Spring arrivals and returns

Late March into early April is a time when we start to see returning birds from previous years. 

A Blackcap was re-encountered on the 30th March that had been ringed in July 2017 and also seen in 2018 and 2019.

Although we haven't caught any new Cetti's Warblers yet this year we have re-encountered 4 from last year.

Cetti's Warbler

Four returning Chiffchaff  so far. Various histories with us..

One ringed last August - re trapped at the same site this March. One ringed in December, still with us - or now returned from a very late winter break, it's wing suggested it had been to the sun 

Two more that were originally ringed in 2020.

The number of returning and site faithful birds to the end of March can be clearly seen in the following table 

Species where birds have been re-encountered from previous years

Old birds of note are the 10 year old Great Spotted Woodpecker, a 7 year old Great Tit and Long-tailed tits and a Dunnock ringed in 2016.

It is always nice to see that the reed cut by a local thatcher has taken place - a cut is planned each year but for various reasons sometimes the cut doesn't take place. The cut area not only provides totally fresh Phragmites, but whilst the new growth is short, feeding for waders, pipits and in particular White Wagtails. We hope for some evening pre roost action any day...

We have caught 3 Curlew and 1 Teal over two evenings in the fading light, experimental at this stage and maybe a colour ring project with the Curlew, considering their current national profile. 

Teal

Some of the group are involved in nest recording and their season of monitoring is underway with the first Dipper chicks of the year ringed this week. Andrew has been exploring his local bridges and has found several Dipper nests. 

Dipper nests and locations

News just received of some Starling movements from and to Andy's garden

LL86492 Ringed Bancyffordd, Carms 18/02/2020

                Ring read in the field  Haulerwijk, The Netherlands 05/03/2022

                746 days 728km E

26Z50958  Ringed Westmalle, Antwerpen, Belgium 09/11/2019

                   Re-encountered  Bancyffordd, Carms 14/12/2021

                   766 days 626km W

RAS (Retrapping Adults for Survival) projects

Reed Buntings  ....hoping to continue our good winter observations..

Reed Warblers. ...the first birds, usually recaptures are due back over the next week..

Willow Tits  .. an update from Arfon shortly 

Finally Andy's House Sparrow RAS...excellent results with 78 now  resighted .see the previous post for a further details... House Sparrow RAS 2022

Rich D and Wendy J

House Sparrow RAS 2022

The 1st of April brought the start date for the second year of my House Sparrow RAS. With a good number of birds colour ringed in 2021, I successfully logged 35 different birds on the first morning for this year while having breakfast. Further observations over mid morning coffee took me up to 50 different birds and two further sessions on the 2nd of April took me up to 67 different individuals (40 male, 27 female). 

Despite my best effort last year, a reasonable number of 'older' birds still only have metal rings only and probably a similar number have no ring at all. The ideal situation would be to try to ring these birds but putting up mist nets in less than perfect conditions will mean high disturbance for low return as the birds will see the nets and simply avoid the garden. Walk in traps don't get used by adult birds in my garden so my best option is to focus on reading as many colour rings as possible while many birds are still coming to seed.  

N68 is a female that was ringed on the 22nd of February 2021. Being ringed in February, all that can be said about her is that she is from the 2020 breeding season or before.

40 of the birds sighted so far can be identified to a specific breeding season with the remaining being as N68. 33 of the birds sighted are over a year old. The majority of the remaining birds are known to be from the 2021 breeding season so technically speaking they are birds that have simply survived their first winter; many will of course breed this year. The oldest bird is known to be from the 2016 breeding season or before. Over time it should be possible to increase the proportion of specifically aged birds.

At this stage of the season many pairs in the garden are still in the process of nest building while adult birds that have lost their mate are trying to pair up or find a different nesting site. P05 (male from 2018 or earlier) seems to have lost his mate N90 (female from 2018 or earlier) and has moved to a new site. The box that he is clearing out was initially used by N01 (male) and N25 (female) last year and then by an unknown male and N25 for a later brood. Both N01 and N25 have not been seen for some time and the unknown male could not have been P05 so he may also have disappeared. Last year I noted that most of the early nesting attempts were made by incumbent adults with the offspring from the previous season mainly pairing and making nesting attempts later in the year.

The above female is not ringed. Most females have a bill colour that is dark brown containing varying amounts of dark buff-yellow/brown towards the base and in the lower mandible. This particular bird stands out amongst other females having a bill colour that is similar to a breeding season male.

