BonJour mon amiee? Friday 21st April 2017

-
With a perfect forecast for this morning, overcast and little or no wind, I was on site at Pembrey by 05:30hrs for a ringing session.

I set up in the recently created reed bed ride, deeper into the reeds, and with a bit of bush craft and luck soon had a GRASSHOPPER WARBLER, (Grawa) in the net, another trans-Saharan migrant with the unmistakable "reeling" song. The tail of this bird shows "growth bars" which may indicate poor feeding in the wintering grounds.






I also caught seven SEDGE WARBLERS, (Sedwa) including a bird already carrying a ring, it's always interesting to find a ringed bird in the net, although usually they are birds that have been ringed in the area on previous occasions---- not today though this Sedwa was wearing a FRENCH ringing scheme ring, my first control of a bird ringed outside of the UK.






The information has been sent to the BTO who will forward the ring number to the French scheme and in the future not sure when I'll know exactly where it was originally ringed and when. This is the science part of ringing how old is the bird?, where was it ringed? what condition was it in? has it been controlled elsewhere?, how many migrations has it completed... so much to learn.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Tern of events Sunday 7th April

-
Image
  Prynhawn da pawb,  I hope you have all weathered storm Kathleen. It's been a heck of a week personally,  I'm hoping this coming week will be better. Well storm Kathleen is the last weather event we need but sadly any meagre control we may have had over our climate has long run out. On a brighter note though a phone call from the county bird recorder set me off to Sandy Water Park, (SWP) where 13 Arctic Terns, 2  Little Gulls and a mixed flock of 2-300+ mostly Sand Martins and a few Swallows were playing in the wind. Little Gull If you're up to speed with the last few months then you will know that we have installed bird nesting rafts on SWP and at Ffynnon Helyg near Pwll, with a view of hopefully attracting  Common Terns to nest !!. OK its a coincidence but a nice one Earlier in the week a Little Ringed Plover was seen flying over the SWP raft, what's that saying, build and they will come! Lots of migrant birds have now arrived and we have some great places to seek th
Read more

SLOW WORM fest..

-
Image
  Croseo pawb,  Another busy week which has kept me on my toes, as usual, I've dealt with fish poaching, illegal vehicle intrusion, and odd things going on with a "Badger Sett". The relevant authorities are dealing with the poaching and vehicle issues whilst I have investigated the "goings on". Nothing of concern as there is no Badger sett just an outlier burrow probably an old boar Badger or one of last years youngsters pushed out from the main sett, quite common at this time of year when the sow badgers will be giving birth. Our amazing volunteers have been out and about, today they were at Morfa Berwig LNR, where I joined them this afternoon for their first reptile survey of the year, a very productive survey with 16 refugia to check and a total of 22  Slow worms, five Grass snakes, although two were out basking away from the refugia and just one Common Lizard. One refugia had seven Slow worms in a loose ball under it an incredible sight, another had Slow w
Read more

Carmarthenshire - Did you Know?

-
Image
  Well its ages since I've found time to write a blog post apologies for that but here we go with some interesting facts and personal thoughts about Carmarthenshire wildlife, and a bit further afield. Did you know: That we have a County plant, Whorled Caraway, Carum verticullatum ; found in typical Rhos pasture a feature of the Carmarthenshire landscape though often under threat from changes in agricultural practices Did you Know: That there are 311 species of birds recorded as being seen in the county, a respectable figure by an measure, amongst the rarities are Blue-winged Teal, a species from North America, Black Stork an European species which itself has a limited range. Having a decent stretch of well watched coastline the county is well placed for observers to document the seasonal arrival and departures of migrating birds such as Northern Wheatear, Swift, Willow Warbler, the Carmarthenshire Bird Club is a very welcoming bunch of like minded individuals and its well worth joi
Read more