As part of our Celebrate Biodiversity event on Saturday, staff from the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) gave bird ringing demonstrations, while our resident moth expert, Bob Evans had been trapping moths on the reserve the previous evening to show to members of the public. Both of these activities are extremely valuable in telling us more about the wildlife and biodiversity we have at Conwy, while visitors were able to enjoy amazing close encounters with the birds and moths which were caught.
Visitors enjoy close encounters of birds at the BTO demonstration tent
Bird ringing makes an enormous contribution to our overall understanding of birds, giving us information on everything from migration and dispersal, age and survival rates, and population change which is particularly important when it comes to focusing conservation efforts. In order to catch the birds, fine mist nests were placed at three locations on the reserve where birds could be caught in flight as they moved between trees and patches of scrub. The nets were checked regularly throughout the day and any birds caught were taken back to the BTO tent where the ringing demonstrations were taking place.
A mist net set up between patches of scrub near the Tal y Fan hide
At the demonstration table, a metal ring with a unique number was placed on the birds lower leg allowing for future identification. The birds age and sex was also determined, and other measurements were taken including length of the primary wing feathers, and weight of the bird.
Measurements are taken on a juvenile robin and male blackcap
Throughout the day a total of 39 individual birds were caught, not bad considering it was quite breezy and birds are generally more active earlier in the day. Of most interest was perhaps a lesser whitethroat, one of our more scarce breeding birds. Totals of each of the other species caught were: blackbird 1, song thrush 2, dunnock 5, robin 1, wren 2, blackcap 2, reed warbler 3, sedge warbler 1, chiffchaff 2, blue tit 9, great tit 4, house sparrow 1, bullfinch 1, goldfinch 2, and greenfinch 2. Interestingly two of the great tits caught were re-traps of birds which were caught last year, while a 5 year old blue tit was also caught, ringed as an adult in 2013.
Two of the reserve's specialties in the hand - reed warbler and lesser whitethroat
Some of our commoner birds - dunnock, juvenile blue tit and a wren
Meanwhile moth trapping demonstrations were done by volunteer Bob Evans who showed visitors what he'd caught in the trap the previous evening. While we don't yet have full details of species and numbers caught, the highlight was certainly a great prominent moth, a new species for the reserve and only the ninth record for the county, including only the second this century! Bob has done a fantastic job of identifying new species of moths on the reserve, adding over 50 new species to the Conwy list over the past couple of years.
Great prominent moth - a new record for the reserve (photo by Bob Evans)