2019 has seen Gower RG trainees travel far and wide in order to achieve more experience to ready themselves for permit applications. These travels have taken them to Germany, a lengthy stay at a bird observatory in Denmark, to storm-petrel … Read More
Dippers are fascinating birds, unique amongst passerines in their habit of swimming underwater to find their invertebrate prey. They are currently amber listed in the UK and are a priority species for study under both the British Trust for Ornithology’s Retrapping … Read More
The 2019 Welsh Ringing Course was held on the Gower Peninsula, South Wales, between Friday 6 and Monday 9 September 2019. The course was led by Kelvin Jones, the Welsh Development Officer for the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) … Read More
The forecast was for a moderate to strong north-westerly wind to rapidly pick up over the morning. Due to a run of poor weather over the previous weeks, we decided to give it a go – a good idea as … Read More
The second half of August has proven no better than the first half. Settled weather has been very limited, with wind speed consistently limiting catches. The overall result has been that what was was looking like a good year in … Read More
A reasonably settled July followed by a spell of very unsettled weather in early August. The latter has proven extremely frustrating, as it can be such a good time at Oxwich. Collated species totals for the period are as follows: … Read More
There are two places available on the Welsh Ringing Course 2019 (due to a couple of people withdrawing). Anyone with a permit of any kind is welcome subject to their Trainer’s (as applicable!) blessing. During the four days / nights … Read More
We have had a good start to the CES this year with 233 birds captured. Species New Re-trap Total Blackbird 11 11 22 Blackcap 19 10 29 Blue tit 22 3 25 Bullfinch 4 2 6 Cetti’s warbler 4 3 … Read More
A couple of fairly busy session at Oxwich, with almost 450 birds captured. The breakdown was as follows: Species Name Ringed Recapt Total Blackbird 5 2 7 Blackcap 9 9 Blue Tit 43 36 79 Bullfinch 2 2 Cetti’s Warbler … Read More
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