The Ringing Year to Date and Grant Funding

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We have reached and passed the mid point of the year without being troubled by summer arriving. This post provides a summary of the first six months of 2024, covering ringing totals up to and including 8 July.

There have been some good highlights, but numbers remain slightly below par. Our overall totals are heavily reliant on our success in July, August and September.

Totals to date across all Gower Ringing Group sites are as follows:

Species Name Total
Blackbird 162
Blackcap 91
Blue Tit 358
Brambling 1
Bullfinch 72
Carrion Crow 1
Cetti’s Warbler 42
Chaffinch 184
Chiffchaff 72
Coal Tit 39
Collared Dove 15
Common Crossbill 1
Dipper 45
Dunnock 148
Firecrest 1
Goldcrest 17
Goldfinch 332
Grasshopper Warbler 1
Great Spotted Woodpecker 46
Great Tit 210
Greenfinch 76
Herring Gull 3
House Sparrow 295
Jack Snipe 8
Jackdaw 155
Jay 2
Kingfisher 3
Lesser Black-backed Gull 1
Lesser Redpoll 8
Lesser Whitethroat 4
Linnet 16
Long-tailed Tit 58
Magpie 58
Mallard 1
Marsh Tit 5
Meadow Pipit 7
Nuthatch 7
Pied Flycatcher 270
Pied/White Wagtail 6
Redstart 4
Redwing 22
Reed Bunting 12
Reed Warbler 75
Robin 198
Rock Pipit 1
Rook 2
Sedge Warbler 24
Siskin 360
Skylark 8
Snipe 53
Song Thrush 16
Sparrowhawk 6
Starling 365
Stonechat 2
Tawny Owl 1
Treecreeper 5
Waxwing 1
Whitethroat 14
Willow Tit 1
Willow Warbler 19
Woodcock 9
Woodpigeon 12
Wren 33
Grand Total 4064

 

Of particular interest have been:

  • A female brambling captured at Oxwich on 30 March 2024. A less than annual species at the site. Captures are often in March and April, assumedly as birds move through on return passage.
  • A female crossbill caught in the plantation at Coed y Rhaiadr, north of Glynneath, on 10 January 2024. To give an idea of the size of the bird, it weighed approximately 25% more than a greenfinch, and had a slightly longer wing than that species (measured at 97 mm).
  • An adult female firecrest caught at Southward Lane, Langland on 29 February 2024. The site has proven very reliable for the species in the autumn and early winter, but it remains more notable to capture late winter / early spring birds. This was assumedly a bird moving back through the area having wintered further west / south-west, as we see a minor influx to the recording area at this time.
  • Good numbers of common snipe along with a few jack snipe. The former included a bird initially ringed at Oxwich in December 2018 and recaptured in January 2024. We have already established that a proportion (at least) of snipe use the site between winters, but the numbers of birds moving through are very large, with over 200 present across relatively discrete areas during passage / influx periods. As such, even with hundreds of snipe now ringed at Oxwich, it is taking time to build insight into how long birds use the marsh / when individuals are present. The jack snipe were largely ringed by Dionne Jenkins across farms in the Neath Valley; the one capture at Oxwich was of a bird ringed in February 2023 and recaptured in April 2024, so also site faithful.
  • An adult lesser black-backed gull caught at Southward Lane on 11 June 2024. The bird dropped down onto the lawn to take food put out for other species, then flew into the adjacent mist net. It was an adult, and the first non rehabilitated bird to be processed on Gower RG rings (a few are ringed and released following rehabilitation by Simon Allen of Gower Bird Hospital).
  • A waxwing captured by Richard Dann at Southgate on 25 February 2024. This was (remarkably) the second of the species to be captured at the site in the winter of 2023/24, and also represented the second capture for the ringing group. While there was an influx of the species during the winter, waxwing only tend to be captured by ringers in the north-east of the country or by groups that specifically target them in areas they favour for foraging (often urban sites with berry-bearing non-native shrubs).
  • An adult female willow tit with a brood patch, recaptured at Penclacwydd, Llanelli on April 2024, having been ringed at the same site exactly one year before.

