A light northerly wind and open skies greeted us on 18 May. The weather remained good for the remainder of the morning, resulting in a steady session.
We are in the period of the year when local breeding birds dominate the catch, which is typically recapture-heavy. The breakdown was as follows:
|
Species Name
|
Ringed
|
Recaptured
|
Total
|
|
Blackbird
|
1
|
1
|
2
|
|
Blackcap
|
1
|
|
1
|
|
Blue Tit
|
|
11
|
11
|
|
Bullfinch
|
|
1
|
1
|
|
Cetti’s Warbler
|
|
2
|
2
|
|
Chaffinch
|
6
|
3
|
9
|
|
Dunnock
|
|
3
|
3
|
|
Goldfinch
|
1
|
1
|
2
|
|
Grasshopper Warbler
|
|
1
|
1
|
|
Great Spotted Woodpecker
|
|
11
|
11
|
|
Great Tit
|
3
|
13
|
16
|
|
Greenfinch
|
7
|
2
|
9
|
|
Reed Bunting
|
|
2
|
2
|
|
Reed Warbler
|
2
|
3
|
5
|
|
Robin
|
2
|
3
|
5
|
|
Sedge Warbler
|
|
3
|
3
|
|
Siskin
|
5
|
10
|
15
|
|
Song Thrush
|
1
|
|
1
|
|
Whitethroat
|
2
|
2
|
4
|
|
Willow Warbler
|
|
1
|
1
|
|
Wren
|
1
|
|
1
|
|
Grand Total
|
32
|
73
|
105
|
The highlights were:
- A recapture grasshopper warbler with a well-defined brood patch. The bird had been ringed on the marsh in late April. This is strongly indicative of local breeding, particularly as reeling males remain present.
- Our first young blackbird, chaffinches, greenfinches and siskin of the year.
- Eleven different great spotted woodpeckers
- Some nice invertebrates, including a female hairy dragonfly which was extracted and released from one of the mist nets.
We have also put down some reptile mats. Grass snake, adder, common lizard and slow-worm all occur locally, albeit only grass snake and lizard have been recorded around the ringing rides to date. We have deployed a range of large (1m x 50 cm) corrugated metal and felt tiles.
This gives us something different to do over the coming months, and the records (along with our bird data) will be collated and sent to NRW and to South East Wales Biological Records Centre.
Thanks to Heather Coats, Keith Vaughton, Val Wilson, Jo Conway, Alex McCubbin, Sarah Davies, Claudia Allen, Richard Dann, Amy Schwartz and Miguel Lurgi for company and assistance.
Particular thanks to Richard and Jo for arriving at 04:15 to help set up!
Owain Gabb
21/05/2019
 |
| Hairy dragonfly female (Owain Gabb) |
 |
| Great spotted woodpeckers (Richard Dann) |
 |
| Whitethroat male (Amy Schwartz) |
