A poor forecast, so we decided against Oxwich and headed to High Pennard, a far more sheltered site. The weather was in fact far worse than had been predicted the night before, with periods of light rain and the odd … Read More
A relatively calm morning with occasional short-lived showers and variable cloud cover. We put up a total of 880 feet of net in a mixture of habitats including reed bed, fen meadow and scrub habitats. The catch was as follows: … Read More
A gentle south-easterly wind and open skies at Oxwich this Saturday. We had a relatively small team, and only put up limited nets. Ninety-three birds was therefore a good return. The catch broke down as follows: Species Name Ringed Recaptured … Read More
Settled weather for some time now, enabling the group to keep up to speed with our Constant Effort Site at WWT Penclacwydd, the long term Retrapping Adults for Survival Project on pied flycatcher at Cwm Clydach, and to continue to … Read More
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 … Read More
A quiet session at Oxwich. Eighty-six birds were processed, of which sixty were recaptures. The high proportion of recaptured birds is typical of the time of year. The breakdown was as follows: Species New Recapture Total Blackbird 3 3 Blackcap … Read More
Late March and early April can be relatively slow, particularly at Oxwich, where we see a high ratio of recaptured to newly ringed birds and a limited range of species recorded. We get some good data on survival, but few … Read More
It has been another rain and wind affected couple of weeks. During this time we have managed to get three sessions in, two of which have been significantly wind affected, while during the other we suffered from a general lack … Read More
A great piece of recent news was the securing of a Gower Society Grant for a fifth consecutive year. This will substantially cover our ringing costs at Oxwich over the next twelve months, and help us to maintain our levels … Read More
Due to the size of the ringing group we have been looking for another site that will give us a range of species that complements what we capture at Oxwich during winter and passage periods. The idea would be that … Read More
A short and unsuccessful session on 11 February, followed by a better session on 16 February. The combined total was as follows: Species Name Ringed Recaptured Total Blue Tit 13 47 60 Chaffinch 5 5 Coal Tit 1 1 Dunnock … Read More
A cold start to the day. We started by setting some nets for snipe (pre-dawn) before we turned our attention to the feeders. Species Name Ringed Recaptured Total Blackbird 1 1 2 Blue Tit 11 46 57 Chaffinch 19 4 … Read More
Poor weather has persisted during much of January to date, and we have only been able to get two sessions in. Conversely, when we have got out bird numbers have been good, as the total for what is often an … Read More
2018 was the sixth year of Gower Ringing Group activity at Oxwich Marsh. The site also hosted the Welsh Ringing Course (in September) for the fourth consecutive year. Species Totals A total of 3,899 birds of 53 species were processed … Read More
After a few weeks of enforced inactivity at Oxwich, due to long periods of bad weather, we mixed things up a bit this weekend. On Friday night Tony Cross was kind enough to join us for a dazzling session at … Read More
Cruzinha (Richard Dann) For the last 20 years, Heather Coats, who heads the Gower Ringing Group, has visited Cruzinha, the A Rocha field study centre on the Ria de Alvor in southern Portugal, to carry out bird ringing during autumn … Read More
The most unusual thing; a forecast that was worse than the weather on site – normally it always goes the other way! We expected a moderate north-westerly breeze, but the conditions were a lot calmer. It was sunny and relatively … Read More
A couple of limited net sessions this week resulted in a varied catch of 103. The break down was as follows: Species Name Ringed Recaptured Total Blackbird 1 1 Blue Tit 28 4 32 Cetti’s Warbler 5 5 Chaffinch 6 … Read More