Exactly a year ago, bored with television and having eaten all the Christmas Quality Street I decided to take a night time walk to the top of our farm here in West Wales with a teenage relative to introduce him to woodcock ringing. Sadly earlier last year this young lad had lost his mother after a sudden illness and this was his first Christmas without her.

He was completely captivated when I managed to catch the only woodcock we saw that night and was thrilled to be able to ring it with me.

A short while after this he decided that he wanted to write an article for the junior section of the RSPB magazine about this experience, it was accepted and will be published in their January issue. He comes from a literary background and we all hope that he will be inspired by this early success to follow in his mother's footsteps and like her become a journalist.

How nice it was to be able to complete this story by calling him on Christmas day this year to tell him that I had received an email from Tony Cross informing me that this ring had been recovered from near to Saint Petersburg in Russia.

Double "hat-trick" on first visit

In an attempt to forget last night's horrors I thought I'd have a go at somewhere new!!! I obtained permission yesterday for some hill-land above Llanbadarn Fynydd (that's "thlan-bad-arn-vun-ith" - roughly!!). After parking the car (on some tarmac!!),  the first bird of the night caught was a Woodcock, followed quickly by a Jack Snipe and then a Snipe (bingo - a hat-trick!). Next was another Jack then another Snipe then another three Woodcock (a double hat-trick - not sure I've ever managed that before!) Conditions weren't ideal -  very windy, so will be very interesting to see what else turns up in future visits.

In deep sh.... mud!!

Just to demonstrate that not everything always goes to plan!! Last night Paul, Marc Hughes and myself had a trip up to Tregwynt to see what was about and to try lamping Goosanders on a lake Paul had just obtained permission for. The night started badly when a female Goosander, proving just too strong for Paul's landing-net, snapped the pole in two and made a successful bid for clear-water along with about 15 others!! Things improved briefly then, when we caught this cracking male Barn Owl.

A bit of very rash and show-off, off-roading, in a toy 4x4 followed, which resulted in my car being buried right up to it's axels in the middle of a very wet grass field (well bog, actually) in the middle of absolutely nowhere!! No end of pushing and shoving was going to move it (some of us did try!) so an emergency call to Terence Lambert at 10.30pm saw Paul and Marc off home to their beds.  I got to spend another 10 hours trying to keep warm before being dragged out backwards by Tom Jones (no, not that one!) in his brand new (but no-longer clean and shiny) tractor!

Many thanks indeed to both Terence and the Jones's for their immediate and good-natured assistance! Never has a hot cup of tea been so welcome!

Photos to follow no doubt!!!

Just received, Marc in mud!  Not sure that was his original footwear though!!!

May be more yet?

A last crack at Crychan before Christmas

The forces were out last night on a last pre-Christmas attempt to ring a few more Woodcock. I headed down to Doldowlod in near horizontal sleet only to draw a blank, no Woodcock seen let alone caught! Afterwards I met up with Jane, on her way south for Christmas, and we went down to Crychan. The sleet was slightly less horizontal there, and there were loads more birds. Saw at least 23 Woodcock and caught 13. Despite catching 18 out of 19 here a few weeks ago, 10 of them were un-ringed, two were re-traps from earlier this winter and one was a last-year's retrap - clear demonstration that there is a constant to-and-fro of birds on these sites throughout the winter. Might make 500 yet!

Not your normal view of a woodcock, and amazing just how reflective the tail spots are!

For the record, the ones we couldn't ring!

Unfortunately our permission in Morocco, which took almost 12 months to sort out, was specific to Ring Ouzel so all additional species were identified, admired and released unringed! - here are a few "admiration shots".  We will hopefully be altering the permission for next year to include all species (except Mouflon perhaps!)

Firecrest

Serin

 Sardinian Warbler

Tristram's Warbler

Rock Bunting

Mouflon!!

Ouzels and a few other familiar faces, well kind of!

Just returned from a week attempting to catch Ring Ouzels in the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco with Mick Green and Paddy Jenks as part of a long-running study of the relationship between Ouzels and Juniper being conducted by Ecology Matters. We saw loads of birds but catching proved pretty tricky with birds not doing the same things from one day to the next and there being seemingly no end of suitable habitat, all at fairly high altitude, and pretty much uniform! Did find one brilliant site for catching, but frustratingly it was a water hole 100 yards inside a fenced Mouflon Reserve with no access (proves that no matter where you are the grass IS always greener on the other side!!). Total catch of Ouzels for 6 days netting was 9 birds! Hopefully learnt a few tricks that can be employed by Team B who are going out again in January.

Right then, where shall we set the nets!?

It was very interesting seeing how some of the resident birds we are familiar with here varied slight over there.

The Blue Tits were a lot brighter with a much darker cap

The Coal Tits were much darker on the breast and "plus grand".

The Hawfinches were slightly darker overall and the Chaffinches were, well, just much nicer than ours!

In all 52 species were recorded and 19 species were caught including Tristram's Warbler, Sardinian Warbler, Serin, Firecrest and Rock Bunting.

If anyone sees a Ring Ouzel this coming year please check it for colour-rings. The odds aren't great but those 9 have got to go somewhere!

Egrets North and South

Two recent sightings of colour-ringed Little Egrets from the colony at Bangor have come from either end of Wales. The bird shown below was photographed by Tony Pope on 3rd December at The Spinnies, not very far from where it was ringed on 5th June 2011.

White L, Yellow V, ringed on the same day however, was seen on 19th November 2011 by Dave Astins at Hook, Pembrokeshire 173 kms SSW.

Off to Morocco with Mick Green and Paddy Jenks for a week catching and colour-ringing Ring Ouzels (hopefully!) tomorrow. With any luck there will be some photos to post when we return!

Shortie completes the set!

Taking a Leafe out of Paul's book, I thought I'd have an early morning crack at Ceri myself this morning. Getting up at 4.00 am wasn't so bad, getting there was a bit more challenging. The higher roads were covered in black ice and a fresh sprinkling of hail - absolutely lethal!

Catching wasn't as good as I thought it might be given the conditions but I did manage another 4 un-ringed Golden Plovers and yet another Stock Dove (does it mention ground-roosting Stock Doves in BWP?). One last look in a favourite wet flush for Jack Snipe produced a Woodcock hunkered down in the rushes. As it spooked at the last minute an un-seen Short-eared Owl rose from about 6 foot away!! A quick imitation of a vole (sound rather than appearance!) drew the bird back in and after 3 heart-stopping failed attempts I finally managed to creep up and net it on the fourth.

A quick look in the Non-passerine Guide confirmed it as a young male

Not sure what you call a five thing hat-trick but have finally managed to ring all five regular breeding owls in one year.

400 Woodcock and counting!!

Whilst updating the ringing totals for 2011 so far I realise that we have just passed the milestone of 400 Woodcock ringed in a year, yep 400, that's nothing short of amazing!! And still the best month of the year left!!

My London-based sisters-in-law, Jane and Ange enjoying a close encounter with some unfamiliar nightlife.

The good run continues in to November.....

With a fantastic number of birds dazzled in October, I wondered if I had peaked too soon! Fortunately it would appear that the good run of birds is going to continue thoughout the winter with another (very) respectable number of birds dazzled in November. As you can see from the table below, the catches in both months were very simular. The two totals that have stood out for me so far are:

1) 5 Jack Snipe - it may not seem that many, but my guess it that it will probably be somewhere between 5%-10% of the total caught in Britain & Ireland in 2011.

2) 8 Woodcock - I would have expected to be well in to double figures by now. It's not even because I'm missing them, there just aren't many around here at the moment! Where are they all?

I can't wait to see what December brings - BRING IT ON!!