Tony’s Blog

Over the summer I have once again been busy working on the Curlew Country project trying to reverse population declines of this charismatic wader in the Shropshire Hills and Welsh Marches. Part of this work involves colour-ringing adult Curlews at the Montgomeryshire Wildlife Trust’s Dolydd Hafren Reserve on the Severn between Welshpool and Newtown. To […]

Just received another postcard, this time of YELLOW T67 1,142kms SSW in NW Spain (1,142kms). It was originally ringed just a week earlier at Ynyslas on 24th August. If your Spanish is up to it you can read more on Antonio Gutierrez’s excellent blog herehttp://gaviotasyanillas.blogspot.co.uk/2017/09/calidris-alpina-amarillo-t67-naranja.htmlP.S., for the younger readers out there, a postcard was how we

Last night was pretty amazing! I have been ringing waders at Ynyslas National Nature Reserve for 35 years now and last night Paul Ashworth, Mike Shewring and I had by far the biggest catch I have ever witnessed – by almost 100%!! Conditions were nearly perfect with a high tide, new moon and a slight

We’ve recently received another exciting Jack Snipe recovery, this time from RUSSIA!! Unfortunately this one was also found dead, most likely shot but it was found in ‘poor condition’ so weather could have played a factor?! It certainly seems that Russia is a popular breeding ground for the like of our over wintering Woodcock and

On Thursday night Jane and I popped down to Ynyslas on the high tides for a session dazzling waders. There wasn’t a lot there other than several 100’s Oystercatchers (which we don’t generally catch by dazzling), a good few Redshank and a handful of Dunlin and Knot. Right at the end of the night I

Silvia and I headed out this afternoon, to a site where a flock of Yellowhammers, Chaffinches and Tree Sparrow were feeding on spilt sheep feed. We only had a couple of hours spare to try and catch them today, but it was heading down to see where best to set the nets, and if they

Well not if you’re a Woodcock anyway. Relative newbie, Chris Griffiths, has just had his first Woodcock recovery and it’s a really interesting one. The bird, ringed near Carno in Mid-Wales on the night of the 3rd February 2017 was shot in Nagygyanté, Mezőgyán, Békés, Hungary (1,886 km ESE) just 44 days later on 19th March 2017. 

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