Late June and roosts start, RAS continues and CES 6

Thursday 22nd June saw the first roost session at the jetty by Peter, Alan J & Ruth,(joined by Tony and Fleur). They had a late night, as it didn't get dark until 22:00, and they finally packed up at 22:45. It was a very promising start with Sand Martin numbers peaking at around 500, very good for this early in the season. A Hobby was back, scattering the flock and giving good views with its exceptionally close passes over the net, potentially leading to our third Hobby capture in three years. The "pre catch" was affected by the strong breeze (which may have also alerted the Sand Martin to the nets while they were circling before roosting). An hour before dusk the wind dropped and boosted the catch to an ok 8 + (4), made up of Sand Martin 2 - adult M and juvenile, Blackbird 1, Chiffchaff (1) - breeding F, ringed as a youngster in 2022, and Reed Warbler 5 + (3) - incl an adult ringed in 2018 and re-caught twice in 2021.

Another roost by the same team on Saturday 24th was much more successful. The Sand Martin flock built up again, though probably not quite as many as Thursday, with the Hobby again giving a spectacular aerial display. The "pre roost" catch was 7 + (1), caught just after the sun dropped low enough to be off the nets, and included another Reed Warbler for the RAS. The first "roost bird" was a Swallow, not seen (prior to being in the net) amongst the much more numerous Sand Martin. With the seemingly constant presence of the Hobby, the Sand Martin were coming into the reeds in small groups, and in about 20 minutes some 30 had been caught. They started taking birds out of the net and the final catch was 51. The Hobby was still chasing birds, and hit the very top of the top panel before escaping. The session total was 59 + (1), made up of Swallow 1, Sand Martin 51, Blackbird 1, Reed Warbler 5 + (1), and Great Tit 1. This catch of 51 Sand Martin surpasses our previous all time June total for Sand Martin, which stood at 41.

On Monday 26th there were RAS sessions at both the jetty (Andy) and rb2 (Jerry). Andy's catch was a modest 5 + (2) - breezy with sun on the nets, while Jerry had an slightly better 12 + (12) - catching picked up later in the morning as some cloud cover developed. The combined mix was made up of Redstart 1 - a new juvenile so likely another brood (in addition to the 2 boxes) in rb2, Blackbird (2), Dunnock 1, Cettis Warbler (1), Reed Warbler 7 + (7) - 3 for the RAS, Blackcap 1, Chiffchaff 5 + (1), Goldcrest 1, Pied Flycatcher (1), Blue Tit (1), and Reed Bunting 1 + (1). After three RAS sessions to each of our two sites, we have made a reasonable start with 18 adult recaptures (5 at the jetty, and 13 in rb2). Most Pied Flycatchers are ringed as chicks in nestboxes, or as adults attending them, few are caught in mist nets. Today's bird was caught in rb2, having been ringed as a chick in early June at a Cathedine box (there is a direct link along the tree lined Llynfi (about 1 km) to the Lake alder carr woodland. This might suggest the breeding site of the adult female caught on a previous RAS visit -
it as ringed as a chick in rb2 in 2021, not caught in 2022, but there was a ringed female at a Cathedine box this year that was not caught as her nest failed (mouse) early on in the season.

Thursday 29th saw Jeremy (helped by Jerry) doing CES 6. Despite some periodic cloud cover, it was mainly sunny (which would have depressed the total a bit). Most of the catch of 25 + (3) (a little below the average for period 6) was made up of juvenile Robin, Blackcap, Chiffchaff and Willow Warbler. The full mix was Blackbird 1 + (1), Dunnock (1), Robin 4, Blackcap 9, Chiffchaff 8, Willow Warbler 2,
Treecreeper 1, and Bullfinch (1).

Our June ringing total was 311 (mainly pulli) and the YTD becomes 538.