Another new species, and "jetty setup"

On Sun 21st June, Andy and Jerry had the expert help of tree surgeon Peter Leek to climb to a Red Kite nest. Andy had found it a couple of months back, when he was doing a WBBS visit along the R Usk. The nest was about 12m up in a large Ash tree, but this didn't present any problems for Peter. Only a single chick was present, which was a bit of a surprise (considering how rich the ground is along the river valley), but it was healthy, about 4 weeks old and weighed in at 910 gms. The farmer had seen Kite there last year, but perhaps it was a young pair, that were prospecting in 2014, and having their first nesting attempt this year. Some baler twine (that the Kite's had used for lining/decoration) was removed in case in entangled the chick. A successful morning that added a new species to the list of birds ringed by LRGp, now standing at 104.

On Tues 23rd, Alan L, Carlton and Jerry met up at the jetty to prepare the net lane. The usual two nets were set for a couple of hours in the evening, and they had a modest catch of 8 + (10) birds. These included nine more Reed Warbler recaptures for our RAS - previously ringed in 2010 (1), 2012 (3), 2013 (1) and 2014 (4). Up to 16 for the year already, so looking good for a bumper year.