RAS visits to rb2 & jetty

On Saturday 26th June Rachel and Jerry did a second RAS visit to rb2. The boardwalk was a bit "slippy" after the overnight rain, and with an easterly breeze, the nets were a bit exposed. This affected the catch with just 5 + (13), made up of Blackbird 1, Redstart 2, Blackcap (1), Reed Warbler 1 + (10), Blue Tit (2), and Treecreeper 1. One of the Redstarts had an unusual wing bar, presumably caused by food deficiency during feather growth, which was not shown by the other bird, or the two from last week (which would have been expected if they were from the same brood). The Blackcap was also interesting in that its primaries, tertials and tail showed no signs of wear, and the belly looked very like a pre-moult juvenile, but its crown was black. It had been ringed a couple of years ago (and caught in the garden on Jeremy's recent CES visit). All but one of the retrap Reed Warblers was caught on the previous visit. The Blue Tits were youngsters from a nearby box.

Food deficiency or some other cause?

After a short period of unsettled weather, Pete and Jerry set up the jetty on the evening of 29th June, and had a catch of 40 + (8), incl 9 + (6) Reed Warbler for our RAS. They played some Sand Martin and Swallow tapes and what they thought to be 100+ started to show interest when about 20 Starling hit the net (fortunately, as far as Jerry was concerned, most escaped). Later analysis of the video Peter took showed at least 173 Sand Martin in shot at the same time - so the flock was bigger than they thought! Then a pair of Hobby were cruising the area, and it looked like the roost would be unsuccessful. However a few Sand Martin were caught at 21.50, and the catching continued until the nets were being taken down at 22.20 (these later birds needing to be roosted overnight as it was too dark to release them). It was a good catch of 22 + (1 control) Sand Martin, as we have only previously ringed 18 in June - 5 on 21/06/2016 by Alan L (roost), and 13 on 28 & 29/06/2016 by Jerry (RAS sessions).

A bit dark for photo's of Sand Martin so here's a video of them circling about 90 minutes before it became dark (although quite a bit of quality has been in making the file size small enough to upload - i am working on a solution!).

Andy tried again the next morning for the first "real" jetty RAS visit, but was hampered by the bright sunshine, he ended on a useful 9 + (9). The best of which was a juvenile Stonechat. This is only our  11th Stonechat following birds in 1978, 2003, 2004, 2007 (3), 2014, 2019 (2) & 2020, and our first bird at the jetty. The recent increase in numbers captured presumably a result of management at Caeau Ty Mawr.

First (of multiple?) Stonechat of the year.

The details for the "overnight" sessions were - Sand Martin 22 + (1) control, Blackbird 1, Stonechat 1, Cettis Warbler (1), Chiffchaff 2, Willow Warbler 1, Blackcap 1, Reed Warbler 14 + (14), Sedge Warbler (1), Spotted Flycatcher 1 (pullus), Starling 4, Blue Tit 1 and Long-tailed Tit 1.

Our June total was 175 ringed (our 3rd lowest of the last 10 years), bringing the YTD to 394

No words needed here!