One of the birds photographed by Viv Evans at New Quay. See my post of 17 Jan.
Rt:
Orange/Blue inscribed Lt: “Mud brown”/BTO -
only the second record of a young bird ringed by Tony Cross in 2016, as one of a
late brood of three, about 8 km distant, near Ynys Lochtyn. The first record of
this one was also at New Quay last July, also in a flock of 4 but with none of
its companions identified.
The two birds seen in the harbour on the bird walk on 13 Jan and the details sent to Adrienne by Red Liford,
The first two are sibling
youngsters ringed by Tony last season near Morfa Bychan. The lower reddish or
brownish ring on each of their left legs is almost certainly a dullish orange
with black inscription. You may well be right about the sexes, as they were too
small on the ringing date to hazard a guess based on biometrics. They could
also be paired, as this is not uncommon with siblings of this age, although the
1st of these (Rt: Lime/BTO Lt: Green/Orange inscribed “5H”)
was photographed by John Davis on 5th Jan (see Ceredigion blog), at
around the same spot but with a different, unrelated colour-ringed
juvenile.
I’m fairly sure your single
lunchtime bird is another view of your first bird again, but with his “legs
crossed”… This time you could see the orange inscribed ring, and your reading of
the inscription as HG confirms the ID (the inscription reads from top down as
“5H”, but if read from ground-up would look like “HG”).
For the 2nd bird
(Rt: Lime/BTO Lt: Lime/Orange # inscribed), this is only the second
fledged sighting and the first at Aberystwyth and in 2018. I was a bit worried
after John Davis had reported two being rather tame there that they might be
struggling to find enough food. But it sounds as if it’s a good spot to feed +
at least these ones have survived into their 2nd calendar year.
Another bird also in the harbour and photographed by John on 5 Jan and also by Naomi on 31 Dec.
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
See also posts by me on 1st Jan and John on 5th and 7th Jan.