Some early year thoughts ..

Most of our ringing so far this year has been focused on gardens and hilltops..

Arfon has managed to colour ring 3 new Willow Tits on Cors Caron already this year to help his RAS study..

Colour-ringed Willow Tit

The new moon phase has given our trainees the opportunity to experience lamping. With the mild winter there have been a low number of waders roosting on our study fields. Thom, Morgan, Yusef and Toni  have all ringed birds on the hilltops with us - several birds were ringed after their first time with the torch or net - and some variety ringed with Skylark, Snipe, Jack Snipe, Golden Plover as well as Woodcock 

This thermal image picture was taken on Frenni Fawr on the approach to a successful catch of a Golden Plover. The shapes in the distance are Crymych with the roof tops on the industrial estate showing intensely black on a cold night and the building showing white and warm is the sheltered accommodation by Crymych Surgery.

Arfon has now ringed 100 Woodcock on his study farms in North Carmarthenshire this winter. Totals for him so far this year are 31 Woodcock, 3 Golden Plover, 5 Snipe and 1 Jack Snipe. He caught a 2nd Woodcock with a very short bill at 51mm and this adult Woodcock with unmoulted outer primaries/

Unusual to see contrast in Woodcock primaries

In winter the main group training activity is garden ringing. 

Wendy's garden has proved very valuable for developing extraction skills as well as more general ageing and sexing, birds being caught in mist, potter or Whoosh nets, again some variety to learn to handle ..

Jackdaw caught in a Whoosh net

Handling some Starlings gives an ideal opportunity to teach different ageing and sexing characteristics.

Comparing tail covert shape

Having been ringing at this location for over 10 years many birds are caught from previous years. The table below shows the year of ringing from 2 gardens so far this year, both garden sites have ringing history including a Siskin RAS and now a CES study.

Initial ringing year Llechryd and Boncath gardens

The oldest retrap was a Great Spotted Woodpecker ringed on 20th December 2012 and also retrapped 2016 and 2020. 

We held our AGM on the 2nd February using Zoom again, most of the Group took part in the brief and relatively formal meeting. We had a look back at a successful year and discussed lots of positive ideas for the year ahead. We plan to have a more social and open meeting during early April. 

Rich D and Wendy J

2021 ringing totals and into 2022

2021 was a successful year for the Teifi Ringing Group with excellent results for our established studies and some good ringing plans to help the development of new studies, projects and training. We finished 2021 with 6,719 birds ringed of 67 species

 

Sedge Warbler at Mallard Pond

Again a drop in the species ringed compared with  72 species in 2020 and 78 species in 2019. The total number ringed has declined too, but by less than 10%. There are several factors which have affected these totals including - the effect of movement restrictions, a poor breeding season, the activities of  Group ringers elsewhere, in  particular Skokholm Bird Observatory where we have an excellent working relationship and visits here often involve ringers from the Group and South Wales.

Siberian Chiffchaff, one of 4 ringed in 2020

New standard searches in our BTO database, DemOn allow for different ways of looking at totals. Here we show the total number of birds ringed plus those recaught or resighted from previous years.

 A summary of unique bird encounters.

 

 

 Resighting colour rings by photographers on the Teifi Marshes has made a significant contribution to our RAS project and knowledge of Reed Buntings from previous years. 

Reed Buntings - Colin Dalton

During the year we have written 16 blog posts, mostly monthly highlights, but also major posts from Andy updating his House Sparrow RAS and colour-ring project. Other posts of interest include projects, recoveries and visits to Skokholm Bird Observatory.

 

Colour-ringing Puffins on Skokholm

2021 Recoveries and Controls

The map illustrates some of the movements included in the table above.

Each movement was detailed in blogs during the year as we received them

We are very grateful to Stephen Vickers for the mapping apps he has created.  The ability to to use the data directly from DemOn to produce maps like the above is invaluable.

 

Some variances in the species ringing totals worth mentioning....(2021/2020)

Sedge Warbler - 387/193 and Reed Warbler 265/141 a result of return to near normal  study activities on the Marshes

Redwing - 333/ 213 more focus on late autumn ringing helped by our interest in catching the increasing number of Chiffchaffs later in the morning using the same nets and location.

