An old acro, a new grasshopper ...and a stormie

Chris and Wendy opened the Pentwd nets yesterday morning whilst preparing more rides for the acro migration season ahead. 25 birds caught of which L531065 stands out !
L531065 a Reed Warbler was ringed as a juvenile in the nearby Mallard run nets (by Wendy !) on 11/08/2010 and surprisingly never captured since.
The 3JP Grasshopper Warbler was the first juvenile since 2013. One adult earlier this year surprisingly our only bird since.

Ryan, our trainee, came down from Aberystwyth for a small Storm Petrel session at Mwnt last night. We were disappointed with only one bird, but Ryan was happier as it was the 30th species that he has now ringed.
Our low catch seemed to be mirrored by Skokholm where they only managed 16 birds at a site away from the colonies. They usually catch 100+. But Mark Grantham in Cornwall caught 75 - suggesting the northerly wind had moved these predominantly non-breeders temporarily south...


Friday update...
Last night on Skokholm Island a much better catch of 180 Storm Petrels. One in 15 were already ringed, 5 were ringed on Skokholm last year and 7 were ringed elsewhere. Had the wind changing round to the south and cloud cover made the difference? So many variables to consider when planning a Stormie session, not just the moon and wind speed.
See Skokholm Blog