The weather at Oxwich was bright and warm with a light westerly breeze. We put up a total of 560 feet of net in a range of habitats: reed bed, willow and bramble scrub and a new area we are calling ‘fen … Read More
Heather and I once again did the CES at WWT Llanelli. It was a reasonably good day with a nice mixture of birds and the best session we have had for migrants. The session was hampered by a really heavy … Read More
105 birds were trapped with four 60′ nets in the reeds during a fairly intense 3 hour session. Acro’s again were prominent with 71 (juv:ad ratio 66:5) Sedge Warblers and 20 (16:4) Reed Warblers forming the bulk of the catch. Mike with the latest Bird … Read More
Although the morning was reasonably successful in terms of numbers, the catch is likely to have been considerably reduced as a result of a westerly wind, which strengthened over the morning. We put 180 feet of net in the reedbed, … Read More
I’ve set up a couple of ringing rides in a small reedbed on the edge of the saltmarsh just west of the village. My interest here is to gain an insight into how much use these marginal habitats around the … Read More
The weather was very good for ringing for much of the morning, with a light (barely discernible) wind, broken cloud and hot, sunny intervals. We put up the usual 180 feet of net in the reedbed, 160 feet of net in … Read More
Today Heather and I did CES 9 at WWT Llanelli. The CES season so far this year has been an improvement in terms of birds numbers with the corresponding CES visits last year. However migrant numbers have not been as … Read More
Ideal ringing conditions at the marsh this morning: a warm day with very little wind and overcast conditions. We put 180 feet of net in the reedbed and a further 160 feet of net in willow and bramble scrub. The results … Read More
Charlie Sargent joined me to do the CES at the National Wetland Centre Wales . The weather was calm with some cloud cover. We had 27 birds and 22 of these were juvenile birds which is an improvement on last … Read More
I was joined by Heather Coats and Phil Mead for this morning’s ringing session at Margam Park. We supplemented our usual 102 metres of net with a further 36 metres in an attempt to find the optimal net placement within … Read More
Excellent conditions for ringing on the marsh this morning, with overhead cloud and no wind until persistent light rain stopped play around 11:00. A total of 83 birds of 17 species were captured. The breakdown of newly ringed and recaptured … Read More
The weather forecast had not given cause for optimism, but in the event there were light winds and we lost only 45 minutes to a prolonged heavy shower. This, and strong sunlight late morning resulted in a reduction in the … Read More
For the last ten consecutive Wednesday mornings we have been patiently monitoring the Pied Flycatcher RAS at RSPB Cwm Clydach so it was a change to spend a pleasant sunny Wednesday morning at our site in the grounds of Margam … Read More
A very light south-westerly wind and warm, cloudy conditions were ideal for ringing. Three different online weather forecasts had made differing assessments of the chance of rain over the morning, but thankfully none materialised. The catch was excellent. A total … Read More
Another bright, warm morning with a light southerly breeze. We only erected 140 feet of net, as were aware of the potential to be swamped by juvenile birds (particularly tits). In summary, a steady session: it was the first time I … Read More
Phil Mead, Charlie Sargent and I joined Heather Coats for the sixth CES of the season at the Wildlife & Wetlands Trust‘s ‘Llanelli Wetlands Centre’ http://wwt.org.uk/wetland-centres/llanelli/ The normal one hundred and seventeen metres of mist netting was erected in the … Read More
A moderate northerly breeze gradually dropped over the morning, which was otherwise bright and increasingly warm. The catch was again dominated by juvenile birds. The total of 86 was made up as follows: Species New Re-trapped Total Great Spotted Woodpecker 2 3 … Read More
A beautiful warm morning at Oxwich, with a light south-westerly breeze and clear skies. Nets were open between 06:00 and 11:30, during which time we trapped 88 birds. The breakdown by species is shown in the table below: Species New Re-trapped … Read More