Tuesday 29 July 2014

CES - Back on the Rails - 29/7/14

The CES ringing can definitely be termed a success, as with three sessions left, we have now passed the total number of birds caught in all 12 visits in each of the last two years. 

For CES 9, Heather, Cedwyn and Chris were joined by Deri a young and keen volunteer at Kenfig. It was an introduction to ringing that may well result in a new trainee for the site.

The usual CES and WPS nets were augmented this time with two more in a ride cut into the reeds further around the pool. Dave and the volunteers had to cope with both hot weather and horse flies in their efforts to cut the "new" ride. Labelled GLR (Glaucus Reed) the ride had been an integral part of the CES regime in previous years.
In total we had 180m of nets over the three locations.


Water Rail



The day started well with a new bird for Cedwyn - a Water Rail. A juvenile that was obviously not smart enough walk under the mist net and just flew into it.







The rest of the morning was mostly taken up with the usual haul of migrants. 
Some birds today proving more difficult to age than earlier in the year. This was particularly the case with a Reed Bunting that we had to admit we just didn't know and recorded it as a 2.

Reed Bunting -- plenty of dark crown feathers



The same bird - with very worn tail feathers





The same bird - with strikingly bare abdomen.


There was also a bird that was very easy to age given the rather obvious fault bar on it's tail. (see picture below not taken by Cedwyn, his are the better quality ones above)
A Fault Bar

Totals for the day:













 




















Friday 25 July 2014

CES 8 - 23/7/14

Cedwyn, Heather and Chris managed to fit the session in on the last possible day. A busy early start with 36 birds caught before 9am.
It quietened down seriously thereafter, with only another 9 birds caught by the end, at noon.

Total for the day:

Tuesday 8 July 2014

CES 7 - The news is still positive - 7/7/14

Just over half way through the CES season and the good news is that numbers are still pointing towards an improvement. With 5 sessions to go we are only 30 less than the total for 2013 and statistically the second half has been better in earlier years.
Cedwyn and Chris set out the usual 2 runs of nets (6x18m in the pool ride and 2x18m in the scrub).
On the first net round a juvenile Treecreeper goes some way to proving that this species is breeding at the site.
Treecreeper










 Another early catch was a juvenile male Kingfisher, the third caught this year in the CES rides.
Kingfisher




















A healthy number of migrants appeared in the next few rounds with one particular Reed Warbler obviously intent on keeping an eye on how we handled other birds. We were watched from the nearby Hawthorn for a good few minutes by this individual.
Reed Warbler R425558
 Other items of interest included:
Cinnabar Larva


















Small Blue

 We were joined by a few work experience students from Porthcawl Comprehensive (apologies for not remembering their names) and their help was appreciated speeding up the taking down of the nets and hauling the gear back to the centre.

Totals for the day:


Wednesday 2 July 2014

CES 6 - 30/6/2014

Charlie, Heather and Chris met for CES 6. Weather a little windier than we would have liked but at least we could go ahead.
The usual CES run of 6 x 18m nets was also accompanied by  a further 2 x 18m in the West Pool Slack. This was to alleviate the boredom of so few birds in the CES ride, and again proved quite productive.
Nothing  out of the ordinary to report but Charlie did welcome the chance to ring a number of Reed Warblers.
I did have the opportunity to take a fairly good picture of  a Dark Green Fritillary.

Dark Green Fritillary

Totals for the day: