On Sunday morning Tony and myself headed up to Montgomeryshire to ring some early broods of raptors. It didn't start too well, when the first Peregrine site we checked had failed. Thankfully things got a lot better. Our next stop was at a 'new' Goshawk site, where these two well grown chicks were sat waiting to be ringed. By the amount of crap on the floor we thought it was going to be a very big brood, but we were happy with the two (both males).
They were shortly followed by a very early brood of 'upland' Kestrels, five in total. Presumably the mild winter has had an effect with breeding times, as we wouldn't normally expect the upland Kestrels to be ready for another 3-4 weeks.
Another Peregrine site was checked on the way back, but unfortunately they had also failed! There was torrential rain a few weeks back which would have coincided with the time they were hatching, so possibly the reason for both pairs failing. Hopefully not all of the Mid Wales Peregrines will have all suffered the same fate!
In the afternoon, we both headed in different directions. Tony headed off to Ceredigion to check on one of his nest box schemes, while I headed off to some moorland in Radnorshire to check on some nests found earlier in the year. Between us we managed to ring 137 chicks: 47 Pied Flycatcher, 25 Redstart, 28 Blue Tit, 21 Great Tit, 5 Stonechat, 4 Wheatear and 7 Willow Warbler.
All in all, a bloody good day!
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