Fygyn Common

Below is a summary of recently caught birds from my site, Fygyn Common. The site is fairly high up and any sort of wind makes it impossible to catch birds unless the conditions are really calm. It is the first summer I have been active here and whilst numbers I have caught have not been large I have been lucky enough to have caught some quality birds. I have been to the common several times recently just for a walk around and have seen Grasshopper Warbler, Willow Warbler, Whitethroat, Stonechat, Garden Warbler as well as the tits and common finches.
Every time I have been to the site I have heard the Cuckoo and on one occasion I watched as it flew over my car and settle in a tree and started calling again. A friend from where I live believed there were more than one and a few visits later I watched two Cuckoo's land on the same tree and I could also hear another calling behind me. So I really think there has been three birds around.

One bird I had not seen here before and wasn't expecting was this Tree Pipit. On the day I caught two together a few feet apart in the same net. One was a male with a CP and the other a female with a Brood Patch.

This Greater Spotted Woodpecker is the second bird this year. I have heard and seen Green Woodpecker flying about but not been successful in catching one yet.

I have caught two Jay recently both in the bottom shelf of one of my nets. One of the birds completely trashed my net in the area it was caught. Any expensive morning.

The Grasshopper Warbler was especially nice to catch. Many mornings I have heard the male making its unique distinctive call from early spring but because of their secretive skulking nature it was a while later before I spotted one. It was nice therefore that the net I had consistently erected in the low grassy areas with the odd scrub bush about paid off.

Large population reductions in the UK have made the Grasshopper Warbler a Red Status bird. August, September time see's the departure of this Warbler to its wintering grounds in Africa and India.

The bird above I suspected to be a juvenile Lesser Redpoll. I have never seen one before so I decided to photograph it let it go unringed and check it out when I got home to make sure. The images on Google confirmed my belief so I am now looking forward to hopefully catch one or more in future visits.

I thought I would post a picture of the site from last November comparing it with how it looks today. Both the pictures are taken from approximately the same position. It is looking green and lush at the moment compared with the barren unfriendly looking place below.

My main rides are situated in different parts of the common. In the winter months it was a bit bleak and when it got a little windy the nets were not really sheltered from the trees. Now there are leaves on the trees there is an improvement of the shelter but being an open site the nets still get affected.