Swallows in the roost

The last two weeks have seen a rapid increase in the number of swallows going to roost in Winterton Marsh from just 30 birds at the start of the month to around 300 in the last few days.  We try to catch in roughly ten day periods to September when the roost finally disperses and on 12th we caught 65 new birds, all except one were juveniles and many just fledged.
Additional birds ringed were Sedge and Reed Warblers, Whitethroat, Sand Martin and Pied Wagtail and we controlled a heavily in moult blue tit ringed in March nearby.

In the last week we also managed a small catch of Strom Petrels - just 29 new birds and a control.

CES update

With the first four CES visits at Llandilo out of the way, we now have an indication of how some of the common bird species are faring compare to the previous two seasons. Catch sizes at this site are typically fairly small, with an overall average of 25 birds per session (ranging from a high of 40 down to a very desperate 9 in August 2015). The earlier visits tend to be very slightly busier with an average of 27 birds during the first four sessions and this year is identical to the average for the period. However, its not as run-of-the-mill as it first appears, and there has been a 20% decline in overall adult abundance with the difference made up by more early juveniles than usual. In particular, the number of juvenile robins is already equal to the entire year's worth of the past two seasons, which have both been pretty rubbish in terms of productivity. As an indication of how bad a season 2016 was, only 2 juvenile blue tits were ringed all season! Whilst some ringers might celebrate that (blue tits can be vicious), it hopefully will be a more productive season in 2017 for juveniles, and who knows?, we may even break the record catch of 40.

Even though catches are small, they often result in something a bit interesting being caught, and they are an ideal pace for trainee ringers.

Adult male redstart from CES 2

Spotted flycatcher

Juvenile long-tailed tit

A big surprise was this juvenile dipper caught during CES visit 4. It was unusual in that it was caught away from a stream, flying through woodland, and also in that it was already ringed elsewhere. It turned out to be one of Karen's from Teifi RG and it was ringed as a nestling in April in the Gwaun valley. Although only 10 km away in a direct line, it had clearly jumped catchments, probably crossing the Preseli hills. By coincidence, Karen was also helping out with the session, so she got a chance to catch up with it.

Pembrokeshire Ringing Group are Chough-ed!

Splendid news that a Chough that was colour ringed on the 20^th May 2001 at Porthtaflod Pembrokeshire is resighted on the 5^th April 2017 approximately 247 km away by the Calf of Man BO. A time lapse of 5799 days and if you don’t have a calculator to hand, that is 15 years 10 months 16 days. We believe older Chough’s are around but this movement is a bit special for Pembrokeshire.

Pemb's Ringing Group.

Another Whimbrel in West Africa

This years efforts to colour-ring whimbrel at the Gann have been thwarted by either high winds, high tides or other commitments getting in the way and despite good numbers of birds moving through, only two have been ringed. So it was timely that news has just arrived that C96, ringed on 5th May 2013, had been seen in Guinea-Bissau in January this year. This follows a resighting of C52 that was ringed on 14th September 2013 and photographed in Gambia in November, 2016. Both these records are within the main wintering area of British-ringed whimbrel, though the Gambian bird appears to be the first ringing recovery in that country.

Colour ringed Black-tailed Godwit on Skokholm

A colour ringed Black-tailed Godwit found here on 20th April had been seen on the coast to the west of Nantes, France the day before! Having been ringed as a chick in south Iceland in July 2013, this bird was subsequently seen on the Dee in October 2013, at Leighton Moss in July 2014 and April 2015, Cley in October and September 2015, Leighton Moss again in April 2016 and north Germany in August, September and October 2016.

Satellite tagged Greenland Whitefronted Geese on the way back to Greenland.

It was a real privilege for Theresa and I to assist the team with the field work which satellite tagged the Greenland Whitefronted Geese on the Dyfi back in December 2016. A once in a life time experience as BTO ringers, given their rarity wintering in Wales.

Working as part of the GWfG Partnership with funding from the Welsh Government, a greater understanding of the GWfG whilst wintering in Wales can now be achieved, a historic moment in this conservation project. Many thanks to Carl Mitchell, Mick Green and Steve Dodd for sharing their expert knowledge and experience.