At the time of writing the data for our Recapture Adults for Survival (RAS) and Constant Effort Sites (CES) was still in the process of being entered, and has not been collated or analysed. However it would appear to have been a poor year for pied flycatcher in the Swansea Valley (at Cwm Clydach), but a better year for the species at higher elevation sites, our dipper effort has been (necessarily) a bit more limited this year, and it seems likely to be a bumper year for jackdaws.

Recoveries and controls have included a siskin ringed in Peebles (Scottish Borders) in 2022 that had moved to Crynant by January 2024, Oxwich reed warblers to Alderney (Channel Islands) and Charente-Maritime, France, and our second Upper Killay woodcock to Russia. The bird was initially ringed in November 2018 at Brynmoel Farm, Blackhills, Upper Killay and was shot at Pustyn, Luzhskiy, Leningrad O., Russian Federation in late April 2024. A sad end, but at least the bird is likely to have bred on a good few occasions and at least it was reported. The ‘finding’ location is approximately 2277 km to the east north-east of the ringing location, indicating the scale of the migration these birds undertake annually.

Finally, many of our ringers have spread their metaphorical wings this year. We have members of the Group wardening on the Farne Islands (Catrin Ferguson), at Dungeness National Nature Reserve (Tom Wright), long term volunteering on Skokholm Island (Kayleigh Bargus) and at Spurn Point (Tate Lloyd), and researching seabird ranging and diving behaviours on Anglesey and in the Irish Sea (Alice Connell and Elliot Dee).  Group members have also visited Skokholm Island (courtesy of the Teifi Ringing Group / the island wardens) to ring seabirds, work the Heligoland traps and run the mist nets, and gone out gull ringing at some of Swansea’s urban rooftop colonies with gull aficionado Peter Rock. So lots of varied experience.

Thanks to all who have significantly contributed to what is shaping up to be a good ringing year. In particular, Heather Coats, Wayne Morris, Dionne Jenkins, Richard Dann, Colin Baker, Alice Connell, Megan Nicklin, Jasmine Davies, Rei Raz, Steve Lysyj, Lianne Rouys, Jane Beck, Miguel Lurgi, Kayleigh Bargus, Jo Conway, Elliot Dee, Lucia Pendrazzi and Tate Lloyd.

Particular thanks are also due to the Gower Society, who have provided us with sponsorship for the tenth consecutive year. This supports our running costs including ring purchase for Oxwich where we do a large proportion of our training. Without this help we would have to scale down what we do. Over the past 10 years we have trained multiple ringers, many of whom are making a substantial contribution to studying birds in Wales and elsewhere and who will become some of the conservationists at the forefront of local and national ornithology over time.

Photos are below

Owain Gabb

16/07/2024

A woodcock (albeit not one of our Russian ringing returns)
Visits to Skokholm enable us to process passerines we don’t regularly catch alongside seabirds. Spotted flycatcher is now rarely captured by the group.
Sparrowhawk. A third calendar year bird with some retained juvenile feathering still.
A second calendar year sparrowhawk in almost entirely juvenile plumage
Trips to Skokholm provide a great learning experience and an opportunity to connect with nature
Gull ringing with Peter Rock on Swansea Civic Centre roof. There is a large and important (in the context of the city) mixed colony of lesser black backed and herring gull present. A great black backed gull pair was noted in 2023.
Gull chicks in a nest tucked up against the building parapet (allowing a degree of shelter and shade).
The second waxwing of the winter at Southgate
Our first young reed warbler of the year in late June
Our C Permit holders are now setting up their own sites. Here a magpie ringed by Jasmine.
A young lesser whitethroat. The first for several years at Oxwich. They are more regularly captured at Southgate (and breed in dense scrub near that ringing site)
A lesser black backed gull captured on Southward Lane, Langland
A very aggressive jay, as the trickle of blood indicates!
A sub adult herring gull captured at Southward Lane.
A collared dove. A notable ringing capture on Skokholm. Less so for the group, as Richard Dann rings a large proportion of the annual Welsh total.
Alice processing chough with Adrienne Stratford in North Wales. The long term study of chough run by Adrienne and Tony Cross has contributed a huge amount to our understanding of their ecology.
Our first young chiffchaff of the year in mid-June 2024
Recently fledged Cetti’s warblers in late June 2024.
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