A return to the Golden era!

With several reports recently of flocks of Golden Plovers back in the hills I made my first visit of the season to see what I could find. Last winter Paul and I caught over 300 Golden Plovers between us and colour-ringed over 150 of them. It will be very interesting to see what sort of return rate we get on these birds. The Countryside Council for Wales has supplied a grant to search for colour-ringed birds during the day and to map habitat usage by flocks.

Last night I managed to find a small flock of about 20 birds and caught and colour-ringed the first three Golden Plovers of the winter, 2 juveniles and an adult.

 Adult Golden Plover, this bird was still moulting its outermost primary feathers

Also caught a Snipe and another 5 new and 1 retrap Dippers. Should be finishing the bridge checking tonight,  hopefully!