Click on the link to read more and monitor the Greenland Whitefronted Geese progress. http://telemetry.wikispaces.com/Greenfront_Wales

Michael & Theresa

Wheatear colour ringing on Skokholm

Today saw the start of a new project on Skokholm, a repeat of the work carried out here by Peter Conder from 1948 and which formed the basis of his monograph on this species. Island regular Ian Beggs is leading the project. Having arrived on the Island this morning, he had already ringed the Sugarloaf pair by this afternoon - only another 19 or so pairs to go. Although we are targeting Skokholm breeders (which are perhaps unlikely to be seen elsewhere in Pembrokeshire), we are also ringing Skokholm youngsters which perhaps will be seen elsewhere, particularly in future years. If you see a green ring inscribed in white then it is a Skokholm bird and the white three digit code will tell us who it is (you will probably need a telescope or a good camera to make out the code).

First Chiffchaff 2017

A sneaky hour with a couple of nets this morning before the wind increased and that orange disc rose too high in the sky and illuminated everything. First bird out was our earliest Chiffchaff, 12 days earlier than last year. Other notables within the hour were Blackcap, Long-tailed Tit and a Goldcrest which we first ringed on the 9th June 2016. Spring may be here but it's a bit sporadic!

Michael & Theresa

Colour Ringed Oystercatchers

Since Autumn 2015, all oystercatchers caught in Pembrokeshire have been colour-ringed. Most of the 38 that have been ringed so far have been caught at the Gann, with six ringed on Skokholm and one at Sandy Haven. Of these, 17 have been subsequently seen again involving 44 resightings in total. The commonest scenario by far is to see birds back at the same site as they were ringed, though there is clearly a link between The Gann and Skomer/Skokholm with six individuals moving between these sites. So far only two have been recorded outside of Pembrokeshire "A1" and "04";

"A1" was ringed at The Gann on 14/03/2016 and was seen on Tiree on 13/03/2017.

"04" was ringed at The Gann on 16/10/2015 and spent the summer at Stranraer, before returning to the Gann on 11/08/2016.

"A4" was also ringed at the Gann on 14/03/2016, and was seen on Skomer on 21/07/2016 and again there on 16/03/2017.

Oystercatcher resightings from birds ringed at the Gann

There's a lot to be discovered about this declining species, and any resightings will be very gratefully received (see contact form in the side bar). The Pembrokeshire scheme has a plain orange ring over the metal on the left tarsus and an inscribed orange ring with black digits/letters reading upwards on the right tarsus, as shown below.

A0 about to be released

An Average Winter for Woodcock

Maybe it's part of getting old, but its puzzling why there is a tendency to feel that previous years were somehow better in some way, with either endless sunshine or, in the case of bird ringing, hundreds of birds, all of which were easy to catch. When asked how the season had gone for woodcock this winter, I have said on a few occasions "not very good". To be fair, there were a few nights in January which were very unproductive, resulting in only six birds ringed from five nights' effort, and this experience must have negatively influenced morale, giving a feeling of gloom. The winter of 2016/2017 is now almost at an end in terms of available lamping sessions, because most of the woodcock will have started to move back east before the next period of dark evenings from 16^th March, so lets see how bad it really was.

Well, in terms of ringing totals from the central part of Pembrokeshire, this winter has been slightly above average for woodcock, but for all other species that roost in pasture at night, the totals are lower than usual, though most are typically only found in small numbers anyway - see table below. The exception is snipe which is often seen in good numbers but is very difficult to catch.

Total Individuals caught 2016/2017 Average for winters 2008/09 to 2015/16 Fieldfare 1 5 Golden Plover 3 6 Jack Snipe 1 1 Meadow Pipit 5 10 Redwing 2 4 Skylark 2 6 Snipe 4 7 Woodcock 101 89 Total 119 128

During ringing visits counts are also made of all woodcock seen, regardless of whether they are ringed or not and this enables a more reliable comparison of the encounter rate, which is perhaps a better indicator of actual numbers because catch rate varies enormously with weather conditions and the brightness of the sky. In Pembrokeshire catching is often best when there is at least some wind, under thick, low cloud or (surprisingly) no cloud at all when every star is visible. High or scattered cloud makes a bright sky due to light pollution, especially on the horizon, and in such conditions, woodcock often fly before close approach can be made. Having said that, the average encounter rate based on 161 field visits was 0.55 per hectare, 10% above the combined average for previous winters since 2008/09 (0.50), so in this case the slightly higher field counts agree almost perfectly with slightly higher ringing totals. Not so gloomy after all!

Woodcock roosting in pasture. Photo: Myles Jenks