Nanjizal 2018

Our (regular) visit to Cornwall was from Sun 30 Sept to Sat 6 Oct. Ron and Jerry were there for the whole week, with Vaughan Thomas, Richard Clarke (both Goldcliff R Gp) for the first part, and Carlton, Warwick White (Gordano R Gp) for the second. Sunday 1st saw the biggest catch of 239 + (5), and a busy first couple of net rounds. Blackcap made up the majority of the catch, with 175 + (1), together with 43 Chiffchaff and 4 + (2) Goldcrest. A Richard's Pipit flew over the valley (and stayed around for the week), a Yellow-browed Warbler was on site (but evaded the nets), and a pair of Chough flew over the ringing "hut". Monday was breezy, and the catch reduced to 84 + (20), but included 38 + (6) Blackcap, 3 Cetti's Warbler, 1 + (1) Sedge Warbler, 7 + (5) Chiffchaff, 1 Willow Warbler and 1 + (1) Goldcrest. It was windy on Tuesday, so they opted for a Pendeen sea watch. Reasonable numbers of Gannet and Guillimot were passing, and in about three hours they saw single Arctic and Great Skuas, and a distant Great Shearwater. Other species of interest were c10 Manx Shearwater, c5 Balearic Shearwater, 2 Common Scoter, and a small group of Chough.

A change of team members for Wednesday/Thursday, but there was a thick mist and few birds were moving. The catches were 24 + (36) and 20 + (19) respectively. The best bird was the first Firecrest (Wed) of the week, whilst a Greater Horseshoe Bat was caught on first round on Thursday. He was safely extracted/released, but chewed a bit of a hole in the net. The mist cleared overnight, and Friday morning saw (probably), the best session of all of our Nanjizal visits. The first round produced a Red-breasted Flycatcher and a Little Bunting, the second round a Yellow-browed Warbler, while late morning saw a second Little Bunting - everyone in the team was "very happy". The day ended on 149 + (18) and included 49 + (1) Blackcap, 2 Reed Warbler, 37 Meadow Pipit and 3 Firecrest. During the first part of the week, Richard commented that "we could be doing this with just four nets at Goldcliff", but a Gwent site will probably never top 'jizal's catch of Friday 5 October 2018. On the final Saturday, heavy rain was forecast, which arrived at dawn, so it was an early departure to head for home.

Greater Horseshoe Bat

(probable) Male, first winter Little Bunting

(probable) Female, first winter Little Bunting

Red-breasted Flycatcher

The Staple Nanjizal rare (for Llangorse Ringing group) Yellow Browed Warbler

No Biscuits in sight this time!

The daytime high tide was from late morning to early afternoon, and saw good numbers of gulls on the rocks in Sennon Cove. Several colour rings were read from 3 Kittiwake, 2 Black-headed Gulls and 3 Mediterranean Gulls. There were also some birds with metal rings (that could not be read), but ringing details of the colours will be posted when received. In addition, two Great Northern Divers (partial summer plumage) turned up in the bay, early in the week, and a group of 13 Chough flew over the cottage

Birds ringed -

Nanjizal Sept-Oct 2018
JMSL,RPC,DVT,RMC,CJP,WW	30	1	2	3	4	5	6	Total
Great-spotted Woodpecker	-	-	-	1	1	-	-	2
Kingfisher	-	-	-	-	-	*	-	*
Meadow Pipit	2	7	-	-	1	37	-	47
Wren	1	7	-	*	-	1	-	9
Song Thrush	-	1	-	-	1	-	-	2
Blackbird	1	*	-	*	-	1	-	2
Robin	8	3	-	1	3	5	-	20
Dunnock	1	1	-	2	-	3	-	7
Cettis Warbler	-	3	-	1	*	*	-	4
Reed Warbler	-	-	-	-	-	2	-	2
Sedge Warbler	-	1	-	-	-	-	-	1
Blackcap	175	38	-	4	3	49	-	269
Chiffchaff	43	7	-	9	6	32	-	97
Willow Warbler	-	1	-	-	-	-	-	1
Yellow-browed Warbler	-	-	-	-	-	1	-	1
Goldcrest	4	1	-	*	3	3	-	11
Firecrest	-	-	-	1	-	3	-	4
Red-breasted Flycatcher	-	-	-	-	-	1	-	1
Blue Tit	2	6	-	*	*	6	-	14
Great Tit	-	4	-	5	*	2	-	11
Long-tailed Tit	-	2	-	*	*	-	-	2
Chaffinch	1	2	-	*	2	1	-	6
Goldfinch	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	1
Bullfinch	-	-	-	*	*	-	-	*
Little Bunting	-	-	-	-	-	2	-	2
Total Ringed	239	84	0	24	20	149	0	516
Total Retrap	5	20	0	36	19	18	0	98
* retrap only