Tuesday 12 March 2024

Upland waders to Ospreys

Details have been received of a Redwing with a Belgian ring caught in Wendy's garden near Cardigan on the 10th October 2023. 10X89020 was ringed on 14th November 2022 at Herentals, Antwerpen, Belgium.  330 days  658 km west.

Redwing


Lamping mainly during the new moon periods has been good this winter. Both teams out using Thermal Imagers to survey and find birds.

Fieldfare - Brennig

Recent evenings surveying in the dark on our Frenni and Boncath sites. Frenni, 60 Golden Plovers, 12 Woodcock, 10 Fieldfare, 4 Snipe. The small groups of Woodcock rather than individuals spaced out on the hillsides indicative of migrating birds. 

On Boncath fields, our highest ever count of 26 Golden Plover and 8 Woodcock. A  Woodcock weighing just over 400g a sign of a migrant - most mid winter birds weigh nearer 300-320g. 

Whilst on the night of the 9th March - Arfon trapped his 250th Woodcock of the winter season. 

Woodcock - Arfon

No less remarkable, the 26 Jack Snipe trapped in his study area in North Carmarthenshire.. Also on one of Arfon's study farms, a retrap Jack Snipe that was ringed in the same location last March.

Jack Snipe - Brennig

Preparations are well under way for our nets around the late winter reed cut on the Teifi Marshes.....


We are on the last series of very high tides before White Wagtails, Hirundines and then the Sedge and Reed Warblers arrive. 

Currently, a few local or migrant Pied's roost every night, this retrap from August 2023 caught on the 5th March and interestingly our first ever re-encounter of a Pied Wagtail. Perhaps they are migrants....?


Retrap Pied Wagtail age 5


A few of the Group have just returned from Kartong Bird Observatory in The Gambia. A few surprises which may affect our ringing this Spring too. A very low number of Phylloscs, including a total absence of Chiffchaffs. Relatively high numbers of Common Whitethroat, Treecreepers and Woodchat Shrikes.


A couple of Ospreys caught and colour ringed too (caught in mist nets)


(Rich D and Wendy J)


Monday 29 January 2024

A Waxwing re encounter...

A Waxwing recovery...

Colour- ringed Waxwing - Jen Evans

A small number of Waxwings were seen daily on the Teifi Marshes from the 7th January, one of the seven on the 24th was seen to be colour ringed.  It was ringed by the Mid Wales Ringing Group near Treowen Leisure Centre in Newtown, Powys on 2nd January 2024. One of 25 ringed out of a flock of 67.  Thanks to Tony Cross for the ringing details.

An update from Tony about other movements of Waxwings ringed in Newtown...  Onward Waxwing movements

Arfon, out lamping with trainees, has captured and ringed the majority of the Group's Woodcock this winter. Several site faithful returning birds and this bird either a passage or a cold weather movement from usual wintering site.

Woodcock EM33240
Ringed Benington, Hertfordshire 09/01/2023
Re-encountered Glanwern, Carmarthenshire 06/01/2024 362 days 262km W



The Group has colour ringed local Chough pulli over several years for the The Cross and Stratford Welsh Chough project. 

A complete picture of the resightings has recently become available via DemOn. A total of 55 sightings of 6 of the colour ringed pulli.

Resighting locations of locally ringed Chough

Reed Buntings and management of the Teifi Marshes reed bed.

A colour-ringed Reed Bunting ringed in 2020, resighted 13 times

This week, the annual reed cut near Mallard hide was completed. As the sign in the photo below discusses, the removal of old reed, and the constant new growth does help the overall vigour of the reedbed. 


This is invaluable to our Reed Bunting RAS and colour ringing project. Before the reed grows, and at high tide the area is used by roosting Curlew and Snipe. 

By mid April this new reed cut should be alive with White Wagtails feeding prior to roost and the early Sedge and Reed Warblers singing.


The reed cut does mean we have to prepare new net rides, before the waterfowl start nesting. Rides to be ready for our migration monitoring starting with passage Sedge Warblers, our peak passage in the first week of May.

    

Alan Jones, a local thatcher and carpenter brings a small team and some specific equipment to come to cut and bundle the reeds for thatch. This video of Alan at work shows the technique .

How to harvest water reed for thatching

The AGM  was held at The Grosvenor Hotel in Cardigan on 25th January 2024. All business was successfully completed and plans were discussed for the coming year.