Willow Tit - 22/1 new focus, colour-ringing and new RAS

Dipper 36/4 , Pied Flycatcher 72/28 , Barn Owl 7/3 are all increases due to the increased focus of several of the Group in nest recording, often in projects supported by Pembrokeshire Coast National Park, The Woodland Trust and The Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales at some of their key site in North Pembs

Gwaun Valley nest box

Leach's Petrel,  Siberian (tristis) Chiffchaff, are species/sub-species ringed rarely by the Group and Black-tailed Godwit was a new species for the Group.

Black-tailed Godwit

 

For the fans of the Teifi Kingfishers - 

Kingfisher - 10/10 no difference in the total for the last 2 years, 10 different individual Kingfishers on the Teifi Marshes.

As we start 2022 we are hoping for a year relatively free of movement restrictions. We have a great group of  newer trainees, Thom, Yusef, Dan, and Morgan to help us develop our sites and projects as they develop their ringing and project skills.

Yusef measuring a Woodcock ring

Our main site will continue to be the Teifi Marshes Nature Reserve and we thank the Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales for access and support - particularly Nathan Walton. We regularly ring at 3 seperate sites on the Marshes and we are developing a fourth. More on "wilti and 18 acres " as we plan and develop our activities at the site.

Willow Tit - Teifi Marshes

 Studies as we enter 2022 and the future.......

CES - Llechryd, and RAS studies on House Sparrow, Reed Bunting, Reed Warbler and Willow Tit will continue.  Recently we have finished our RAS studies on Linnets and Siskins - we may restart both depending on sites and bird numbers. In both the Reed Bunting and Willow Tit  RAS studies we also add colour-rings. This is particularly valuable with the Reed Buntings on the Teifi Marshes reserve - a great opportunity involve visitors to the reserve in our studies, and successful !    We think we will see another increase in nest recording and pulli ringing. Several of the Group like to specialize in this valuable area of study in the breeding season.

Blue Tit pulli - Andrew

 January...

January has started with poor weather for mist netting but other methods were used including the purchase and use of new traps and lamping. 

Some ringing results for January in the next post..

 

Before we go a memory from 10 years ago !!

 

 

(Richard Dobbins and Wendy James)

December on hills and in gardens

As December draws to a close with a spell of wet and windy weather offering few opportunities for ringing, we look back at the last few weeks.

The third most frequently encountered species was Woodcock. No surprise as lamping them at night is possible in windy weather. Arfon has been busy on his local upland sites near Ffarmers including 6 birds ringed in previous years. Woodcock are very faithful to their wintering sites as this example on a farm near Boncath shows.

EZ73664 was ringed there on 14th November 2020 and we re-encountered it this year on the 2nd December very close to its original ringing location. Every time a Woodcock is caught we record the GPS and plot them on Google Earth

To give an example of the scale of our historic data these are the Woodcock caught over the last 10 years in just 6 fields

Other species ringed at night this month included Snipe, Jack Snipe, Fieldfare, Golden Plover, Skylark, Redwing and Meadow Pipit. We plan to introduce our new trainees to lamping over the next few weeks.

Starlings were the most frequently ringed species, nearly all caught in various traps rather than mist nets. The one subsequent encounter listed below was a bird with a Belgian ring in Andy's garden. We are still waiting for details from the Belgian ringing scheme.

December 2021 totals in gardens, farms and Teifi Marshes

Three of the group have recently bought these walk in traps from Jed Andrews, South West Norfolk Ringing Group. Pictured here as we all excitedly un packed the trap when it was delivered during a ringing session.

Thanks to Jed for designing and supplying these. Although currently being used in gardens we plan to use them for a wider range of species soon.

Looking at the table of captures it can be seen that there is a high proportion of subsequent encounters. Most of the Reed Buntings and many of the House Sparrows are re-sightings of colour ringed birds showing the importance of this work. We are grateful to the valuable re-sightings by photographers on the Teifi Marshes and would like to thank Colin Dalton and Tommy Evans in particular

Colour-ringed Reed Buntings, Colin Dalton

News received this month of a Sedge Warbler from the Teifi Marshes on its autumn migration. We have many such movements but this one is further south than most.

Sedge Warbler ARP9540

Ringed Teifi Marshes, Ceredigion 12/08/2021

Subsequent encounter Audenge, Gironde, France 27/08/2021 15 days 865 km SSE

We will be posting year end totals and a summary in mid January.

