Rt:
“Mud brown”/Blue inscribed Lt: White/BTO -
this is the first record of this young female, ringed by Tony Cross also in
2016, as one of a brood of four at a site a few km south of Aberystwyth, about
25 km distant. (The fledged family
group was seen near their nest site in 2016, but without any rings being read +
no records since then.)
Thank you so much! They all
look in very fine fettle.
If you get a chance of a photo
of the third colour-ringed bird, that would be great.
As both the identified
colour-ringed birds are nearly two years old, they’ll be old enough to nest this
season – it will be very interesting to hear if they nest in the New Quay area.
The unringed bird looks quite a small individual – likely to be another female,
but we don’t know the sex of your 1st colour-ringed bird (too young
on the ringing date for the measurements to give a good idea of the
sex).
We used to get regular reports
of a pair nesting on or near Birds’ Rock, + also at another site a half km
further north-east. However, I’ve not heard any definite records of nesting at
either site for several years now, which is a shame as one pair included a
colour-ringed female from Cilan Head, Caernarfonshire (more local for me, but
over 60 km to New Quay as the chough flies), who was an 11 years old when last
seen in 2017. She was last recorded nesting with an unidentified colour-ringed
male partner in 2014, but then no records until she was photographed again at
New Quay Head in May 2017, with a partner not identified. She was presumably
still nesting at one or other of the New Quay sites up until last season at
least. I hope she is still alive – maybe she could be the 4th bird
in your little flock.