Paul's Blog - All comments and views are my own,

A bit of Winter and a bit more of Spring..... A calmer day than of late and the Gower Ringing Group were at Oxwich  NNR. The morning started off with little cloud cover but soon clouded over and out of any sun it felt cool, in the sun it was lovely. We had quite a lot of net set, over 500ft, but had little to show for our efforts in terms of quantity but the quality was great. The fist Willow Warbler of the year caused some raised eyebrows as it was a very grey bird, but with a definite supercilium and its primaries were emarginated to P5, P6 was not emarginated no matter how hard I looked, after processing and releasing the bird we all felt that perhaps we should have taken a few different biometrics, especially when we caught a "classic" spring bird a few net rounds later. Willow Warbler This time of year is always great to see the resident birds getting ready for breeding and we processed a female Dunnock carrying eggs. Two Long-tailed Tits (Lotti

Preparation..... A blustery cool morning saw me preparing a few ringing rides in the Willow/Reed area of the upper marsh, in preparation for the warbler season. The Phragmities has not started to grow more than a few centimetres so I will have to clear the rides again as the reed grows, I only need a width of a metre just to set the net and walk along without dragging the net when extracting birds. When the reeds start to grow it will be easier to clear and be more defined, there's a Wiltshire "dog-leg" at the front The flock of Common Shelduck remains at around 22 individuals plus there are at least, what appears to be, three pairs, hopefully they may get their act together and nest? A bit over exposed! but you get the idea

440 miles around mid Wales A last minute idea to have a few days away saw the two of us heading West towards Cardigan in Ceredigeon, passing the famous Cenarth Falls on the river Teifi, which were running nicely after the recent spell of rain. Cenarth Falls We were told that a 10lb Sewin (Sea Trout) had been caught from below the falls that morning. We moved on towards cardigan and the South and West Wales Wildlife trust centre t the Teifi Marshes, it is fair to say we were not particularly impressed with the visitor centre or the lack of greeting from the person on the desk. Leaving here we headed for Aberystwyth and spent the night at the Belle Vue Royal Hotel on the sea front, all I can say is if we had the large breakfast I would hate to see the small version.... We headed towards Machynlleth stopping at Ynyslas NNR part of the larger Dyfi NNR, the Natural Resources Wales staff were very friendly and I met "Ali" one of the staff that I share &qu