Wednesday 30 November 2016

Ty'n y Caeau 30/11/2016

After a wait we managed to get back to doing some ring at the farm. Heather, Phil and Chris arrived at first light and it was pretty damn chilly.
After a few struggles we had the nets up (2x40' and 5x60') and as we waited for the first net round there was large flock of Redwing with the odd Fieldfare just hanging around in the Hawthorn between us and the nets. Only 1 found its' way into the catching area but lets be thankful we at least caught that one. Next time we must remember to have some Redwing sound available.

With the sun up it was a little warmer and we caught a fair spread of species before calling it a day at around 10:30.

Total for the day:

Thursday 3 November 2016

Ty'n y Caeau - 3/11/16 the DJ Rules

To benefit from the work done on the field at Church Farm we decided to get the nets up by first light and it paid off.
Heather, Cedwyn, Chris, and our new recruit Leighton were at the site by 06:15 and had the usual nets up before  a glorious dawn.


With those in place we decided to put up the short 2 shelf nets up at the field edge of the crop to add to our catching options.

Next step was for our resident DJ, Cedwyn to choose the music for the morning and his choice proved decisive.
Not exactly sure what he used but I think it may have been the Vaughan Williams classic "A Lark Ascending" and possibly the less well known Robert Schumann "The Happy Farmer, Returning From Work" within a very short time this choice resulted in a Skylark obviously, and 3 Redwing (a somewhat tenuous link here, you'll have to work it out yourself).
The crop is doing very well this year even though there is no sign of any sunflower. John who farms this land told me it was because the leather jackets like the seed and it would need to be controlled with chemical spray which is not the best idea. However there were plenty of birds around including large flocks of Wood pigeon and Jackdaw overhead. Once the feeding stations are located we should be in for some good catches.
Whilst we didn't succeed in catching them there were also Greenfinch around which is good to see. Also a number of Sparrowhawk were spotted during the morning.
With the wind getting up and it becoming very cold we packed up about 10:30 after a relatively small but very varied catch.

Totals for the day: