female control from Lake Vyrnwy!

Coed Simdde; 35 fledged from 53 eggs laid. Pant Da; 56 fledged from 61 eggs laid. (Naomi Davis)

(Rich D and Wendy J)

Extra curricular summer activities

For the early summer, I have been extremely fortunate to be welcomed on various projects around Wales and England hosted by some wonderful ringing groups.

Pied Flycatchers pulli

I joined Dave Anning and Ceri Jones to their local sites in Llanidloes and the Centre for Alternative Technology, to ring my first passerine pulli.

Species encountered included Nuthatch, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Coal Tit and of course Pied Flycatchers.

Two visits to each site were made and nest box occupancy was generally similar to previous years, however the number of surviving chicks were 2-3 fewer per boxes than expected (possibly attributed to the low numbers of flying insects observed this year).

Comparison of Male and female Nuthatch. 

Portland breakwaters Gull ringing project

Each year the breakwaters  sheltering the waters of Portland Harbour, are visited by the Portland breakwaters ringing group to colour ring Herring and Great Black-backed Gull pulli.

The breakwaters had a distinct Greek island feel to it with intense heat, pale limestone and drought resistant vegetation (which made making finding the gulls tricky).

Active measures are being undertaken to preserve the breeding colonies. Avian influenza is a primary concern, and to minimise risk biosecurity measures were undertaken. These included wearing sterile overalls and disinfecting footwear.

The breakwaters were constructed during Napoleonic times and host incredible military fortifications not normally accessible to the public.

Around 30-40 gulls were ringed over 7 hours of searching the whole length of the breakwaters.

Mid Wales Barn Owl Group

The Mid Wales Barn Owl Group monitor Barn Owl nest sites, and work with landowners to provide new nesting opportunities for the species.

The group offered to show me the best sites in the Machynlleth area, which surprisingly all turned out to be located within 5 minutes of my house. 

Six pulli were ringed in total, following the trend in the area with all signs pointing to 2023 becoming a successful year for the species.

All of these species were new to me, and involved new methods and techniques. I am extremely grateful to all the local groups mentioned.

Additionally the visit to the Portland breakwaters  was made possible by the BTO seabird ringing grant.

(Thom Faulkner)

Recent recoveries

Birds encountered this month that had been ringed elsewhere were from France, Portugal and Alderney...

 

Sedge Warbler 9108551

Ringed  Treogat, Finistere, France 13/08/2022

Re-encountered Teifi Marshes, Ceredigion 02/05/2023 307 days 468km N Also 16th May and 16th June

Sedge Warbler 991010

Ringed Frossay, Loire Atlantique 03/08/2022

Re-encountered Teifi Marshes, Ceredigion 01/05/2023 271 days 573km NNW

Reed Warbler   AE49662

Ringed  Longis Bay, Alderney, CI 28/08/2022

Re-encountered   Teifi Marshes, Ceredigion 06/06/2023 282 days 316km NNW Also 13th June

Reed Warbler    A548975

Ringed Paul do Taipal, Coimbra, Portugal 20/09/2022

Re-encountered Teifi Marshes, Ceredigion 28/06/2023 281 days 1360km NNE

In the last blog we posted that  we had our first visit to Mwnt to catch Storm Petrels. Since then we managed a session at Strumble Head enabling several of the Group to experience nocturnal ringing. 15 were caught including one that Andrew had ringed on Skokholm last summer.

Storm Petrel 2774206

Ringed Skokholm Island 22/07/2022

Re-encountered Strumble Head, Pembs 23/06/2023 336 days, 40km NNE

Update - a visit to Mwnt during the night, three new Storm Petrels ringed on the 14th July.

Pied Flycatcher

Two North Ceredigion WTSWW woods that have had nest box schemes for several years are now being run by the TRG (Naomi Davis)  An adult female in an active box in Pant Da in the Rheidol Valley on the 1st June had been ringed age 1 in a nest box in  Pendugwm, Powys  on the 8th June 2021. 723  days 56km West.

