Looking forward to Spring

Despite the chilly conditions and last year's depressing summer weather, we are still inexplicably optimistic  about spring's imminent arrival and John, Paul and PJ have made an assortment of nest boxes over the last month or so using workshop facilities at Valero refinery, Pembroke. Target species this year have been Tawny Owl, Redstart and Dipper. The redstart boxes were trialed last year in open conifer plantations and were a success in that three out of six boxes were used by redstarts rather than taken up by by blue tits and great tits, which seem to have the ability to spontaneously form no matter where the box is placed. With the permission and help from local forest manager, Huw Denman, we now have 30 redstart boxes in conifer woods in addition to another 15 sited in other suitable open habitat.

A box designed for redstarts in open conifers, Preseli

One of last year's redstart chicks from a nest box at  Ty Rhyg

Whilst there is never a bad time of year to put up a nest box, the newly sited dipper and tawny owl boxes are up too late for this breeding season; these are early breeders and many have already laid a clutch of eggs.
However they will become useful as roost sites straight away and especially once this years young become independent.

One of the dipper boxes put up yesterday

More Golden Plover

Last night at one of the regular study sites for Woodcock (Stackpole) there were fewer birds than expected for this site perhaps indicating that some woodcock have taken advantage of the settled weather to start their journey eastwards to their breeding grounds. A big surprise was a small flock of 25 Golden Plover in dairy pasture where they have never been recorded at night before. Perhaps these are birds passing through, or maybe the activities on the nearby Castlemartin firing range displaced them from their usual fields on the range. Altogether, 9 Goldies and 4 Woodcock were ringed.

1st Winter Golden Plover ready to go 

(Paul and Paddy)

Going for Gold

The conditions were not ideal for lamping last night - not a breath of wind and a beautiful starry night -but we decided to go anyway to have a last go at trying to catch woodcock before they migrate east in a week or so. There were still plenty of woodcock, with around 30 seen, but only one caught as they were extremely jumpy and impossible to get close to. We also ringed a skylark and a snipe. Then we came to a field with quite a few golden plover and our depression changed to elation as we managed to catch 14 including two retraps from earlier this winter. Unfortunately, in the excitement we forgot to take photos, but some were starting to moult into summer plumage and starting to look very smart. Here's a photo of the snipe..

Paul W and Paddy J

Almost a hattrick

Last night a visit was made with Den to some fields in the Maenclochog area of Preseli to survey and ring woodcock. Even though only ten days previously the area was welly-deep in snow, there were plenty of birds about with 28 recorded in three fields totaling 15 hectares. This is nearly four times the average density of 0.5 birds per hectare. Clearly if the woodcock in this area vacated during the week long period of snow cover then they returned quickly and brought a bunch of their mates back with them. Catching conditions were good for a change, and 16 were ringed, all of which were new.

We also ringed a snipe and saw a jack snipe which unfortunately was not settled enough to get close to. It's a puzzle why jack snipe are impossible to flush in the day, but almost impossible to approach at night.

Snipe - only the sixth this winter

Geolocator located!

News came in yesterday of a ringed woodcock (EX28486) that had been shot only a field away from where it was originally ringed last winter at a site adjacent to the Cleddau Estuary. Site fidelity between winters is not unusual and we have plenty of examples of woodcock recaptured at the same spot as they were ringed in a previous winter, in some cases within a few metres. However in this case initial panic set in because the bird should have been wearing one of the geolocators fitted last winter, and it was feared that the bird must have somehow managed to lose its tag. A few phone calls later and Mike managed to confirm that the geolocator was still on the woodcock (which had not yet been prepared for the table) and it simply hadn't been noticed. So in this case, in due course we will hopefully be able to tell where EX28486 spent the summer. Thanks Mike!

Geolocators are fitted to the bird in such a way as to cause no discomfort using a specially designed harness. Unlike the more expensive GPS tags they cannot transmit positions, but instead record daylight and time. From these data approximate positions can be subsequently calculated but only if the tag can be recovered.

The Winter so far

Despite the very infrequent blog posts, the winter’s ringing activities have been going well and In particular, the long-term study of the nocturnal use of farmland by waders has picked up speed with the addition of a new and highly accomplished recruit - Paul – who has joined the steadily increasing number of individuals in Wales who no longer think the telly is adequate entertainment on a cold and wet winters evening, and instead take to the fields to record and ring birds.

