An adult Robin that was first ringed in December 2008 was finally sexed as a female as today when it was caught it had a brood patch. A few juvenile Robins caught too.
Thursday, 9 June 2011
Garden ringing
After the excitement of seabirds, back to reality with some garden ringing to try out our new Potter traps.
An adult Robin that was first ringed in December 2008 was finally sexed as a female as today when it was caught it had a brood patch. A few juvenile Robins caught too.
An adult Robin that was first ringed in December 2008 was finally sexed as a female as today when it was caught it had a brood patch. A few juvenile Robins caught too.
Tuesday, 7 June 2011
Shag ringing on Midland Island
At last the wind dropped enough yesterday for a trip to Midland Island near Skomer to ring Shags. A very enjoyable evening away from the Teifi with Pembs RG and four girls from Skomer.
Steve teaching Becky the knack of ringing a Shag without being stabbed by its needle like bill.
Some of the Shags nest in crevices in the cliff so a bit of scrambling over the rocks is needed to get to the nest.
Ringing a quite large Shag. No chance of keeping clean on this trip!
Not only Shags were ringed. There were a few Great black-backed gulls of the right age too. Odd to find out that Becky from Leicestershire, doing the ringing here has the same trainer, Mick, who trained Richard 30 years ago!
As it got darker it was lovely to watch thousands of seabirds returning to Skomer for the night.
A total of 70 Shag were ringed with good productivity of 2.89 per nest.
Thanks to Steve S for organising the trip and to Sash for the use of his boat.
Steve teaching Becky the knack of ringing a Shag without being stabbed by its needle like bill.
Some of the Shags nest in crevices in the cliff so a bit of scrambling over the rocks is needed to get to the nest.
Ringing a quite large Shag. No chance of keeping clean on this trip!
Not only Shags were ringed. There were a few Great black-backed gulls of the right age too. Odd to find out that Becky from Leicestershire, doing the ringing here has the same trainer, Mick, who trained Richard 30 years ago!
As it got darker it was lovely to watch thousands of seabirds returning to Skomer for the night.
A total of 70 Shag were ringed with good productivity of 2.89 per nest.Thanks to Steve S for organising the trip and to Sash for the use of his boat.
Monday, 6 June 2011
CES 4 and some week-end highlights... Paris again
CES 4 was brought forward to Saturday from the planned Sunday due to weather, a good decision with 94 birds trapped, 63 new - including juveniles of 10 species, and 31 re-traps. A slight increase on CES 4 in 2010.
2 further broods of Pied Flycatcher were ringed in Pengelli.
Nets were opened in the Mallard Run on Saturday evening, a few acros and most surprisingly 25 Sand Martins & 11 Swallows were caught.
Museum Paris 5634103 !!.....on a Sedge Warbler......our 13th French /Belgian Sedge Warbler control was the highlight of a couple of hours on Sunday morning, again the Mallard Run !!
2 further broods of Pied Flycatcher were ringed in Pengelli.
Nets were opened in the Mallard Run on Saturday evening, a few acros and most surprisingly 25 Sand Martins & 11 Swallows were caught.
Museum Paris 5634103 !!.....on a Sedge Warbler......our 13th French /Belgian Sedge Warbler control was the highlight of a couple of hours on Sunday morning, again the Mallard Run !!
Monday, 30 May 2011
CES 3 .. including.....R336063 in his 9th year
CES 3 -- rain interrupted.
We managed a successful CES 3, with 109 birds caught, 50 retraps and 59 new. Included in the new birds were 3J (juveniles) of 8 species including Chiffchaff and Blackcap. Other highlights being 3 Lesser Whitethroats ringed over the last 2 sessions, including a female with brood patch, and we have 2/3 singing males within our site.
The nicest bird R336063, a Reed Warbler, ringed at Penclacwydd 22 Sept 2002, as a juvenile. We have since retrapped him ! in the last 3 breeding seasons including last night !!
Now in his 9th year..a special bird....
We managed a successful CES 3, with 109 birds caught, 50 retraps and 59 new. Included in the new birds were 3J (juveniles) of 8 species including Chiffchaff and Blackcap. Other highlights being 3 Lesser Whitethroats ringed over the last 2 sessions, including a female with brood patch, and we have 2/3 singing males within our site.
The nicest bird R336063, a Reed Warbler, ringed at Penclacwydd 22 Sept 2002, as a juvenile. We have since retrapped him ! in the last 3 breeding seasons including last night !!
Now in his 9th year..a special bird....
