This morning 3 adult Sandwich Terns and 1 adult Arctic Tern feeding then roosting on a middle sand bank as the tide dropped. I guess with the desertion of the Skerries colony this season we may see many adult Terns moving south early.....
Med Gull numbers are picking up along the Ceredigion coast - 170 at Llanon recently and I guess our little venture in Med Gull colour ring reading may be replaced with reading colour rings on Sandwich Terns here from the Webley.
Photographers have been busy with the many Kingfishers on the Teifi, great to see that a couple of juvenile Redstarts on the main path have been photo'd by them too.
I don't usually go into much " in hand detail" but on the subject of Redstarts we took this photo on Tuesday when we re captured him for the first time since ringing him as a juvenile in July 2018.
This is an adult male in moult.
You can see 4 new wing feathers growing, all the rest will be replaced over the coming few weeks and the body moult will produce the more drab appearance for the winter. All new feathers for the flight to Africa.
Unlike the majority of Ducks and Geese which become flightless when they replace all their flight feathers together, most birds like Redstarts need to be able to fly to feed, so replacing all wing feathers at once is not an option.