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
|
|
6
|
|
Chiffchaff
|
13
|
|
13
|
|
Coal Tit
|
2
|
|
2
|
|
Dunnock
|
|
3
|
3
|
|
Firecrest
|
1
|
|
1
|
|
Goldcrest
|
5
|
|
5
|
|
Great Spotted Woodpecker
|
|
2
|
2
|
|
Great Tit
|
3
|
2
|
5
|
|
Greenfinch
|
1
|
1
|
2
|
|
Jack Snipe
|
1
|
|
1
|
|
Long-tailed Tit
|
1
|
|
1
|
|
Redwing
|
1
|
|
1
|
|
Reed Bunting
|
7
|
|
7
|
|
Reed Warbler
|
1
|
|
1
|
|
Robin
|
1
|
1
|
2
|
|
Snipe
|
4
|
|
4
|
|
Song Thrush
|
1
|
|
1
|
|
Treecreeper
|
1
|
|
1
|
|
Wren
|
2
|
4
|
6
|
|
Yellow-browed Warbler
|
1
|
|
1
|
|
Grand Total
|
85
|
18
|
103
|
The highlights were:
- A second jack snipe in a week (following one on the previous weekend).
- A late reed warbler. The bird had no tail, which maybe pointed to why it had not moved on already.
- Our first firecrest of the year, a first winter male ringed on 22 October.
- Our fourth yellow-browed warbler of the year. The bird had a typical weight (6.7 g). We have captured 21 yellow-browed warblers at the marsh in the past four years (2014:1, 2016: 16, 2018: 4), and weights have ranged between 5.1 g and 8.6 g.
The best news of the week concerned a Cetti’s warbler. A bird ringed as a juvenile at Brandon Marsh, Warwickshire was recaptured at the marsh in mid October 2018. This is a west south-westerly movement of slightly in excess of 200 km. This, and the five new Cetti’s warblers captured this week give weight to the observation (based on numbers of new birds and on fat scores), that Cetti’s warblers disperse in the late autumn.
Today we passed 5,000 birds captured (ringed and recaptured) at Oxwich for the year. This sparked a little reflection on how far we have come since starting ringing relatively intensively at the site in 2014. Some selected statistics are below:
- We have ringed a total of 17,116 birds of 63 species.
- The most abundant species ringed have been swallow (2,553), goldfinch (1,737) and blue tit (1,606).
- Our most abundant sub-Saharan migrants (swallow excepting) have been reed warbler (938 ringed), sedge warbler (744) and willow warbler (490).
- Other long distance migrants have included tree pipit (81), garden warbler (62) and grasshopper warbler (54).
- Local residents have included great spotted woodpecker (99), Cetti’s warbler (125), stonechat (56), and bullfinch (50).
- We have only captured two wader species, but in good numbers; we have now processed 125 common snipe and 34 jack snipe. We have proved that the latter returns to the marsh between winters. Frustratingly, we have not yet had a between-winter recapture of the former.
- Scarcer species have included brambling (31), firecrest (14), grey wagtail (11), lesser whitethroat (6), marsh tit (5), yellow wagtail (4), skylark (4), green woodpecker (3), whinchat (3), water rail (3), mistle thrush (2), willow tit (2), wheatear (1) and wood warbler (1).
- Our only genuine rarity, a little bunting, was captured in October 2016.
Jay is one of the most conspicuous birds on the marsh, but we have yet to catch one. Jay, spotted or pied flycatcher are probably among the favourites to be the next new species to be captured on the marsh.
Of greater note have been the controls and recapture data. Some highlights will be appended to subsequent posts.
Thanks to: Keith Vaughton, Val Wilson, Alex McCubbin, Sarah Davies, Sophie de Grissac, Dionne Jenkins, and Lara Bates-Prior for company and assistance this week.
Owain Gabb
28/10/2018.
 |
| Greenfinch (recapture from 2015) |
 |
| Jack snipe (number 34) (Lara Bates-Prior) |
 |
| The first firecrest of 2018 and the 14th for the site to date. (Lara Bates-Prior) |
