Tuesday 13th September 2016

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A surprise in the net....


Having recovered from the trauma of the return trip from Majorca, this morning looked perfect for a ringing session, so to wake at 05:15 to the sound of rain drops did not bide well.

I set off anyway and the rain held off, despite near perfect conditions, no wind and overcast, there were few birds on the ground..

There looked to have been a decent sized Swallow roost last night as at first light there were 10's of Swallows low over the reeds, but as the morning wore on the flock grew to the high hundreds, or low thousand.


Reed Warbler
The first round contained Sedge and Reed Warblers and a Garden Warbler, later a few Robins put in an appearance and a lone Blackcap.
Blackcap juvenille ♂


Then the Swallows were tempted by the tape lure and fourteen were extracted before the heavens opened and I closed the nets for the morning.


The last bird processed turned out to be a "control" Swallow, one that had been ringed at anonther site, a look at the ring made me think it may have been ringed by the Gower Ringing Group.


Juvenile Swallow
A quick e-mail to the group and I found out that it had in fact been ringed by a candidate on the Wales Ringing Course held at Oxwich NNR over the previous weekend, of course the information still has to be submitted to the BTO for their records.

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