(Rich D and Wendy J)

Thursday 4 January 2024

2023 - some features of our year..

2023 was another year of progress for the Teifi Ringing Group.   Looking forward to the future, several new trainees have been welcomed into the Group.

Firstly we have chosen a Storm Petrel to feature. Our greater effort last summer, particularly at our original site of Strumble Head is producing some good results in controls, recoveries and numbers. This nicely complements our training and work at Mwnt.

A Strumble Head Storm Petrel

The table below is the Initial Year of Ringing Report for all TRG sites used in 2023. (not the number of re-encounters, but the number of individual birds)

A few key species are discussed in this post, put the species in the search box if you wish to look in more detail.

eg House Sparrow - this will link to posts from Andy discussing his RAS and colour ringing.

For controls and recoveries look at the tables listed in the side menu, or use the search box.

 


We have had some exciting colour ring sightings too, like this Norwegian marked Greenshank, ringed at Revtangen Ornithological Station on the 6th August and seen at The Webley in the Teifi estuary by Hannah and Liz 13 days later, 978km. Likewise with Brennig, a real passion to see and read colour rings.

Norwegian ringed Greenshank

The Group also has a long standing Reed Bunting colour ring project. Always great to receive some photos from regular and visiting photographers on the Reserve.  Reed Warblers are more difficult to observe, like Reed Buntings we have a long term RAS study, both studies have now been running for over 10 years.

Teifi Marshes, Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales

The Teifi Marshes is still our main site, with 2200 birds processed this year, many thanks to Nathan Walton, staff and volunteers of the WTSWW.

White Wagtails are another species that use the reserve reeds and waterside in large numbers on passage to Iceland - our 3rd recovery in Iceland in 2023..


The Group's 4th RAS study is the Linnet. Led by Chris, is whoosh net based and has provided trapping experience leading to endorsements for several ringers from the Group and elsewhere. The site is also a fantastic cliff top site in the Pembs Coast National Park, many thanks to Roger and Gill Lewis for offering the site and their continued support. 

Linnet - Chris Jones

Although we are based on the Teifi Marshes, various members of the Group operate a little further afield, if you scroll back through posts you will see some of these sites and activities mentioned..

If you would like any further information or want to see or join any activity please contact Wendy or myself... (contact email form on blog)

Details of movements  received this year

 2023 Recoveries and Controls

Bringing us up to date...

Lamping... the moon allowed some good surveying activity in early / mid December..

A view from the Thermal Imager...the white spot being the bird.

Woodcock bill measuring....

Jack Snipe, our least encountered and ringed hill top waders species

Looking at the ringing totals for  Wales and our local counties, Skylarks look like an opportunity for a study.  Few ringed, very few recovered and  we may have a chance to target this species on a couple of our nocturnal survey sites.


Recently notified recoveries

Reed Warbler APR3879
Ringed Teifi Marshes, Ceredigion 06/08/2022
Re-encountered St Ouens pond, Jersey 09/08/2023 368 days 362km SSE

Herring Gull  GC48145
Ring read in the field by Brennig
Ringed   Central Bristol 23/06/2009  originally colour ringed
Resighted  New Quay 28/12/2023 5301 days 149km NW

(Rich D and Wendy J)

Friday 8 December 2023

Early winter - update

Now that the 2022 ringing stats have been published by the BTO, a look at some of the numbers for WALES

20 % of all new Reed Warblers

40% of all new Sedge Warblers

50% of all new Reed Buntings

... in WALES were ringed by the TRG...mostly on the Teifi Marshes. The importance of this cross county site for population studies is immense. 

91% of all new Linnets in Wales were ringed at Chris's Whoosh net RAS study site.

26% of all new House Sparrows in Wales were ringed at Andy's RAS study site

With the REEWA,  REEBU,  LINNE and HOUSP RAS projects and the colour- ringing of REEBUS and HOUSP...

Quite an achievement...👍


Online Ringing and Nest Recording Report Robinson, R.A., Leech, D.I. & Clark, J.A. (2023) The Online Demography Report: bird ringing and nest recording in Britain & Ireland in 2022. BTO, Thetford

A few pieces to update our results whilst some of us have been away...

Controls and movements....

During a short session in Wendy's Llechryd garden to sort nets after being away, a Goldfinch with a French ring was caught.

