A Small Purple Patch at Kenfig 18/4/14

With ringing sessions at Kenfig having been fairly limited by wind and weather, it was pleasant to put some nests up around the reserve centre. We were hoping to catch some of the migrants starting to arrive at the reserve. Dave was joined by Alex and Chris to set out the usual 4x18m nets around the centre. Care was needed on the path to two of them, to avoid an Early Purple Orchid right in the middle of the access route.

Early Purple Orchid

The morning turned up a few of the expected migrants but in small numbers as the session had to be cut short due to the increasing wind. 

A Willow Warbler reluctant to leave

 Total for the day:

Kenfig 10th April 2014

With no trainees available I rang solo this morning with 4 60' nets arranged in various places near the reserve centre building. Conditions were pretty good with no wind and a bit of cloud cover. It was great to catch plenty of spring migrants.

Robin 2, Blackcap 5, Bullfinch 5, Wren 2, Blue tit 2 (1), Blackbird (1), Chiffchaff 1, Willow warbler 4, Dunnock 2 (1), House sparrow 1, Great tit 2, Goldfinch 1 and Reed bunting (1).
31 birds caught of which 4 were retraps (in brackets)

A wood pigeon and linnet were caught but escaped the net as I approached.

 One of five bullfinches.

 Tail on a '6' blackcap (hatched before 2013)

Female goldfinch. This individual was a '5' (hatched in 2013)

Totals for the day:

Farmland Birds Proving Elusive at Ty'n y Caeau

The weather looked perfect as we arrived just before 06:30 for what we hoped to be a productive session at the farm. We set up the usual set of five nets (2x12m and 3x18m) and as we were feeling confident (or possibly desperate) an extra two (1x12m and 1x18m) next to the feeder store area. By this time the sun had risen and burnt off the cloud and we had a brilliantly sunny day in prospect. However the wind was also starting to gust. A trickle of early birds were led off by a male Linnet

On such a sunny morning it was pleasing to hear a number of Skylarks singing and a pair were in what appeared to be aerial combat in the centre of the field. We decided to do a bit of Skylark chasing so set up 2 more nets at the field margin, with sound, in an attempt catch the birds whose main concentration may be on other pressing matters.
Unfortunately by 11am the wind had become a veritable gale and so we had little option but to pack up. There will be better days.
The slim pickings for the day were:

Sunny Sunday Introduction March 9th

On a very pleasant morning Dave and Chris were joined by a new trainee. Alex had had to wait some time because of the weather to have her first session to get a flavour of ringing with the Kenfig Ringing Group. We set up 4x18m nets in the usual places around the reserve centre. With limited time available it was good to have a small number of birds to enable them to be looked at without the attendant pressure that comes with large numbers. Though short on numbers it was long on species with the obligatory Blue Tit showing up for a trainee to see such a small bird with a big attitude.
The list for the morning was:

The last bird of the day deserved a picture:

Filming Interrupts events at Ty'n y Caeau Farm

With the weather at last clearing to enable some ringing in calm overcast conditions Heather, Cedwyn and Chris were able to see what Ty'n y Caeau could offer by way of farmland birds. The nets (3x18m and 2x12m) were set around first light by 7:00am. After the first net round, extracting just a few birds, our concern was raised by what seemed to be a helicopter in trouble just out in the channel. It turned out to be the filming of an episode of Casualty. At lot of noise for what will probably be just a few minutes of film. Back to the birds - we caught a total of 21. While not a lot of birds they were nicely interspersed to allow for thorough evaluation in ageing of some tricky birds (well for me the trainee anyway). A few of the yellowhammers had at least read Svenson and decided to conform. Others had decided on a mixed approach to age related features.

The full list for the morning being:

We did manage this time to take some pictures:

Two Sessions in Two days - Amazing!

We took advantage of another short window in this years rather poor weather for ringing to have another session at Kenfig. Although it was only two days since the last visit, there was a reasonable catch (18 birds). Pleasing that we had a significant number of Reed Bunting, giving us a chance to sharpen our ageing skills of this bird at this time of year. Not one of the easiest for the trainee to get to grips with.
We used the same set of 4 x 18m nets around the reserve centre.
Present today were Dave , Heather and Chris.
Complete list for the day.

A Sunny Sunday at Kenfig NNR

Dave and Chris were at last able to get a session going at the new rides that had been cut at Kenfig NNR. They were joined later by Wayne Morris from the BTO.
We put up 4 18metre nets at various locations adjacent to the reserve centre. It proved to  be a very productive morning with a total of 42 birds caught. The star was undoubtedly a Magpie but sorry no pictures as it was a little unhelpful when we tried to capture the scene.
The full list was