Ty'n y Caeau - 17/2/2017

Heather, Leighton and Chris were at the site for 07:15 even though previous experience shows the birds don't get there too early. Along with the usual run of 5 nets (3x60' and 2x40') we also again added the short nets in the hope of catching skylark ( flocks were again in evidence throughout the morning)
We also added two  60' nets in a dog leg at the lower corner of the field.

Catching was again slow and disappointingly the added net was not productive.

Following information from recent publications (Demongin) a number of dunnock were aged as 5 based on buff colour contrast on the tips of the greater coverts and also the dark line at the tip of the primary coverts which becomes more apparent when the wing is partially closed.

It will be interesting to see how this detail is confirmed over the coming months when we are catching known age birds.
Also took a picture of a very clear age criterion for greenfinch.
Note the 3 unmoulted greater coverts on this juvenile male.

Don't often see pictures of blue tit, but they are worth it after the effort of extracting the feisty little things.

Dave and Becky arrived a little later in the morning to supervise and deliver additional seed. Did not however manage to bring better luck and increase the number of birds caught.
No skylarks so we went home about mid day.

Totals for the day:

Ty'n y Caeau - 8/2/2017

Heather, Leighton and Chris had the nets up at about 8 am though it had been light for a while. We know the birds seem to be late risers in these parts, or are elsewhere getting the early worms since we only offer seeds of various types.
In keeping with previous sessions each successive net round seems to produce more birds and we started with 1 and the last of the day provided about 12 though a few same day retraps were in that total.
A relatively rare catch for us was the woodpigeon. Quite a handful to both extract and process and we didn't have a scale large enough to weight it, but demurred from describing it as obese since that was obviously our fault. I also forgot to photograph it.

It was good to start catching the target birds for the site, namely yellowhammer and reed bunting.
Should also be noted that there were a flock of well in excess of 100 skylark, though our attempts at attracting them with a "tape" lure failed, as we are not up to the standards of our usual bird DJ (Cedwyn.) 


Totals for the day:

Reed Buntings at Kenfig

Dave fitted in a brief session before work this morning putting a 60' net near the bunting feeding area between the two car parks. Seven new birds were caught.

The feeding area comprises a small lawn area with a single pile of wheat and millet which is topped up daily. Piling seeds seems to work better than scattering them.

A song thrush's anvil was right next to the net but no thrushes were caught.

The net was up for an hour and 30 minutes and caught 8 birds; a good time to total ratio for Kenfig!