Garden Fieldfare and news of controls..

Back in May we blogged about a Sedge Warbler we caught on the Teifi Marsh with a Spanish ring
May 13th 2015
Today we had news from the BTO that it was ringed at Getxo near Bilbao, Spain just 6 days before. A distance of 979 km although likely a much longer overland route up the west coast of France.

Other news was of a Siskin with a Brussels ring caught in my garden near Cardigan in February 2013. We have waited a long time for the original ringing details from the Brussels ringing scheme - ringed on 23rd April 2012 at De Haan, West -Vlaanderen.

A control Great Tit caught by Chris in St Dogmaels, during a noticeably large movement of Great Tits, was ringed as a pullus at Craig Alltyberau near Rhandirmwyn, Carmarthenshire.

Lastly a Reed Warbler ringed on 13th September at Oxwich by Gower Ringing Group was controlled by us on the Teifi Marsh 13 days later, a reverse migration NNW 65km. This was the last Reed Warbler we caught this year, 10 days after the previous one. Late and going the wrong way!

At the moment there isn't much news as due to persistent high winds and rain we have only been able to open mist nets occasionally. Woodcock are still not back in large numbers - on a 4km walk around one of our best farmland we saw only one.
With the colder spell last weekend an influx of thrushes into our gardens was noticed.

No chance of a net in the hail and wind and the Redwing and Fieldfares ate all the Hawthorn berries within 24 hours. The Fieldfare are now coming down to the remaining apples and a couple have been ringed.

If any one coming to the Pembrokeshire Bird Conference on Sunday would like to know more about ringing come to see one of us for a chat. We will be by the Skokholm Island display during breaks.