LRGp - 40 years

On Sunday 26th August, the majority of the Group met at Llangasty Village Hall to mark our 40th year of ringing, as a BTO registered Ringing Group. Despite the damp and breezy conditions, the BBQ was finally "fired-up" and into action (we needed more than one match this year !). Our Chairman, Bob Haycock, had traveled from Pembroke, with Annie, for this significant milestone in the Group's history, and a huge thanks go to Carola and Jim for organising the event. It was fantastic to catch up with Steph Tyler at the lake, after so many years, to see Lyndon Roberts, who was making his debut as a member (we have had several birds moving between the Lake and his site in the Gordano Valley, on the other side of the estuary), and it was great to see Ron in his Sunday best !. Bob said a few words, about how the Group had come to be formed, and briefly described the progress we had made, and species changes we had monitored, since the late 1970's. Early memories included our first meeting in The Bear, Crickhowell, tales of several members "camping" in the old shed during holiday ringing sessions, and of the transportation of our new shed (from Chew Valley), on a flat bed lorry that George arranged. For the record, the first bird to be ringed with a "Group ring" was a Robin - ringed by Jeremy Richards on 7 July 1978 in the garden (unfortunately Jeremy was unable to be with us on this anniversary), and the latest bird (our 74,103rd) was a Chiffchaff, ringed the previous day by Jerry in rb2. Overall, not a bad contribution to the BTO's Ringing Scheme, from a small, inland site.

photo by Annie, standing l-r Amy, Elinor, Alan L, Carlton, Willow, Carola (and Sebastian), Gareth, George, Bob, seated l-r Lyndon, Ron, Jerry

Members not Present: Alan J, Andrew, Jeremy, Peter, Ruth, Sophie-Lee and Tony