Curlew Country

As part of our ongoing Curlew research I paid a visit to Montgomeryshire Wildlife Trust’s Dolydd Hafren reserve last night in an attempt to catch and colour-ring more of the local breeding population. The high water levels and strong winds of late have seriously curtailed any attempts previously but last night shaped up pretty well. […]

We’ve just received one of those bittersweet recoveries – the group’s first foreign Jack Snipe recovery (from France), unfortunately though the bird had been shot!! Nevertheless it may still shed some light into the migration patterns of the Jack Snipe, which we really seem to know very little about because of it’s very secretive and

Today marked the first day of catching Hawfinches at Dolgellau in the excellent company of Hawfinch maestro Dave Smith and garden-feeding Hawfinch champions Trevor and Chris Bashford. There were plenty of birds present today but catching was modest with just 7 birds caught including 4 new and 3 retraps. Dave also had news of one

On Monday Silvia and I were trying (unsuccessfully) to ring Waxwings at a site just down the road where there has been a flock building for the past few weeks. During one of the many times I scanned the flock for colour-rings I suddenly caught sight of a bird with an engraved Yellow Darvic! Annoyingly,

Inputting all the ringing and re-sighting records for our two RAS (Retrapping Adults for Survival) projects is always a bit of a chore but thankfully it is all over and done for another year! The results make interesting reading and show clearly the huge effort that the members of the Mid Wales Ringing Group (and

Photo (C) Venke Ivarrud The photograph above shows one of our colour-ringed Hawfinches on a bird-table in Oddatunet, Trondheim, Sør-Trøndelag, Norway taken by Venke Ivarrud. The bird was ringed as a first-winter female at our feeding site near Dolgellau on 14th March 2015 1452 kms to the SW of where it was photographed.  As can be

Today I received an email from José Velhote informing me of a sighting of one of our colour-ringed Whimbrels at Murtosa, Ria-de-Aveiro, Portugal (see photo above). This is the first sighting of a West Wales colour-ringed ringed Whimbrel in Portugal and follows on rapidly from a record of a colour-ringed bird from Pembrokeshire recently photographed in the

Have recently received this photo from Andy Davis of a colour-ringed Kestrel at Little Neston on the Dee Estuary taken on 28th November 2016. Apparently it has been mobbing Short-eared Owls and stealing their catches. Thanks to Andy for the record and allowing us to use the photo.   Visit Andy Davis Flickr page for more stunning images

Prince Edward Point Lighthouse at dawn, a scene which greeted me every morning  With University finished and needing to spread my wings, I decided to volunteer for the autumn (fall) at Prince Edward Point Bird Observatory (PEPtBO) from late September until the end of October. Prince Edward County is located on the north eastern shore of Lake

Just had the details of a colour-ringed Curlew I read in a field above Lledrod on 14th June 2016. Amazingly, given the time of year, it was a French-ringed bird!

Ever wondered where all the Kestrels are when you are trying to find one for your New Year’s Day Bird list? Surprisingly a good number of our British breeding birds move south for winter. We have just been notified of a bird that I ringed as a chick in June 2015 in North Anglesey, that was

For the last few months I’ve been working away in Yorkshire, which on one hand has been great for bird watching but also very frustrating that I am so far away from any of our ringing sites. So when there has been any opportunity to go back to Wales, I’ve gone. Last night was one