The Welsh Ringing Course was held over the long weekend of 6-9 September 2024. The course was first hosted by Gower Ringing Group in 2015, and this was the eighth running of it. We had one year of enforced complete break due to Covid (2020), and a second year when we ran the course for our members alone due to complications associated with remaining Covid restrictions (2021).
The 2024 course (again) focussed on permit assessments, with seven of the twelve attendees being considered for permit upgrades and the remainder attending for more experience towards mist netting endorsements. We were delighted to welcome ringers from groups all across south Wales, the west of England, Northumberland and Ireland.
There were eight ringing trainers present for the duration of the weekend: Martin Hughes (independent / Northumberland), Heather Coats, Wayne Morris, Dionne Jenkins and Owain Gabb (Gower Ringing Group), Tony Cross (mid-Wales Ringing Group), Chris Jones (Teifi Ringing Group), and Chris Redfern (Natural History Society of Northumbria Ringing Group). Additional support was provided by Ed O’Connor (with regard to wader catching at Whiteford), Miguel Lurgi (at Overton), Jo Conway, Jasmine Davies and Jane Beck (our team of scribes), and various other Gower Ringing Group members (particularly Steve Lysyj) during site set up.
The itinerary included daytime mist netting and (attempts at) whoosh netting at Oxwich Marsh, spring trapping in the intertidal at Overton and dazzling of waders at Whiteford Burrows and Weobley on the Burry Inlet. Chris Redfern delivered talks on aspects of Arctic tern ecology, including the results of satellite tagging and what it had revealed about tern migration, and the (possibly counter intuitive) positive effects of visitor activity on tern productivity.
The course was hugely weather affected. While wind speed was (thankfully) relatively low on all days but the Monday, heavy rain and regular showers severely limited and curtailed our activities on the Friday and Saturday respectively, and led to a late start on the Sunday. To illustrate the extent of the rain, there was a flood warning issued for the Ilston Brook, which runs past the centre we were staying in. The Brook duly rose, but it was the flow of water down the road, which became a raging torrent and flooded the car park of our lodgings (partially submerging and damaging several cars belonging to participants) that was the most dramatic result of the weather. The following morning the South Gower road was littered with deep pools / abandoned cars, and the most direct route to Oxwich was blocked by a fallen mature oak tree (apparently destabilised by the weather).
A total of 412 birds of 37 species were processed (as compared with 853 birds of 34 species in 2023). The difference in the overall number of birds between years points to the effect of the weather. However the tides were more favourable for catching waders in 2024 than in 2023, and we put a break in the weather on Sunday evening to very good use.
The breakdown was as follows:
Daytime Mist Netting
Mist netting sessions were held at Oxwich on three of the four days. Mist nets were set in habitats including reed bed, fen and damp scrub. Unfortunately unprecedented levels of rainfall on the Friday night meant that a good proportion of the available net rides had several feet of water in them on the Saturday and Sunday: of the 760 m / ~ 2500 feet of net ride we had ready, approximately a third were very challenging or impossible to use. An added challenge was that the weather seemed to have led to birds clearing out of the area, resulting in atypically quiet mist netting sessions.
The most commonly captured species during mist netting sessions was blackcap, with 52 birds ringed and two recaptured. It appears to have been a less productive year for the species than in 2023 (over 150 blackcaps were captured during the equivalent course and the numbers throughout the later summer and early autumn were considerably higher). Of note were two kingfisher, three grasshopper warbler, two garden warbler (not a bird we catch in number in Gower), two tree pipit and nine house martin. The latter were tape lured into mist nets when the cloud base dropped in the late morning and they began to forage over the marsh. Reed, sedge and Cetti’s warbler were all caught in small numbers (peak passage of the former two long distance migrant species is over – the latter is a resident that undertakes within-UK dispersive movements in the autumn). Despite daily passage of grey wagtails overhead, we could not attract them down into our nets, which was disappointing.
Arrested moult in an adult grasshopper warbler was of interest. The inner primary on both wings had been replaced as had part of the tail. The rest of the plumage was very worn (juvenile plumage by contrast is uniformly fresh). A good bird for assessment.
Unfortunately there was very little passage of pipits evident. We were not able to lure them into our whoosh netting area (this had proven successful in 2023), with the two tree pipit and two meadow pipit captured on the course both being in mist nets. Participants were talked through the technique by Chris Jones, who has used it in recent years to capture large numbers of linnets (as part of a Recapture Adults for Survival project) and whose recent whoosh net captures include chough.
Spring Trapping
Spring trapping was undertaken on the storm beach at Overton on the Sunday afternoon. The session was led by Miguel Lurgi, who is doing a population study of rock pipits in Glamorgan. Single panel / two-shelf nets were also used.
One rock pipit was captured (in a spring trap) and colour-ringed, with a white wagtail, a wheatear and a robin the other captures while participants were present. The wheatear caught on the Sunday was not ringed as it had a historical (healed) leg break. The bird included in the totals was captured during reconnaissance work on the Saturday.
Wader Dazzling
For many of the participants the highlight of the course was dazzling waders. Two teams went out on the Sunday night. Team 1 went to the grazing marsh at Weobley, with Tony Cross leading the dazzling effort, while Team 2 went to the shingle ridge at Berges Island / Whiteford Point with Ed O’Connor leading.
The results were excellent, with a combined total of 55 ringed plover, 25 dunlin, a curlew sandpiper and a little stint captured. The number of ringed plover caught comfortably exceeded our total for the species in any previous session / year. Both curlew sandpiper and little stint are very infrequently captured in Wales, with the most recent available BTO data indicating 14 captures of the former and three of the latter in 2022.
Participants were given the opportunity to try dazzling, with many successfully capturing birds using the technique. In accordance with BTO protocols birds were held in pens and ringed under (subdued) red light prior to their release.
Acknowledgements
Feedback on the weekend from attendees was very positive. Despite weather conditions that were challenging, forecasts that changed rapidly and often didn’t reflect conditions on the ground, and a constant resulting need to reassess and change plans, everyone remained upbeat over what was a very tiring weekend.
Particular thanks are due to the visiting trainers, Martin, Chris Jones, Chris Redfern and Tony for giving their time and expertise so freely, to Ed O’Connor for his wader-catching efforts and expertise, to Miguel for his efforts at Overton, and to the various Gower RG members who helped scribe, set up and do numerous other things during the course that made life easier. The talks given by Chris Redfern showed how ringing efforts can lead to projects that significantly improve our ecological knowledge of a species, and were very well received.
Huge thanks to Ed Tucker of Natural Resources Wales for cutting out some additional rides and mowing the compound (where we set up our ringing stations) in the marsh in the lead in to the course, and to Nick Edwards (also of NRW) for his continued support for ringing at Oxwich and permission to use Whiteford. Thanks also to Dan Pritchard for access to use the Weobley Track and being flexible with regard to changing dates (driven by weather).
Finally we would like to thank the Welsh Ornithological Society for grant funding towards the course. We try and keep the charge for the course as reasonable as possible (so as not to exclude those with limited financial means), and this funding together with the course fee has allowed us to largely cover our costs. We are also hugely grateful to the Gower Society for their ongoing support to our efforts at Oxwich, and the contribution this makes to allow us to continue to train many of the next generation of ornithological data gatherers and researchers in South Wales.
Photographs are below.
Owain Gabb
10/09/2024
