My Last CES at WWT Llanelli

Apologies for the delay in blogging but I've been very busy moving lately moving from Wales and volunteering at Slimbridge.

This blog post is about my last bird ringing session in Wales - The WWT Llanelli CES.

One of the net rides.

It was a quiet morning with not many birds being caught which made it a great morning for training. One of the things I enjoy most about CES is being able to examine the birds closely, learning about moult and ageing.




Examining plumage.


Species for the day included: Chiffchaff, Robin, Long-tailed Tit, Willow Warbler, Cetti's Warbler and a very special bird for fellow ringer Cedwyn - a Garden Warbler, Cedwyn's first!

Cedwyn and his first Garden Warbler.

Weighing the Garden Warbler.

Measuring the wing length. Biometrics gathered from CES sessions tell us a lot about the lives of our migratory passerines such as this Garden Warbler.

I enjoyed my last CES session and want to say special thanks to Heather Coats for being my foster trainer for the last year, Cedwyn and Ian, Nigel Williams for allowing me to go ringing so often and to Peter Phillips for managing the ringing sites.

I am writing this blog post from WWT Slimbridge where I have been volunteering for the last couple of weeks in the research department. I will finish working for The Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust at the end of this week and will miss the trust dearly. I have had such an amazing time over the last year and am so grateful to the trust.

One of my favourite views at Llanelli - sunset over the saline lagoon.