Thursday, June 13, 2024

Common Kingfisher action - Teifi Marshes, Cardigan : 10th June 2024

Myself and other 'toggers' had been waiting patiently for the parent Common Kingfishers to bring their young to the pool at the Kingfisher Hide at Teifi Marshes to teach them to fish and fend for themselves and this finally happened on Friday 7th June, a little later than 2022 and 2023.

I managed to catch up with them on Saturday 8th and Monday 10th June before heading for home later on the 10th.

There were three youngsters present with the male parent on 7th but I managed to see only two with their dad on the 8th and only dad on his own on the 10th.

I imagine that they'll produce a second brood which will surface in July but in the meantime here are some recent images.......



























 

Osprey - Afon Teifi at Teifi Marshes, Cardigan





An Osprey was spotted on 31st May on the Afon Teifi perched on a branch about 70m up river from the Curlew Hide at Teifi Marshes by one of the volunteer group carrying out works.

The bird showed well if a little infrequently up to 6th June when it disappeared and favoured the same perch where it proceeded to eat it's catches after fishing.

I was lucky enough to catch up with the bird three times always at the same location, on it's perch and in flight.

The bird was ringed with a Blue ring on it's left leg which meant that it was a bird of Scottish origin.

I managed to make out the ring details from some of my photos which read 7H6 and passed this information on to Wendy James of the Teifi Ringing Group who contacted the Osprey Foundation.

Within a day or two we received feed back that the bird was one of a clutch of three from a nest on the Moy Estate located 10km south of Inverness and was ringed on 1st July 2022 by John Brain.

This would probably mean that this was it's first return migration.

We were informed that the nest is quite prolific and the parent birds produce three young most years.

Also there have been several sightings of birds from the nest over the years including one in Guinea-Bissau, West Africa.

It was such a privilege to watch and photograph this fantastic bird at relatively close quarters and was made even better by receiving the feedback of it's origin.

Here are some images taken over the three visits I made except for the two at the start of the post which were provided by John Brain the ringer taken on the day the three young were ringed.........