Willow Warbler arrives in SA, we migrate to CR

No ringing for us today .... but Malcolm in South Africa is doing nicely. He caught his first Willow Warbler of the year in his Johannesburg garden.
During January/ February 2012 we went ringing in Uganda with Malcolm (African Affinity Birding) - a fantastic time. See the posts we made in February when we returned from the trip for more !

On 7th November, Wendy and I head abroad again, this time to Costa Rica. We will be ringing and monitoring birds as part of the US Forest Service long term studies and will fit as much birding in as possible in our spare time! Our main bases will be on the Caribbean coast at Tortuguero and 2,500m up in the mountains at Madre Selva.

Our homework is filling our evenings.....



Hopefully some more ringing before we go, otherwise updates when we can from Costa Rica !

Teifi to Gower....Redpoll to 221 Oystercatchers

Last night's reward, only one Lesser...but our first in autumn...a nice adult male.

Today to Gower -
The annual visit to continue the study of Burry Inlet Oystercatchers.
With equipment provided by Steve Dodd and the SCAN Wader Group. We were not disappointed with a 221 bird catch today, slightly earlier than high tide.
With a good catch like this, one team to ring and one team to process -

The processing team with -
 Rachel measuring wing length and moult scoring, C J (Chris) measuring head to bill tip and bill depth, Charlie weighing each bird and Graham recording the detail.
Of the 221 bird catch - 198 new and 23 retraps from previous years, one a likely control from North Wales.
Due to great positioning of the nets (recces by Graham on Friday), only one of three nets was used..
The photo below shows the  roost site with the two nets in position that were not used.

Red to Black.... even better down south !

Setting up for the week-end produced  the first Redwing of the autumn last night with Song Thrushes, followed by a Blackcap with Goldcrests at the CES site this morning.

Being totally blown away by Pembs RG - with a Yellow-browed Warbler in their nets at Mullock this morning !
Still the week-end ahead.....

An interesting Oystercatcher ...a control too !

This Oystercatcher was  caught on Sunday evening at Newport. Not a regular we recognize and more interesting an adult in secondary moult with an old (FB......) ring. I guess this bill deformity hasn't affected feeding too much?

Rock Pipits caught on Monday's high tide at Ceibwr  by Wendy and Dawn, our first Golden Plover and Meadow Pipits on the hills (Frenni) last night.

Three warbler species today.....

Our first October Garden Warbler with a Blackcap in our first round started the morning off nicely.
Light throat and breast staining from the blackberries eaten !

We have caught a November Garden Warbler - 7/11/2010.
3 continental style Blackbirds also in the first round, amongst the 34 new birds this morning. The following being the other more interesting or migrants, 1 Chiffchaff, 3 Goldcrest, 1 Coal Tit, 1 Song Thrush, 4 Chaffinch and 1 Goldfinch.

Alien plant disturbs our Rock Pipits

Heavy plant once again on Patch this morning completing some work on the sea defences.

Here are Wendy and Dawn sheltering from the wind while preparing for the next trap round.

Passage and  local Rock Pipits didn't seem to like the spit today for feeding with none trapped or seen this morning. We can catch over a dozen Rock Pipits on a good morning with these traps.

13 Meadow Pipits down to the traps though !
We will see what tomorrow brings in the bushes....and in the Mallard reed-bed maybe ...

First Cetti control

The weekend was a tale of two halves. Obvious migrants on Saturday with a clearout overnight leaving a very different feel to Sunday.
Our migrant highlight at our CES site was a fairly newly ringed Cetti's Warbler of the Y481...  series. It will be interesting to see where this was ringed. Pembs RG had four Cetti's either controlled or recovered last October from middle England. See Paddy's map.

Following Thursday's increase in Song Thrushes caught Saturday's birds involved the expected autumn species with Blackcaps, Chiffchaffs, Coal Tits, Chaffinches and Goldcrests. Of interest we caught 7 new Bullfinches on Saturday but following an overnight exodus all we were left with on Sunday was Chaffinches......
(Rich D)

Spurn to spring traps via Northants

We are back from a great few days staying at Spurn Bird Observatory

See Sightings at Spurn for details of our birding...but some highlights were, Greenish Warbler, Red-backed Shrike, Barred Warblers, Yellow-browed Warbler and Red-breasted Flycatchers !
We went to ring and were not disappointed, 40+ Tree Sparrows ringed by us being our the highlight with plenty of Meadow Pipits and a couple of days ringing Redpolls, a pity all Lesser Redpoll.
Particular thanks to Paul the warden and Adam who looked after our ringing opportunities whilst staying including the highlight of ringing a 7.4g Red-breasted Flycatcher !
We will be back.....

Then off to Northants to Stanford RG.
More Tree Sparrows, as we relived the early days of my ringing which started at Stanford back in 1981 with Mick and John.

A species unlikely to be ringed here in Pembs - though I have taken one out of a net in Steve and Anna (Sutcliffe's) garden !
Back home on the Teifi today after a rain shortened trip away..........but 4 Rock Pipits in spring traps a nice start this morning.