We have only one previous Pied Flycatcher recovery, ringed in a nest box in Pengelli on 04/06/2011 and re-encountered as a breeding female in Burton Wood, Derbyshire on a year later on 15/06/2012. 267km NNE.

Sometimes details of birds ringed elsewhere take a while to come through. News this week of a Sand Martin re-encountered by Arfon 4 years ago!

Sand Martin  7283046

Ringed at Roseliere, Chenac-Saint-Seurin-d'Uzet,Charente-Maritime,France 17/07/2014
Re-encountered Dolaugwyrddon, Ceredigion 26/07/2019 1835 days 770km NNW

The Mediterranean Gull and Sandwich Tern colour-ring reading season has arrived. 

This 2nd year bird was photographed by Hannah on the 9th July at The Webley, Teifi Estuary.

R8UN was ringed as a pullus  25/06/2022 at Polder de Sebastopol; Barbâtre; Vendée; Pays de la Loire; France. Hannah's sighting was the first since ringing.

The Webley sand banks are the classic spot on the Teifi to enjoy looking through the Gulls, Terns and Waders for colour - ringed birds.

(Wendy J and Rich D)

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)

Early Spring ringing

We anticipate our passage of Sedge Warblers to pick up from now - timely, as we caught 29 yesterday in the Teifi Marshes. 

Chris is progressing with his Linnet project- likely to become a RAS, currently weekly Whoosh netting.

We took the Curlew nets down on the 27th of March. Disappointing  not be able to make a catch of Curlew due to wind, rain, tides and floods. As the new reed rapidly grows, this open habitat is great for  feeding Wagtails snd Warblers around the edge.

Our 1st Sedge Warbler was caught on the 25th April

Our 1st Reed Warbler was caught on the 26th April, which surprisingly wasn't a returning ringed bird. A high percentage of early returning birds are carrying our rings from previous years.

We have caught 44 White Wagtails this Spring, passage is coming to an end, with most birds carrying some fat for their continuing journey to Iceland.

This Lesser Whitethroat was caught on the 29th April...also our 1st Grasshopper Warbler of the year ringed on the 29th.

Nest recording has now started with several of the Group visiting their sites. Here Hannah with Wendy in Pengelli checking boxes for the very long standing Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales Pied Flycatcher project

Andrew has been busy, mainly with Dippers at the moment. His work takes him to some picturesque hidden bridges and old industrial sites.

A nest under an old coal weighbridge

We are grateful to Carmarthenshire County Council ecologists for their interest in this Dipper work.

Another record of Starling movement between Lithuania and West Wales

Starling  KE76747

Ringed  Silutes, Lithuania 17/06/2022 

 Re-encountered  (ring read at a garden feeder by Andy)  Bancyffordd, Carms 04/03/2023 260 days 1718km WSW

Starling from Lithuania

Although this is a 2022 record, news of this Reed Warbler re-encountered in France has just been received.

Reed Warbler  ABY0030 

 Ringed   Teifi Marshes, Ceredigion 11/07/2022

Re-encountered  Mars-Ouest, Loire-Atlantique 09/08/2022 29 days 592km SSE

Reed Warbler to France

With the historical peak period for Sedge Warbler migration coming up, we are hoping for a busy week in the Teifi Marshes reed beds and will write more about our returning birds and migrants in the next blog.

 

(Rich D and Wendy J)

Siberian Lesser Whitethroat and project updates

The Lesser Whitethroat in Wendy's garden in Llechryd for 10 days around new year has been confirmed as a Siberian Lesser Whitethroat C.c. blythi. Many thanks to Professor Martin Collinson who said that the DNA matches multiple birds from Siberia and previous blythi that they have done from Europe. 

