A lovely Lesser ?

Lesser Whitethroats -- still not a very regular bird we catch.
We've only trapped 7 adults before, and I don't remember seeing one undergoing a complete moult before, tail-less and a fine example of flight feather replacement..
Otherwise a quiet CES, a new juvenile Cetti's perhaps the best of the c90 bird session.
(photo Tommy)

Weather for Strumble?

Not for sea-watching but......
Saturday night relaxing after an early CES...!!
8 Storm Petrels trapped in a 2 hour session, the session started early, the 1st being at 22:47 including a stormie in active wing moult, 2 new primaries with c10mm in sheath, was an unusual observation for me in July.
(photos in the dark, Rich. Stonier)

Nice birds at dawn and dusk.........

An early (pre) dawn in the Mallard Run picked up a new Grasshopper Warbler, then 40 acros.
A couple of hours CES this evening........and oh !!

Will the week-end live up to this >>>>>>>>>>>

A Sedge & Reed warbler excite us this morning !

L637855 - a juvenile Sedge Warbler caught this morning, a control from someone?

L250798 - a retrapped adult Reed Warbler for us this morning, good RAS stuff we retrap many. (our next project ? !).
OUR pocket PC with all our IPMR data held on it, tells us not only we ringed it as a juvenile 25/7/2010, ..........AND.........Icklesham caught this juvenile as a control 17/8/2010....

Don't we love this in the field technology and an upto date IPMR !!

Also into double figures of both Sedge & Reed warblers caught this morning plus another Grasshopper Warbler.

Last night we introduced Bethan, a new trainee to her 1st Swallow roost. We packed up nice and early with 34 Swallows, 5 Pied Wagtails, 3 Sand Martins in the bags,...... still c1000 in the sky !

CES toThe Mallard

Our 2nd Magpie was a bizarre high-light of the week-end CES. (A new bird for a leading member of the group!)
c40 new birds amongst the c30 retraps.......good CES data though, with c20 Reed Warblers, and 2 juvenile Treecreepers nice.

This a nice shot of the undertail coverts of a Grasshopper Warbler, note the weak feathers of the tail, indicating poor feeding conditions when growing.

An early visit to the Mallard Run on Sunday, producing some nice birds moving through the reedbed.... 3 Grasshopper Warblers, a Willow Warbler, and a Goldcrest along with c30 new acros. Juvenile Reed Buntings starting to move through too.

A calling Green Sandpiper dropping on the Mallard pond edge...... that would be nice....!!

This week-end last year (24/25 July) we caught c100 Reed warblers in the 2 sites, only c40 this year in comparison........what will the week ahead deliver...??

Tuesday's Moorhen

A first for the TRG, not what you expect in the top shelf of a net!
A short dawn to 7.30am session this morning in the Mallard reed bed was again worthwhile. 13 Sedge and 12 Reed Warblers, a Grasshopper Warbler, a Cetti's warbler, Pied wagtail and surprisingly, a juv Whitethroat.

The Teifi at dawn -ish

An early visit this morning.
Amongst the Reed & Sedge Warblers, another new juvenile Kingfisher.
The 20 Reed Warblers, almost certainly home-grown Teifi birds most juvenile with small amounts of body feathers in sheath. At least one of the 11 Sedge Warblers a certain migrant, a new adult, with a fat score of 6 and 30% heavier than the others.
(photo Dawn)

The Teifi at night -ish

(photo Dawn)
Swallows & Sand Martins gathering before roosting in the reed-bed near Mallard Hide last night.
113 Swallows and 23 Sand Martins caught and ringed. Also a new bird for the Group, a male Moorhen flew into a net and pocketed long enough for me, on hearing Wendy's shouts from the other end of the net run ! to wade through reed-bed mud......

Reed Warblers..........more to learn......

Have a look at this link to the BTO on Reed Warbler movements.
The map shows that the Teifi plays it's part, remembering that breeding was not proven / regularly occurring until the mid 1970's in either Pembs or Ceredigion.

Last year -2010 on the Teifi,
We ringed 432 Reed Warblers with 169 recaptures(retraps & controls).
Over the coming years what will we discover about our rapidly expanding population...?
Early and late arriving birds, giving the extended breeding season they enjoy?
Surely, all those birds are not our locals..?

