Ugly duckling? You ain't seen nothing!

A quick couple of visits to a  heronry near Aberystwyth, firstly with Mike Hayward and then a couple of days later with Jane, revealed a total of 10 nests in the one tri-stemmed spruce tree.

The heavy rains of  the 8th and 9th April had obviously caused a considerable reduction in the number of chicks present with many dead ones both in nests and on the floor below. All the same 14 young herons were ringed from 8 of the nests. Two nests had single chicks, 4 had two chicks and 2 had three chicks,  one had two dead chicks and the last one had 3 eggs. For the mathematicians amongst you 2 chicks were too small  to ring!!

Also ringed 8 with Paul near Llanidloes. Still a few to go back to there.