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....

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.

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.

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.

Spring Wagtails

With the White Wagtail passage tailing off, last night was probably the final session of the spring to target the roost at dusk. A total of 119 birds were ringed in April with no retraps. Only a handful were Pied Wagtails, the rest were White Wagtails. This was our first effort at catching them in Spring and we have been surprised at the number caught.
Whether this was a just a particularly good year for migration along the West Wales coast remains to be seen when we repeat the exercise in 2012. We have successfully targeted Autumn Wagtail roosts on the marsh before so will be trying again this year, a much more challenging time of year to separate the races so some homework to do before then.

Paris 6580750

Following on from last nights 2 retrap Reed Warblers, 1 more this morning. The 3 Reed Warblers all retraps, were all adults when ringed last year.

12 new Sedge Warblers over the 2 sessions, but quite exciting, a control - Paris 6580750... we await it's history. Also a retrap from last year, ringed as a 3J, our first returning ringed juvenile.

To finish the morning (0730) this Grasshopper Warbler our 1st of the season !!

Reed Warblers back home !!

Putting up nets to furl, ready for a couple of early hours in the morning, 2 Reed Warblers trapped, both ringed last year. Very pleased with our efforts. Also a couple of new Sedge Warblers, and perhaps the last White Wagtail ringed of the Spring passage?, only c20 over the reedbed tonight.