We guess that most the Sedge Warblers are passage birds, 612 ringed with only 61 recaptures in 2010.....and of the 2 Aquatic Warblers in 2010.....migrants for sure!!

R424229 -- Reed Warbler

Many thanks to Cedwyn, Gower RG for replying that they ringed this Reed Warbler, during a CES at Kenfig NNR 12th may 2011.
We caught the bird, sexed it as a breeding female during our CES 19th June 2011.
This movement along the South Wales coast, seems typical of Reed Warblers passage to and from West Wales

France to the Teifi

Another French control Sedge Warbler, 6321623, was caught in a short session in the reed bed at Mallard hide this morning. That is our 16th Sedge Warbler control (8th foreign).

Also news of the Sand Martin with a French ring 6051318 that we caught on the 6th April this year.It was ringed on 4th August 2009 inLe Massereau, Frossay, Loire Atlantique in France. (610 days, 572km)

Teifi RG on TV!

An S4C TV programme was being filmed on the reserve yesterday. 8 celebrities are staying in the nearby Fforest camp for a week of intensive Welsh learning. Matt Johnson and Sophie Evans were out for a dawn walk and called to see us ringing at Mallard hide.
They were delighted to see some Sedge and Reed Warblers but declined the offer of some waders to experience the mud of the reed bed!

Wheatears - potential for a RAS project?

Sunday morning was spent on the southern slopes of the Preselis with spring traps for Wheatears. A lot of time waiting and watching.....

but success, amongst those caught - this retrap juvenile Wheatear that was ringed as a pullus by Paddy on 27th May. He ringed pulli in 2 nests at this site.
The resident adults did seem much more wary of the traps than Wheatears we have trapped at Mwnt (a coastal site) on migration. There was plenty of food around so our mealworms weren't so tempting.
The site has a good number of breeding Wheatear in a defined area so it does seem to have potential for a future RAS (Retrapping adults for survival) project.

What a nice tail..........

The highlight of this week-end's Teifi ringing..
This young male Redstart only the third that we have caught.

We also caught 3 new juvenile Cetti's Warblers in the 2 reserve's sites this week-end amongst the rapidly increasing Reed & Sedge Warbler totals..
(photos Dawn J)

CES 7

With adults in heavy moult and nowhere to been seen (Blue tits ..to Willow Warblers), plenty of juveniles, these the highlights. This a new juvenile Kingfisher, much brighter than last weeks juv. I didn't think that we catch many Treecreepers, thus a nice photo...a quick check with ipmr....oh? this is our 12th..!!
(Photos Dawn J.)

Strumble Stormies

A new venture for the TRG last night, ringing Storm Petrels at Strumble Head.
The net was set up below the sea watching lookout.
10 pm and it was still daylight.

Adrian joined the TRG for the night and took some photos for us.
Hundreds of passing Manxies entertained us while waiting for darkness......
The first Storm Petrels were caught at 11.47. This was just after the Rosslare to Fishguard ferry went past so theories were flying around about the boat pushing the birds towards land. Sounded reasonable at the time.
Note the healthy midnight snacks!
Only four were caught but a useful first session to get used to the site and the sound system.
A good way to end a long day that had started at 4.30am for some of us when we opened the nets for
CES!

Skokholm revisited

The turn of adult Manxies today, Wendy with one of the 30+ ringed from their burrows...we are trying to ring 100 adults in this study plot.

Alice doing a great job with the admin, whilst a Manxie copies a Puffin in attempting to bite me.


Part of the Puffin colony only minutes after we had finished.... we did successfully colour-ring the remaining 30 Puffins today, all the Manxies and Puffin work carried out for EGI (Oxford Univ.)
Jerry - Skokholm warden has resightings of 60+ of the c120 Colour-ringed Puffins so far.



I guess the final sea-bird ringing trip of the season....?

The group today not only from the Teifi RG and Pembs RG, but also Ian and Cedwyn from the Gower RG....Note the major rarity North of the Cleddau in the form of John Hayes !!
Delighted to see you John.