Ringing demo' Thursday 12th April 2018

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An early start to set up the ringing nets at Morfa Berwig, disappointedly only one person had booked in but as I was going to be at the reserve anyway there was no point in cancelling it. - the four talks/events so far this year have connected with 52 people.

 Anyway one more person educated about the mystery that is bird ringing is always beneficial.
In the short time only eight birds were caught however with five being newly arrived Blackcaps it was very worthwhile. They were carrying various amounts of fat with scores around 5 or 6 showing they had refuelled at some point on their northward journey and probably only arrived on the reserve overnight.
Female Blackcap
A phone call around 9:30am from a regular at Pembrey did not bring good news, t would seem that about 30m of barbed wire fence had been pushed or pulled over and the cattle were missing!!
Another call from the admin office told me that the 16 cattle had wandered off the reserve, over the saltmarsh and had been found by one of the ranger team in a car park!

Although not primarily my responsibility there is a sense of presenting a positive public image so after rallying the grazier team I set off to the said car park arriving at the same time as the grazier and seeing one of the regular litter picker volunteers corralling the beasts!!!!!!!!!!!!

Suffice to say after an hour or so and a long walk for the cattle they were safely returned to a different field.

Surveying the scene of the crime it is difficult to decide if this was deliberate vandalism or a planned escape.

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