The open wing showing the short p2 in comparison with C. c. curruca

A Chough was resighted on 14th March that has been breeding on one of our headlands for several years. It was originally ringed in the nest near Cwm Tydu in 2013

Another resighting, this time a Curlew on the Teifi Marshes photographed by Rob Cox on February 13th at the Teifi Marshes.

It was ringed as an adult female at Ynyshir on the Dyfi estuary last September.

Project Curlew.. see the poster below about colour ringing Curlew on the Teifi Marshes.

Our other long standing colour ringing project - Reed Bunting is now in the 10th year.  

Although all colour ring sightings are valuable, we are entering the key period of sightings for the BTO RAS project which runs every year from April 1st to September 30th

When we started the project in 2014 we were the only Reed Bunting RAS and colour ringing project in the UK. 

Very interesting update - we are looking at a photo of a colour-ringed female from Colin Dalton taken on Saturday, it may be of a bird from another scheme in England. 

Some recent movements of our birds...

Lesser Redpoll    AJN8242

Ringed Wintersett Reservoir, Wakefield, West Yorkshire 10/11/2020 Wintersett Ringing Group

Re-encontered  Llechryd, Ceredigion 07/03/2022 847 days 275km SW

Not a long distance mover but quite old for a Chaffinch at 8 years

Chaffinch     Z250760

Ringed    St Dogmaels, Pembs 11/02/2015

Re-encountered   St Dogmaels 19/02/2023 Taken by a cat 2930 days

The 2nd Starling this winter that was ringed in Lithuania. This one wasn't trapped but Andy managed to read the ring 

Starling      KE61617

Ringed   Silutes, Lithuania 08/08/2021

Re-encountered  Bancyffordd, Carms 01/03/2021 570 days 1718km WSW

(Richard Dobbins and Wendy James)

Movements, recoveries and updates.....

Some of the birds in this post have travelled many thousands of kilometres.

On the night of the 21st  January we were out on one of our long running study farms. Three of the Woodcock were caught had been ringed by us in previous years. Despite the long migrations, presumably to Russia and back they were all very close to where they were initially ringed.

EY33811 was ringed (age 5) in January 2014 so was likely to have flown over 50,000 km in its life!

10% of the Woodcock that we have ringed on the sheep pasture fields at this farm have either been caught again in subsequent years or recovered elsewhere.

Some recoveries of birds received recently

Starling KE63252

Ringed Silutes, Lithuania 09/06/2022

Re-encountered  Llechryd 16/01/2023 221 days, 1735km WSW

We have now caught several Starlings ringed in Silutes. The Ventes Ragas station where it was caught is one of the oldest in Europe. They catch a lot of Starlings, for example in the month of June that this bird was ringed they caught 24377!

The majority of Starlings we catch are first year birds but the plumage of an adult male is something to admire.

Starling neck feathers

 

Sedge Warbler   APR3521

Ringed   Teifi Marshes, Ceredigion 04/05/2022

Re-encountered   Donges, Loire-Atlantique, France 31/07/2022 88 days 562km SSE

Late news of a Reed Warbler to Portugal in 2019

Reed Warbler    ABB9968

Ringed Teifi Marshes, Ceredigion 07/07/2019

Re-encountered  Herdade dos Forninhos,  Beja, Portugal 21/08/2019 45 days 1626km SSW

As usual in January we put a lot of effort into looking for our colour-ringed Reed Buntings as they are more easily seen when coming to artificial food. All sightings of these birds are valuable, though currently outside the RAS season.

Blue/Metal, Lime/Orange was seen by Colin Dalton last Jan
and again this year and is a frequent visitor to the feeder

"Wilti" rides in the wet woodland part of the Teifi Marshes are up and running, 2 Willow Tits feeding nearby ...

We may develop and expand the recording site here too....the other direction. Few of the Group have visited this site which is part of the Teifi Marshes reserve.

Many thanks for the contributions made by all to the TRG agm. Great to see so many of the group being able to meet to talk, exchange and expand ideas. We are thinking of holding a late summer 'social meet up'...

(Rich D and Wendy J)