Thursday, 26 May 2011
The last 3 weeks...
2 sessions on the Teifi were fairly quiet with around 70 birds each. The big passage of Sedge warblers didn't happen compared to the same dates last year.
Meanwhile, those of us on the TRG trip to Canada were having an exciting time.
The Banding Lab at Long Point Bird Observatory-
Chiffchaffs can't be compared with these colourful Yellow Warblers and stunning Chestnut-sided Warblers. We were spoilt by nets full of brightly coloured birds. On some good days we caught over 400 birds of 50+ species.
We thought these Rose-breasted Grosbeaks were wonderful at first but after catching 96 one day we changed our opinion - that beak can cause a lot of damage!
A big difference in North American banding that we encountered is that rings are closed so have to be opened before putting in the pliers. They also have to be threaded onto wires. It makes the BTO rings seem easy.
And to finish, one more bird that got the pulses racing - an Eastern Bluebird, a species not often caught.
We were all made very welcome at Long Point and it is hoped that other members of the group will be able to visit in the future.
Meanwhile, those of us on the TRG trip to Canada were having an exciting time.
The Banding Lab at Long Point Bird Observatory-
Chiffchaffs can't be compared with these colourful Yellow Warblers and stunning Chestnut-sided Warblers. We were spoilt by nets full of brightly coloured birds. On some good days we caught over 400 birds of 50+ species.
We thought these Rose-breasted Grosbeaks were wonderful at first but after catching 96 one day we changed our opinion - that beak can cause a lot of damage!
A big difference in North American banding that we encountered is that rings are closed so have to be opened before putting in the pliers. They also have to be threaded onto wires. It makes the BTO rings seem easy.
And to finish, one more bird that got the pulses racing - an Eastern Bluebird, a species not often caught.
We were all made very welcome at Long Point and it is hoped that other members of the group will be able to visit in the future.
Monday, 2 May 2011
TRG ringing trip to Long Point
Today Wendy, Dyfed, Dawn and I start our journey to Long Point Bird Obs. Canada.
We are away for 3 weeks, if you dare see what we are seeing / ringing there see Long Point weekly summary
Arfon will continue to run the CES whilst we are away with the rest of the team, hopefully Howard and Siwan currently in Lesvos will bring back.....!! to add to the sessions.
We are away for 3 weeks, if you dare see what we are seeing / ringing there see Long Point weekly summary
Arfon will continue to run the CES whilst we are away with the rest of the team, hopefully Howard and Siwan currently in Lesvos will bring back.....!! to add to the sessions.
Sunday, 1 May 2011
Constant Effort Survey 1
This week-end saw us complete our 1st CES visit of the 2011 season.
The initial -" in the field" results and subsequent interrogating of ipmr show a great result in what CES is all about.
78 birds trapped of which 47 were retraps. By the nature of it being the 1st session all birds were retraps from 2010 or older.
2 species stood out in particular;-
Reed Warbler, 10 trapped all 10 retraps !!-- of these
6 were originally ringed in 2009 and retrapped in 2010,
2 were ringed in 2009 and not trapped in 2010,
2 were ringed in 2010.
This correlates well with our early effort at the Mallard run, where the 1st 3 birds trapped were all retraps.
In summary of 14 Reed warblers trapped in this very early part of the season, 13 were retraps!
Chiffchaff, of 14 birds trapped, 9 retraps, 5 new.
I mention above, our " in the field" results, Wendy with Dyfed's assistance now has all our ringing data on a hand held device. Thus the checking of ageing / sexing criteria as well as the bird's history is possible whilst still holding the bird. An important development for us.
The initial -" in the field" results and subsequent interrogating of ipmr show a great result in what CES is all about.
78 birds trapped of which 47 were retraps. By the nature of it being the 1st session all birds were retraps from 2010 or older.
2 species stood out in particular;-
Reed Warbler, 10 trapped all 10 retraps !!-- of these
6 were originally ringed in 2009 and retrapped in 2010,
2 were ringed in 2009 and not trapped in 2010,
2 were ringed in 2010.
This correlates well with our early effort at the Mallard run, where the 1st 3 birds trapped were all retraps.
In summary of 14 Reed warblers trapped in this very early part of the season, 13 were retraps!
Chiffchaff, of 14 birds trapped, 9 retraps, 5 new.
I mention above, our " in the field" results, Wendy with Dyfed's assistance now has all our ringing data on a hand held device. Thus the checking of ageing / sexing criteria as well as the bird's history is possible whilst still holding the bird. An important development for us.
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