What a night!

On Tuesday night Adrienne Stratford paid a visit to a Chough roost in Mid Wales and recorded a staggering 60 – 65 birds and she also managed to positively identify at least 47 individuals from their colour-ring combinations. This one visit alone has collected a whole mass of data for the Cross & Stratford Welsh Chough Project that would just not be possible to collect from conventional BTO metal ringing alone and makes the long days of flogging around the coast carrying ladders, ropes and metal spikes well worth the effort.

Of the 47 birds positively identified  

17 were juveniles ringed this year comprising;

3 out of  a brood of 4 from a local natural site

3 out of a brood of 4 from one of our nestboxes at 1km distant

1 out of a brood of 4 from one of our nestboxes at 9 km distant

2 out of a brood of 4 from one of our nestboxes at 17 km distant

2 out of a brood of 4 from one of our nestboxes at 20 km distant

3 out of a brood of 3 from one of our nestboxes at 24 km distant

1 out of a brood of 1 from one of our nestboxes at 28 km distant

2 out of a brood of 4 from a natural site at 32 km distant

14 from 2013 were:

1 of unknown origin caught locally as Age 5 female, May 2014

1 out of a brood of 3 from a local natural site

1 out of a brood of 2 from one of our nestboxes at 9 km distant

1 out of a brood of 2 from a natural inland site at 19 km distant

2 out of  a brood of 4 from one of our nestboxes at 21 km distant

2 out of a brood of 3 from one of our nestboxes at 24 km distant

1 out of a brood of 2 from one of our nestboxes at 28 km distant

1 out of a brood of 4 from a natural site at 32 km distant

1 out of a brood of 3 from a natural site at 36 km distant

1 out of a brood of 2 from one of our nestboxes at 40 km distant

1 out of a brood of 4 from one of our nestboxes at 44 km distant

1 out of a brood of 3 from a natural site at 57 km distant

7 from 2012 were:

1 out of a brood of 2 from one of our nestboxes at 24 km distant

1 out of a brood of 3 from one of our nestboxes at 26 km distant

1 out of a brood of 4 from one of our nestboxes at 28 km distant

1 out of a brood of 4 from one of our nestboxes at 29 km distant

3 out of a brood of 4 from a natural site at 51 km distant (one of which was also id’d at a distant nest sites earlier this year).

Nesting pairs

Local breeding pair: female from nestbox at 29 km distant in 2006, male from natural site at 13km distant in 2009.

Local breeding pair: female caught at site as adult in Sept 2007, male unringed.

Local breeding pair: female unringed, male from nestbox at 21 km distant in 2006.

Local breeding pair: female unringed, male caught as adult in May 2014.

Breeding pair from 1km distant: female from nestbox at 21km distant in 2010, male unringed (not seen).

Breeding pair from 13 km distant: female from natural site at 51 km distant in 2007 (see 2012 above), male from nestbox 44 km distant in 2004.

Breeding pair from 44km distant: female from local nest in 2007, male from nestbox 26 km distant in 2006.

The data above also shows just how important our nestbox scheme is for this rare and locally important member of the crow family.