Paul ringing a woodcock  (photo - Myles Jenks)

So far this winter woodcock have been the most frequently encountered species and over 130 have been ringed in the county. Snipe are encountered almost as frequently but only 3 have been ringed and this is entirely due to their wary nature and habit of grouping together in squelchy wet parts of the fields, making close approach nigh on impossible. Golden plover are more approachable and 20 have ringed, but jack snipe have been very thin on the ground with only 2 seen, both of which were associated with a load of jumpy snipe.

Woodcock roosting in improved  pasture (photo - Myles Jenks)

Ground roosting passerines have included 18 redwings but only 2 fieldfare and a song thrush, a dozen or so meadow pipits and skylarks.

Only two fieldfares have been ringed this winter (Photo - Jennie Caldwell)

The recent snow will undoubtedly cause a lot of redistribution of birds and it will be interesting to see how the birds react. Some of the county has been knee deep in snow while much of the coastal strip has still been completely green, so as soon as the full moon passes we will be out there again to see.

Firecrest & Cettis -- Kilpaison

We went to Kilpaison this morning and caught one new Firecrest  and retraped Cetti Y171312 which was first ringed on 6-5-12 at Kil. retrapped again 22-9-12 at Kil. and again today.
(Pembs RG)

Belgian Blackcap

A trip to Kilpaison by five of the group yesterday morning produced a catch of around 45 birds. The highlight was a control 1stW  blackcap wearing a Brussels ring. It proved very difficult to read, and various people had to make an attempt using a variety of optical aids before agreement on the ringing scheme could be made. This highlights the main problem associated with the gradually shifting age profile of licensed bird ringers; soon no one will be able to read the ring numbers!

Red and gold - the colours of Autumn

After a lengthy spell of being unable to go ringing it was great to be out with Paul at Ty Rhyg trying to catch some autumn migrants - and unlike in the summer sessions - we did actually catch some birds! At dawn  a few redwings dropped in but the main species was goldcrest with 24 being ringed out of a total catch of 65.

Much to Paul's delight a yellow-browed warbler had appeared in a mistnet in Steve's garden two days previously,  so we were very optimistic when checking the nets, but we caught nothing unusual though adult male goldfinch and redpoll always brighten up the session.

Cetti's recoveries

During Autumn 2010, John and Paul caught four Cetti’s Warblers at Kilpaison Marsh, a site that Cetti’s have formerly bred at, but weren’t thought to have done so in 2010. Remarkably, two were controls, and even more remarkably,  the others were recovered! Cetti’s are usually sedentary, though juveniles are capable of medium distance dispersal movements in the autumn. All were juvenile when originally ringed, but T147893 may have dispersed as an adult perhaps during the cold snap in January 2010 and the two that were ringed in Pembs have perhaps returned to their natal areas? Can’t say for sure but it’s a good reason to target ringing at more sites with Cetti’s Warblers in the winter, and perhaps too, our even more recent colonist; Dartford Warbler.

L296082                27-06-2010   Bainton Gravel Pits: 52°38'N 0°22'W (Cambridgeshire)
Caught by ringer      21-11-2010   Kilpaison Marsh, Rhoscrowther: 51°40'N 5°3'W
                                                 337km   WSW   0y 4m 25d

T147893               02-06-2007    near Marsworth, near Tring: 51°48'N 0°40'W  
                                                Hertfordshire
Caught by ringer 16-10-2010    Kilpaison Marsh, Rhoscrowther: 51°40'N 5°3'W                                                      
                                                     302km   W   3y 4m 14d

L53495               30-10-2010   Kilpaison Marsh, Rhoscrowther: 51°40'N 5°3'W
Caught by ringer   11-06-2011   Attenborough Nature Reserve: c. 52°54'N 1°14'W
                                                     Nottinghamshire   294km   ENE   0y 7m 12d

L534559              28-Sep-2010   Kilpaison Marsh, Rhoscrowther, Pembrokeshire
Caught by ringer 10-Jun-2012   Brandon Marsh, Warwickshire 52 22’ N  1 27’ W
                                                621 days    Distance: 259km

Three of the above movements make it into the top five longest movements within UK.