· Adrienne Stratford has kindly sent these details of the 2 Chough, both last year's youngsters, seen at Aberystwyth and mentioned in a recent posting:
Rt:
Lime/BTO Lt: Green/Orange “5H” – from
a brood of 4 ringed by Tony Cross, a few km South of Aberystwyth
(sex unknown).
There’s
only been two previous sightings of this young bird, firstly near the nest site
in June, together with adult pair + all 3 siblings, then photographed
at Tanybwlch last August by Silke Einschuetz.
·
Rt:
Red/BTO Lt: Lime/Orange “4S” – a young male from
a brood of 2 ringed by Tony, from about 5 km North of Aberystwyth near Borth.
He’s been recorded 3 times at the communal roost near Wallog in
autumn (but no records of his female sibling), last seen in
October.
I hope they’re not so tame because they’re struggling for food, but at least they’ve already done better that most of their peer group, by surviving into their second calendar year. Let’s hope they’ve found a good feeding patch there and manage to hang in there until weather gets kinder. I’d be very glad of any repeat sightings, just to know that they’re still ok.
In
most years, good numbers of the young choughs from Ceredigion turn up in the big
communal roosts in Southern Meirionnydd near Tywyn, but in 2017, for reasons
best known to themselves none of them showed up, despite usual observer effort
at roost sites. Apart from at the roost near Wallog, there’s been very few
sightings of the 2017 Ceredigion young birds, so it’s really great to have these
records.