Bird ringing, Pembrey Country Park Monday 18th March 2019

At last a chance to go ringing when the weather is right.

I have not had the right opportunity to run a ringing session since early January, the feeders being stolen didn't help, however today the elements and free time fell in place and I manged to set a net at the new feeding site. It wasn't particularly busy but seven species was good.

Two male Great-Spotted Woodpeckers were too busy chasing each other to notice the net and went in together along with a Song Thrush, other birds were Robin, Dunnock, Chaffinch as well as Blue and Great Tits.

The Woodpeckers were and adult male and an immature male, subtle differences in the moult of the wings led me to that conclusion, and of course they were males as they had red napes which the females don't have.

Red nape = male

The Dunnocks and Robins showed signs of being in breeding condition with enlarged cloacal protuberances (the man bits). One of the Great Tits had quite distressed plumage and looked to be carrying a burden of feather lice.

Notice the primary coverts are very faded, in fact this is lice damage

An unexpected spell of light rain ended a short but useful session.

The local Wildlife Watch Litter Pickers has a session on the beach this morning so I went along to help, most of the litter had been covered over by sand so there was little to pick, however I did find a well preserved Greater Pipefish.

You just never know what you will find!