KNNR Reserve Centre - 30/10/2016 was it BST or GMT

After much confusion over what time to start the session, given the alteration of the clocks, it was decided that the best ploy was to ignore the clocks and arrive at Kenfig at first light (06:30 if you must know).
Heather, Dave and Chris set up 2 x 60' nets adjacent to the reserve centre.
It transpired that the birds were obviously having a lie in today or had forgotten to set their alarms as we didn't catch a thing until 09:10, and as we had to finish at 10:00 it was a pretty small total.

We were however able to releave the boredom by repairing one of the older 60' nets.

Totals for the day:

CES 12 - 1/9/2016 - At Last

Apologies for the late update to the CES ringing results.
Having completed 11 of the 12 sessions it was good to see a better result , though not quite as good as 2014.

Results for the day:

Tyn Y Caeau - 27/10/2016

After doing some initial preparation work at the site earlier in the week we decided to have a ringing session whilst doing some further ride cutting.
Heather, Phil and Chris put up the usual five nets - 2 x 40' and 3 x 60' before starting some extra strimmimg at the bottom  end of the field.

Still more to be done but the site looks like this now -

At the bottom of the field there is a 90 degree dogleg adjacent to the two fence lines.
The plan is to join up the two ride to provide plenty of options on the day.

The catch was small for the day total being:

15/8/2016 - CES 11

Totals for the day:

6/8/2016 - CES 10 - The Year Keeps Improving

Though the forecast seemed to indicate that it was marginal, when Cedwyn and Chris arrived to set up the nets the conditions were pretty near perfect. Overcast and and no wind.

With the nets up up by just after 06:00 and catching just a single bird as we left the ride, we were joined by interested birders, Kevin and Tracy, who were keen to see some birds at close quarters.

With a good selection of the standard fare for Kenfig we were soon to have a very interesting catch. A Dartford Warbler, which is a first for the site and I am pretty sure it is the first for the ringing group having looked at the records going back to 1986.

The rest of the session provided good evidence of improving breeding success with the CES total for the day being the highest number for a few years and the year total is now over 200 which with 2 sessions still to go is very encouraging.

Notable catches were a number of Garden Warblers and this rather interested (well to me anyway) looking Long-tailed Tit.

I think the picture deserves a caption, but can't think of anything suitable at the moment ( watch this space)
With the weather getting pretty warm by the session end we were pleased to be joined by Dave to process a few birds and give us a lift back to the centre.

Thanks to Kevin for the pictures, as mine were all blurry.

Totals for the day:

30/7/2016 - CES 9 - At last, Variety and Numbers

Cedwyn, Amy and Chris were greeted at 05:30 by this rather spectacular sunrise. The picture hardly does it justice. To get the full effect you should have been there (you could then have helped put the nets up too!).
All nets up by about 06:15, a little later than usual, but this was due to the fact that some of the overnight migrating Sedge Warblers were so keen to be processed that they flew into half erected nets slowing the whole process down. We won't complain as the 3 we caught immediately increased by 100% the seasons total for the species.

The morning continued in the same vein with a seriously good haul of Sedge and Reed Warblers plus a few comparative rarities, These were

Garden Warbler ©AS

Grasshopper Warbler ©AS

The overall session was much improved on both earlier sessions this year and the yearly trend of late,which as you can see from the "Results to Date" section at right, shows that this was the best session for some time. The CES total already greater than last year and we still have 3 sessions to go.


Kenfig always has much of interest and there was also a few other things to see through the morning.
This beetle obviously in a hurry to get to its next popular habitat.

A Poplar Beetle ©AS

An interested visitor to the ringing table (Mark from the Fungi Group) pointed out some rust on Burnett Rose. Not the easiest of things to spot.

and for those (like me) more used to rust on vehicles it's highlighted.

Totals for the day:

22/7/2016 - CES 8

Cedwyn,Heather and Chris were able to get CES 8 done on a particularly good morning. There was no wind and for the first part of the session it was relatively overcast.

With all the nets up by just after 06:00 we had a Wren in the hand before we had cleared the ride. This was obviously a good omen as the overall CES catch was  good with 35 birds. As an indication this is not too far short of the session 8 average (47) and has in fact only been bettered twice since 2006.

The scrub net was not as productive this time as it has on previous occasions.

Plenty of juveniles being caught though the numbers of sedge warblers is still very low. Another lesser whitethroat this session, plus a number of bullfinches made for an interesting morning

On what became a very hot morning it was welcome to have a lift back to the reserve centre.

Totals for the day: