Linnets, French Controls, returning birds and nesting.

This week we caught the first juvenile Linnets of the year at Mwnt

We are still catching new adults and it is looking possible that we could do a Linnet Retrapping Adults for Survival (RAS) study here over the coming years.

More returning Reed Warblers this week for our RAS on the Teifi Marsh. A couple of 2 shelf nets in the reed bed in the evenings have added a few so we are now up to 36 recaptures. One of the older Reed Warblers was  L250901, ringed as a juvenile on the marsh in August 2010 and not seen since 2013.

Regular readers of the blog will remember that we caught a good number Sedge Warblers on migration this Spring. As well as 596 new birds ringed so far this year there have been 1 Belgian, 10 French and 4 UK controls. We have now had details from the BTO of three of the French birds...

All were ringed in France on Autumn migration and caught by us as they returned to their breeding sites this Spring.
6950593 was ringed at Les Barthes-de-Quartier-Bas in the Pyrenees-Atlantiques in August 2014. Caught on the Teifi Marsh 623 days later on 30th April. This was our second control from here.

7516694 was ringed at Trunval, Treogat, Finistere on 31st July 2015. Our first control from Finistere
Caught on the Teifi Marsh 272 days later on the 28th April

7506166 was ringed at Tour aux Moutons, Donges, Loire Atlantique on 9th August 2015
Caught on the Teifi Marsh 263 days later. We have had 4 previous Sedge Warbler controls from Donges and they have recovered 7 of our Sedge Warblers there.

Karen has been busy ringing pulli...
For the first time, Redstarts have nested in 2 boxes in Pengelli Wood, a Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales reserve of which she is the voluntary warden. One healthy brood was ringed a week ago well fed by this adult.

These have a bit of growing to do.....

Unfortunately no Pied Flycatchers have nested in the boxes this year but plenty of Great Tits..

 and Blue Tits. We have noted comments from other ringers of Pied Flycatchers in particular, observing problems this breeding season.

Unusually one box was used by a Marsh Tit with 5 chicks.
Karen has also ringed some Dipper Pulli in The Gwaun Valley. Unfortunately the Dipper boxes have only produced one successful nest with 2 young fledged.

Stonechat and Meadow Pipit pulli have been ringed at Mwnt too, with some nest finding training by Chris.

We had hoped to do CES 5 today but for the first time in ages a rainy weekend has postponed that until later in the week.

Finally, our newest trainee Dean has written enthusiastically about the start of his ringing training with us.
Ystwyth Birder blog