Goldfinch 8647938
Ringed Vienne, France 17/02/2023
Re-encountered Llechryd, Ceredigion 01/12/2023 287 days 743km NNW



Goldcrest PPN133
Ringed Teifi Marshes, Pembs 15/10/2023
Re-encountered by John Hayes, Pembs RG at St Twynnells, 25/10/2023 10 days 54km SSW

Sedge Warbler 9807521
Ringed Donges, Loire Atlantique, France 20/08/2022
Re-encountered Cors Caron, Ceredigion 25/06/2023 309 days 565 km NNW

Sedge Warbler BBB2276
Ringed Teifi Marshes, Ceredigion 14/08/2023
Re-encountered at Nanjizal, Lands End, Cornwall 12/09/2023    236km SSW Kester Wilson

Sedge Warbler AAZ7550
Ringed Teifi Marshes, Ceredigion 19/07/2023
Re-encountered   Skokholm Island, Pembs 23/07/2023 4 days 62km SW

Sedge Warbler movements


Storm Petrel 2739430
Ringed  Strumble Head, Pembs 19/07/2023
Re-encountered   Bardsey Island, Gwynedd 16/08/2023 28 days 86km NNE

Storm Petrel 2739409
Ringed Strumble Head, Pembs 17/07/2023
Re-encountered Skokholm Island, Pembs 07/08/2023 21 days 40km SSW  This was for the second time as it had already been re-encountered there on the 19th July, 2 days after being ringed at Strumble


Weather continues to hamper our ringing efforts. A couple of small Redwing roost catches this month has increased our total since their return to 149 including 1 retrap from a previous year, 1 same year retrap and a control from Holland.

Thanks to Nathan and the Thursday work party on the Teifi Marshes for some management work in our net rides. 


On a tidying up session this week we caught the first December Firecrest and only the 6th December Chiffchaff

Andy's total of 108 Greenfinch  since the beginning of September is very impressive and maybe showing signs of an increasing local population, or maybe of migrants ..... 


The fields are saturated but Arfon has had success on a few nights of lamping, teaching two of our trainees new skills


3 retrap Woodcock from last year and 39 new plus 11 Golden Plover and a Snipe.

With a favourable moon we hope to visit  4  more nightime survey and lamping sites over the next 10 days. Day time ringing when ever the weather allows.

(Rich D and Wendy J)

Thursday 28 September 2023

Firecrests, Redwings and recoveries

October started  with 2 Firecrests on the Teifi Marshes. This added to the good start for autumn at Ty Rhyg plantation where 4 Firecrests were ringed last month.


On Saturday 7th October, the east coast saw a big arrival of migrants, in particular, thousands of Redwing. They soon moved on and within a couple of days an increasing number were being counted in Wales. 

In Wendy's young woodland in Llechryd, 15 were ringed that morning and one was caught with a Brussels ring. 

Also this week, a Redwing was retrapped in the same net as last October.

Considering the number of Redwing passing through at the moment it was quite a surprise to retrap one a year later, a site faithful migrant.


Brussels 10X89020

Details have been submitted and ringing details are awaited.

A look at Group totals for the 6 weeks from the beginning of September to the 11th October


To add some context, the Manx Shearwaters ringed had been rescued on land after a storm and ringed before release. Some at the Ocean Lab at Goodwick thank to Cliff Benson and staff and some that had been grounded at Newgale, ringed by Alison. 

Chris continued his work with Linnets, ringing another 110. 

On a couple of days when the weather wasn't suitable for mist nets, we took some spring traps to the estuary for some trainees to have the opportunity to learn about catching Pipits. Rock Pipits and Meadow Pipits were ringed. 23 of the Meadow Pipits in the list were ringed by Karen and Alison on Dinas Mountain.

Several reports recently from the BTO of birds subsequently encountered...

Chiffchaff  NCC983

Ringed Teifi Marshes, Pembs 28/08/2023

Re-encountered Portland Bird Observatory, Dorset   23/09/2023    26 days, 232km SE

Blackcap  ATF5280

Ringed Hollesley Heath, Suffolk 12/09/2022

Re-encountered  St Nicholas, Pembs 23/09/2023 376 days 445km W

Sedge Warbler  AE65577

Ringed Essex Farm, Alderney 23/04/2023

Re-encountered   Teifi Marshes, Ceredigion 01/05/2023 8 days 316km NNW

Robin   AEK1173

Ringed Cors Caron, Ceredigion 28/05/2022

Re-encountered    Gibraltar Point, Lincs 07/10/2023 497 days 303km ENE

Movements of the above birds

Late October ringing becomes even more weather dependant and with the ever shortening days... often tricky. 
When weather allows we plan to have sessions on the Teifi Marshes (Teifi P). Redwings, Blackcaps, Chiffchaffs to start the early sessions followed by a variety of species in the nets.

