Saturday 16th January 2016

Oxwich Marsh NNR ringing

Meeting at Oxwich for 07:45hrs this morning wads very civilised considering the state of the roads after the first real cold night of what, so far, has been a very wet winter.

The early clear skies had already started to fill in with cloud before sunrise, although as always that hour around dawn was perhaps the coldest?

With the nets efficiently set we waited for the first "round", (when we go around the nets to remove any birds).

The morning was filled with Blue Tits, a smattering of Great Tits, a couple of Coal Tits, plus the usual Dunnocks, Chaffinches, Greenfinches and a small party of Siskin.

Male Siskin

As the morning warmed a Chiffchaff was processed and found to be wearing a ring not belonging to the group! or so we think more details to follow. It's always exciting to "control" someone else's previous encounter with a bird. We will have to wait until the details have been entered in the system.

Chiffchaff, the picture doesn't do the true colour any justice ,

the bird was a classis Colybitta type

Most Chiffchaffs are in the Mediterranean region or even further south in North Africa at this time of year, a few always winter in the UK and are regularly seen in association with tit flocks.

Its Webs count tomorrow so check out the blog for more news.......

Friday 15th January 2016

Catch up

The weather has, at last, settled down, with a frost on the reserve this morning ice on the puddles and a high tide there were plenty of birds about.

The best of the birds were the usual suspects being, Teal, Mallard, Wigeon, Redshank, Curlew and Snipe. Seven Shelduck were an addition to the list. Raptors were represented by Buzzard, Red Kite and Merlin.

Despite a high tide to day it was only 8.4m which isn't high enough for the marsh to flood so the actual numbers seen were low, in fact much lower than when the birds were disturbed by walkers when they leave the confines of the main inlet and creeks.

The cattle have had to be moved to field 1, after vandalism to the barbed wire fence in field 2, resulting in at least of the bullocks going on walkabout.

I have been working on the "hut", the viewing shelter at the end of the main track overlooking the saltmarsh, I really wish more birders/naturalists would visit the reserve, maybe they do but I never see them.

With snow on the hills in the distance it actually feels like winter at last.......

Redwing, a touch of winter?