CES season over....blow in the Autumn

754... our total of captures during CES 2016 and not the lowest season for us. We captured 54 new and 16 retraps today including 32 Chiffchaff.

Our lowest season was in 2012 with only 672 captures followed by 732 in 2013. Following this poor breeding season I presume next year will be low with a smaller breeding population resulting from this year's poor productivity. Details on some individual species to follow another day from 8 years of our current CES. Amazing that in 2009 our CES total was 1265 and in 2010 - 1483 birds..!

For CES last week we had 11 people available so we opened nets at our Mallard site too. Nice to welcome Alastair Wilson back for a visit after his time on Bird Island, South Georgia with Albatrosses, Penquins and Petrels. He joined us over by Mallard hide with Andrew who was delighted with a new species, Grasshopper Warbler adding variety to the commoner reed bed species.

Our Acro and general ringing at our Teifi Marsh sites will continue for a while and we will start our intensive Autumn migration monitoring at our CES site, where autumn surprises have included Wryneck (2012)

Common Rosefinch, Siberian Chiffchaff, Yellow-browed Warblers and Firecrests too....

Ryan has just gained his C permit

With assistance from Chris, he has already set up a small woodland site close to his home.  Nuthatch a new species for him already, ringed there on day one.

Charlie is a new member of the Group and he has recently gained his A permit, a Trainers endorsement for Charlie next !

So let the Autumn blow in..!!
               ....another Yellow-browed Warbler would be nice....

(Photos Andrew, Ryan, Tommy and Wendy)

Sedge Warblers and Swallows

Sedge Warblers are on the move.
One juvenile we ringed on 26th July was already in Dorset, 221 km away 4 days later. This was caught by Ian Dodd ( @LittleseaObs )
As in previous years, peak passage occurs in the 2nd week of August on their Autumn migration.
On Sunday 14th, 41 Sedge Warblers were ringed in a few nets around Mallard pond on the Teifi Marsh taking us to over 100 this month so far.

This was a good session teaching our newest trainees, Andrew and Tristian with a juvenile Kingfisher being the highlight for them

The 6th juvenile Kingfisher this year

Juvenile Reed Warblers are making up the rest of the bulk of the birds in the reed bed nets.

By night hundreds of migrating Swallows are roosting in the reeds. A good catch of 89 last night, mostly juveniles. A roost session last week was a special day for our visiting young ringer Jacob, from Northants RG as the first bird was a Grasshopper Warbler, a new species for him. A big thanks to his Dad who helped with the admin during a busy hour when 61 Swallows were processed.
CES 10 was completed last week. Our quietest ever with just 29 birds compared to the bumper year in 2011 when we caught 108. Highlights were a couple of juvenile Garden Warblers and some Blackcaps.

Teifi Starling to Lithuania

News today from the BTO of a Starling ringed by us on the Teifi Marsh on 20th November 2014 and caught by a ringer in Ventes Ragas, Silutes, Lithuania this June.

573 days  1737 km
Ventes Ragas, where it was caught is one of the oldest bird ringing stations in Europe. They catch a lot of Starlings, 14,626 were ringed there this June.

This is one of the 19 Starlings ringed that evening, one of thousands that roost on the Teifi Marsh in winter