Chough Update,Sunday 1st April 2018.

Going back to our trip to North Wales from a week or so ago and our brilliant encounter with 4 Chough at Braich y Pwll on the Llyn Peninsula.As posted previously we had encountered a colour ringed bird,the following are details which were kindly received from Adrienne Stratford on this individual.
 The bird had been ringed as a male nestling as part of a brood of 3,9km from were we had seen him on our visit and then wandered widely as part of a flock of non breeding birds for the first 2 years of his life into the Nantile mountain range.This area is over 40km inland from his natal area and he spent time here in the summer and autumn months and then spent the rest of the year around Nefyn and Trefor in the winter time.It is highly unusual for Choughs to wander this far from the area they hatched in,with them usually staying closer to their hatching area.
 From 2015 he settled down in the Aberdaron area with an un-ringed partner,the one with him in my photos and successfully reared 2 broods of 3 chicks.
 This just goes to show the invaluable data gathered from colour ringing and ringing birds in general and in particular the rarer species which require strict management and protection measures to help them survive.
 A big thank you must go out to Adrienne and Tony Cross for all their hard work over the past 27 years in studying and ringing over 5,500 individual birds and help secure this stunning Corvids future.

U5 The 5 Year Old Male With His Partner At Braich y Pwll,Llyn Peninsula,23.03.2018.