Ty'n-y-Caeau 24th November 2014

This morning I joined Heather Coats, Charlie Sargent and Phil Mead before dawn at a cold and frosty field in the Vale of Glamorgan. We set up our usual 260' of net along the hedge line and by the time we had tied the final pole we had caught two song thrushes - it augured well for the rest of the session (or did it)!

During our last visit in September there had been large mixed flocks of finches perched on the wires in the vicinity of our nets however this was not repeated today and we were surviving on slim pickings of linnets and a single yellowhammer - both new species for Phil (so it was not a wasted day).

Linnet

Yellowhammer

Following two hours without a bird we decided to call it a day at 11:00 with the grand total of thirteen birds as follows:

Species
Song Thrush	2
Dunnock	1
Linnet	9
Yellowhammer	1
Total	13

Ringing Demonstration 12 October

Wayne Morris and I held a ringing demonstration today as part of the BIG Birding Day at Kenfig. The morning was spent down at the pool with 3 60' nets in 'SWPW' and 2 60' nets in 'WPS'. The demonstration was well attended and onlookers were rewarded with views of some good birds. Species included two reed buntings, two goldcrests, two chiffchaffs, Cetti's warbler, blackcap, great tit and two wrens. The birdwatching was good too with plenty of birds migrating overhead including two redwings, four redpolls, five siskins, six mistle thrushes and a constant stream of meadow pipits and chaffinches.

In the afternoon we moved near the reserve centre and put up two nets nearby. Further visitors enjoyed seeing some common birds in the hand. The aggressive nature of blue tits caused much entertainment as they pecked and tweaked my fingers during processing. 

Eager group waiting for next net round.

Female goldcrest (picture by Becky)

Opening Session at Ty'n-y-Caeau

I joined Heather Coats and Gail Cobbold at our Autumn/Winter ringing site in the Vale of Glamorgan. Conditions were ideal with hardly a breath of wind, an overcast sky and a large gathering of mixed finches taking station on the surrounding wires at the edge of the field before foraging among the crop for breakfast.

We had set up a single line of 2 x 12 metre and 3 x 18 metre nets and soon there were linnets and goldfinches showing a close interest in the sounds we were airing. 

Linnet

Our slow, steady progress was hindered by the appearance of a pair of sparrowhawks who saw an ideal opportunity for a meal and soon after, a short sharp shower brought our activities to a premature conclusion but not before we had managed to catch a lone meadow pipit.

Meadow Pipit

Our total for the morning: 

Species
Meadow Pipit	1
Dunnock	1
Blackbird	2
Chiffchaff	1
Blue Tit	1
Great Tit	3
Goldfinch	8
Linnet	11
Total	28

Ty'n-y-caeau Farm

Heather, Cedwyn and Dave went to the sacrificial crop at the Vale of Glamorgan site near Marcross to prepare the ringing ride ready for this winter's ringing.

Cedwyn did a fine job with his strimmer cutting a lawn for us to walk along. We put the nets up so that our pole holding pipes could be put in the correct places but didn't try to catch any birds because it was very windy. There weren't many birds about but we did see a peregrine fly low over the field.

The crop looked better than it has for several years with lots of sunflowers and chicory in flower. It won't be long until hundreds of finches arrive to feast on the seeds.

The project at the farm is run with the Glamorgan Bird Club and funded by Natural Resources Wales.

The morning ended with us taking in the vivid colours of the crop while eating scones with strawberry jam and cream provided by Becky.

CES 12 Finished and Another Survey Year Completed

Dave, Heather, Cedwyn (who also took photos below) and Gale attended the reserve on 2 September to carry out the final Constant Effort Site ringing for the 2014 season. In addition to the usual 360' net run we erected two nets in 'West Pool Slack' and three in 'Glaucous Reed'. There seemed to be few birds about as we erected the nets at dawn and this was borne out by a general lack of birds caught in the nets. However, a steady trickle of captures through to the end brought us up to 46 birds for the morning.

Dave was particularly pleased to get to ring a jay, a species he hasn't ringed for several years on account that he usually hands them over to trainees to learn how to handle species more than capable of inflicting pain!

This individual was a bird that has fledged this year. The bird was aged by counting the dark bars on the outer-most greater covert. Matching up growth bar-like patterning on the primary coverts did not work as well as it appears in Svensson.

The easiest way to see Cetti's warblers at Kenfig is to put up a mist net. Two new birds were ringed and one was re-trapped. All were aged as birds fledged this year. In the next month or so all Cetti's will have completed their post juvenile moults and become much more difficult to age so we were pleased to catch two new birds.

Species	New	Re-trapped	Total
Tree Pipit	1	0	1
Wren	1	0	1
Robin	4	1	5
Cetti's Warbler	2	1	3
Sedge Warbler	3	0	3
Reed Warbler	5	3	8
Whitethroat	2	0	2
Blackcap	7	0	7
Chiffchaff	2	0	2
Willow Warbler	1	0	1
Goldcrest	1	0	1
Long-tailed Tit		1	1
Blue Tit	3	0	3
Jay	1	0	1
Blackbird	1	0	1
Great Tit	3		3
Bullfinch	2	1	3
Total:	39	7	46

CES 11 20/8/14 TREEmendous catch

I have to start with the fact that there were two new birds for me on CES 11!

Grasshopper Warbler

The first was the Grasshopper Warbler . The photo doesn't do it justice (and my fingers don't look that big in real life).

Then there was the Tree Pipit 

Tree Pipit

and not just the one, we caught 26 of them by the end of the day. Both these birds are proof that you don't need lots of colour to look stunning in the sunlight.

But having said that between those catches we had this showy little thing. All iridescent and either blue or green depending on which angle you look at it. So a bit of colour doesn't look bad either.

Kingfisher

Kingfisher

The session was attended by Dave, Heather, Cedwyn and Chris.
As on previous visits we augmented the 6x18m CES ride nets with 2x18m in the west pool slack(WPS), and another 3x18m in the Glaucous Reed ride (GLR).

The nets in  the scrub area was by far the most productive yielding a total of 40 birds.
GLR was a poor catch with only 11 birds, but the walk over there is good exercise (as if we needed it!)

The CES ride was again an increase on recent years with a total of 28 birds. That means we have caught almost 50% more birds than last year with CES12 still to come.

Also of note were the controls that we caught, both were Sedge Warblers, one of which had a French ring on. We will be interested to know where they were first ringed.


Totals for the day:

CES 10 - 8/8/14

CES 10 started in excellent conditions with no wind and clear skies. Dave, Cedwyn, Heather and Chris had another new companion this week. Phil Mead had his first taste of the joys of ringing whilst up to your knees in mud.

With the extra assistance it was easy to get both the CES and additional nets up early, and we were rewarded by an excellent first few rounds, with approximately 30 birds caught by around 08:30. We added an extra net in GLR making a total of 11x18m nets. 

The session obviously quietened after this but the total for the day (67) was more than acceptable. A control Sedge Warbler turned up later, which was thought to be originally ringed on Gower.


The CES ride again provided and improved catch on previous years, continuing the much welcomed trend for this survey.

Kingfisher

An early birds was 
this juvenile, female
Kingfisher.










Total for the day: