With our noble leader taking ‘Paternity Leave’ from ringing at Oxwich (congratulations to Owain and Rhian on the birth of their daughter) it was left to the ‘Grey Brigade’ of Heather, Keith and myself to tend the nets aided by the scribing skills of Emma Cole (the BTO Ambassador at Swansea University).
Following a frosty 06:30 start we erected a twelve metre and two eighteen metre nets in the scrub, topped up the feeding table with sunflowers seeds and wheat, set up the sound system and waited.
The birds were very accommodating and last week’s total was more than doubled with Goldfinch numbers exceeding a half century.
Male Goldfinch
Female Great Spotted Woodpecker
Male Siskin
The final total of 168 birds was made up of the following: Wren (1), Dunnock (2), Robin (1), Blue Tit 14 (19), Great Tit (3), Chaffinch 9 (0), Greenfinch 39 (5), Goldfinch 52 (2), Reed Bunting 13 (3), Bullfinch 2 (1), Siskin 1 (0) and Great Spotted Woodpecker (1). The proportion of re-traps in the total for each species are indicated by the brackets.
Thanks to Heather Coats, Keith Vaughton and Emma Cole.
Good effort Emma! You'll have to come ringing with Stanford Ringing Group in the summer 🙂