Wendy J and Rich D

Warblers and variety in November

November started with a good session at our site in the Pentood part of the Teifi Marshes with a very late Reed Warbler and unusually for the site, 2 Stonechat.

On the 10th, a Siberian Chiffchaff was ringed in Pentood, to be followed by 3 further birds on the 16th and 17th at our River View Point site on the Teifi Marshes.

Siberian Chiffchaff

A look back into the Group's history and our first and only previous Siberian Chiffchaff on 15th October 2015   "An interesting Chiffchaff"

Our catching of Siberian (tristis) Chiffchaffs is part of a widespread arrival across the southwest this autumn - we have caught  10 collybita  and 4 fulvescens type Chiffchaffs this month too.

Recent news of Chiffchaff  KCC988 ...

Ringed Teifi Marshes, Ceredigion 09/08/2021

Subsequent encounter Skokholm Island 20/09/2021 42 days 61km SW

On the 5th November this Sparrowhawk and two Kingfishers amongst the 77 Redwings caught.

Sparrowhawk

By the end of the month 260 Redwings had been ringed, mainly on the Teifi Marshes but also in a young woodland in Llechryd.

A good number of Crests have been ringed this month, 58 Goldcrests and 1 Firecrest on the 17th.

Firecrest

The Group have captured 25 Firecrests in the last 10 years including one from Belgium, 16 of them in November.

But where are our Firecrests and Yellow-browed Warblers this year ?? Perhaps December will provide some late season birds.....

Starlings have been seen in increasing numbers over the last few weeks

241 ringed, mainly by Andy near Llandysul. One Starling that Andy has caught twice this month in his garden had been ringed in Lithuania.

Starling KE14864  

Ringed by the Lithuanian Ringing Centre at Silutes, Lithuania 16/06/2020

Subsequent encounter Bancyffordd, Carmarthenshire  29/11/2021   531 days 1717 km WSW 

As it was ringed in June it is likely that  Lithuania was it's  breeding area.

Starling KE14864

Not many G rings are used at our garden ringing sites..

So this 2cy Buzzard was quite an achievement in Chris's whoosh net- slightly different from the Corvids including a few Jays caught recently.

Buzzard

To end November, this Woodcock with an abnormally short bill was ringed by Arfon. 

Woodcock

It measured just 57 mm (bill to skull), presumably a healthy juvenile arriving in mid Wales to winter from it's natal area much further east.

(Rich D and Wendy J)

A Leach's to start October ....

The weather in October was mostly tricky for mist netting but here is a round up of what the Group have been doing.

The highlight of the month was a species not often ringed in Wales. The night after a storm on the 5th October, a Leach's Petrel was found stranded ashore in Fishguard Harbour. 20 had been counted passing Strumble Head that day. It was handed to Sea Trust Wales and kept at the Ocean Lab where we took biometrics and ringed it. 

It was a healthy bird weighing 38.8g. It was released back to sea that night. See Cliff Benson's post on PembsBirds

Leach's Petrel forked tail

Another Leach's Petrel had been ringed by the Group on 5th September 2019 along with some stranded Manx Shearwaters. See PembsBirds blog Sept 2019 for details.

Most of the ringing was on the Teifi Marshes and in gardens. Just 302 birds ringed during the month.

Redwing started to arrive in October and were the most frequently encountered bird with 63 ringed, mostly in dusk roosts.

Although 27 different species were ringed there were very few of each compared to previous autumns.

News of a Reed Warbler ringed in our Mallard nets caught by ringers in Alderney

Reed Warbler ARP9391

Ringed  Teifi Marshes, Ceredigion 14/08/2021

Subsequently encountered  Longis Bay, Alderney 04/09/2021 21 days 316km 

Now November is here, we have some of the following ringing to plan ...

Reed Buntings - Potter traps, Redwings - pre and post roost, Finch ringing - likely various garden sites, House Sparrow project - Andy's, Willow Tit project - Arfon, Woodcock - moonless nights, Forestry sites - nice weather !

One of the Group, Molly is currently in USA working at Klamath Bird Obs. A paper based on her recent  MSc at Bangor University has been published in BTO's Bird Study

Using rangefinder binoculars to measure the behaviour and movement of European Shags Phalacrocorax aristotelis in coastal environments

Some thoughts for 2022...

Most of the Group are visiting Skokholm Bird Observatory next year, the first visit planned for the end of April. 

Richard D and Wendy J