Signs of Spring - Kenfig 4/4/15

An early start, for Cedwyn and Chris, on an overcast and still rather cold morning rewarded us with Kenfig's first Chiffchaff of the year and sighting of the first Swallow over the reserve. The targeted Reed Bunting were fairly elusive though plenty were seen feeding on the millet being provided for them. Though the catching was slow the morning was still very productive as we manged to repair one of the Ty'n y Caeau nets which had a large number of holes in the top shelf (I know nets by definition have lots of holes, but I'm sure you get the picture).

Totals for the day:

Ty'n y Caeau - 27/3/2015

A long way to go and not even a bird each!
Heather,Phil,Charlie and Chris turned up at 06:30 and had to wait until after 08:30 for the first bird although we did see two get out of the net before we could make it to the nets to extract them. 
Then they came with a rush at 09:10 and 09:30. Three birds for the morning

Totals for the day:

Kenfig NNR - 10/3/15

Some fine weather at last proved it to be a good day for the Kenfig Ringing group.
Whilst some went to Ty'n y Caeau, Dave was busy around the reserve centre at Kenfig.
A good selection of birds.

Totals for the day:

Ty'n y Caeau 10/3/2015 - A good session at last.

After a number of visits this year to Ty'n y Caeau with a pretty meagre total each time, we had a very good session this morning.
Heather and Chris arranged to have the nets up at first light. The reward was a good early round with almost 20 birds in the nets.

The target species (Yellowhammer) was present in good numbers, justifying the work being done by the volunteers filling the seed feeders regularly.

With the sun coming up we were still catching birds, unlike previous sessions, making it a very pleasant morning.

Totals for the day:

Ty'n y Caeau - 20/2/2015

Another disappointing session at TyC today though the weather looked like it would be favourable.
We met at 07:00 and set up the usual run of nets adjacent to the feeder.
Not much to say but that it was short on birds, though 4 species and a re-trap YELHA that was first caught here as a 5M on 27/3/2010.

Total for the day:

Ty'n y Caeau - 9/2/2015

On what, at first impression, seemed to be a perfect morning for ringing in the end turned out to be a very disappointing event.
Heather, Cedwyn, Charlie, Phil and Chris met at first light to set up the nets at Ty'n y Caeau with a good deal of optimism. The feeder had been filled and about a quarter of the contents had already been taken. There were also plenty of birds seen and heard in the hedge alongside the net run.
However the forecast overcast weather turned into a gloriously sunny morning. The birds were content to simply sit in the hedge apparently sunbathing and by 10:30 we had amassed a grand total of 6.
We took the nets down and looking back to the net run as we cleared away, the birds started darting back and forth from hedge to feeder. They could see  the nets in the sun.

Totals for the day:

First Session of the Year - Ty'n y Caeau 3/2/2015

The Kenfig Ringing Group at last had its first session of the year on its own turf. A few members had already managed to ring a number of birds at the Parc Cwm Darren open day on the 24th January.
Cedwyn, Heather, and Chris met at Ty'n y Caeau at first light, though for some it was lighter than others.
A very cold but sunny and windless morning seemed to bode well, though the fact the feeders had not been filled recently dampened our spirits somewhat. Illness was the culprit regarding the restocking issue so it obviously couldn't be helped.

As the morning woreon it became apparent that feeding is probably the key to bird numbers as by 10am we called it a day having had the slim total of three birds, but then at least it was not a blank and any practice is better than trying to learn just from the literature.

Totals for the day: