Friday, 9 October 2015

Re: Tanybwlch Chough

Hi  Kev

Yes we can indeed tell you who this is! It is the breeding male from the nearest nesting pair south of Aberystwyth. He was originally caught as a juvenile in a roost in Aberdyfi on 28th December 2002 so is now 13 years and 5 month old. He has bred in Ceredigion since 2004, with 12 nest-attempts at two different sites, failing in 3 years and raising a total of 27 young in his 9 successful seasons (including 3 this year). All of his nests have been in nest-boxes that we had specifically provided for Chough.

He is frequently to be seen in the horse-grazed fields at Tanybwlch which I guess is where you photographed him? He has already outlived one of his colour-rings so if you can hang on a few more years you might get a shot of him with much less jewellery on than he has at present ;)

Thanks very much for the record,

Tony Cross/Adrienne Stratford

P.S. We would greatly appreciate any other records of chough flocks, with or without colour-ringed birds, and are happy to provide details on any individually identifiable birds. Please email sightings to adriennestratford@btinternet.com

The above is a reply to the query from Kev Joynes about the Chough that he photographed at Tanybwlch: see Kev's posting of 28/9.
The delay in posting this is due to the fact that my e-mail has been out of action and I've only just had it fixed today.
I am now working through the backlog.

Thanks for your patience

Harry Pepper