(Wendy J and Rich D)

Wednesday 27 September 2023

Colour ringed waders and late summer

Re-sighting colour rings is an important part of the ringing scheme. Around the Teifi there are few opportunities to see waders close enough to record the rings as waders are often flushed or too distant. The higher tides push birds onto the sand in front of the Teifi Waterside Hotel, Pembs and Patch on the Ceredigion side of the estuary. Hannah and Liz have spent hours there recently with great results.

A Common Greenshank ringed in Norway on passage at Revtangen Ornithological Station  on 6th August 2023

Resighted Teifi Estuary 19th August 2023  978km 13 days


This was a very brief stop over for this Greenshank on what seems a speedy journey south.

This Ringed Plover was ringed on 20/08/2023 in a mid afternoon catch at Llanfairfechan, North Wales. Liz photographed it on the Teifi less than 24 hours later.


Thanks to Steve Dodd for the quick reply. he commented that also of note it was in active wing moult, so was surprised it has moved on.

During July and August we were ringing whenever conditions allowed, but it was a wet and windy spell so numbers were down this year. Also partly due to reduced effort with several of the A ringers away at peak migration times. 

The chart excludes some of the commoner resident birds.


50 Storm Petrel in July and August was pleasing making a total of 59 new and 7 re-encounters this year. 180 Linnets were added to the Linnet RAS. If you missed the last blog about the Linnet RAS that Chris has started on the coast near Moylegrove here is the link
Linnet RAS 2022/2023

With favourable conditions for teaching lamping for a few days this month we successfully caught 10 Ringed Plover and 6 Dunlin on Poppit beach. 

White Wagtails pass through the Teifi Marshes on spring migration. 44 were ringed this spring. One ringed on the first session was re-encountered in Iceland 135 days later


AAZ6729 Ringed Teifi Marshes, Ceredigion 04/04/2023

Re-encountered  Laugarvatn, Arnes, Iceland 17/08/2023    135 days 1639km NNW


Other recoveries

Sedge Warbler  AHV3403

Ringed Teifi Marshes, Ceredigion 28/08/2022

Subsequently encountered Llangorse Lake, Powys 07/08/2023 344 days 98km ESE

Reed Warbler AAZ757
Ringed  Teifi Marshes, Pembs 21/07/2023

Re-encountered  Litlington, East Sussex 25/08/2023 35 days 363km ESE

(Wendy J and Rich D)

Thursday 31 August 2023

Linnet RAS 2022 / 2023

We had to abandon our Retrapping Adults for Survival project for Linnets at Mwnt in 2019 as a result of the pandemic and the subsequent surge in 'staycationing' making continued operation of the site impossible.

In 2022 we were lucky to find a much more secluded site on the Pembrokeshire coast between Cemaes Head and Newport, along with a sympathetic and supportive landowner. We started ringing Linnets there to see if it would support a replacement RAS project.

It soon became obvious that the potential was there. By the end of August 2022 we had ringed 137 breeding adults (80 male, 57 female) and 310 juveniles, using a single whoosh net baited with rape-seed. September and October bought a further 183 captures (of which only 10 were adults) these probably mostly either dispersing or passage birds moving south.

The first Linnets arrived back on their breeding territories in good numbers by the 3rd week of March 2023, and by the end of May over 50 birds ringed in 2022 had been re-captured, at which point it was obvious that registration as a RAS project was more than justified, backdated to the start of ringing in April 2022.

The 2023 RAS breeding season officially finished today, by which time we had recaptured 77 of the birds ringed in 2022 (42 male, 35 female), and ringed a further 159 breeding adults (86 male, 73 female) and 371 juveniles. This suggests that the minimum breeding population within foraging distance of our catching site is 128 pairs, assuming 100% capture - which is of course not likely.

Many, many thanks are due to our hosts Gill and Roger, and to all the ringers, both Teifi-based and visitors, who have helped with this effort so far.  I might add that three dedicated ringers, Wendy and Alison from Teifi, and most recently Wayne from Gower Ringing Group have earned their own whoosh-netting licenses as a result of their involvement with with the projects here and at Mwnt.