10 Sep Sharing Learning and Good Practice: The Welsh (Bird) Ringing Course 2025
The annual Welsh Ringing Course was run over the long weekend of 29 August to 1 September 2024. The field elements of the course, including site preparation work, landowner liaison, health and safety and daily logistical planning were co-ordinated for the ninth time by BSG Ecology Director and Gower Ringing Group member Owain Gabb.
The course focusses on independent assessment to inform ringing permit upgrades and extra endorsements. Three of the 12 participants were assessed for A permits (allowing them to ring completely independently), and two for a mist netting endorsement. The remaining attendees came to gain further experience ringing with different trainers and using different techniques. In the absence of courses, of which there are very few across the UK, it can be challenging to achieve permit upgrades.
The itinerary took in various sites on the Gower Peninsula, and included daytime mist netting at Oxwich Marsh, spring trapping on the storm beach at Overton, dazzling waders at Weobley and Whiteford Burrows on the Burry Inlet and capture of waterfowl species by hand at sites in urban Swansea. Scheduling the course a week or so earlier (due in part to adverse weather in 2024) didn’t pay off entirely, as the weather moved a week forward too! We were dogged by wind and rain, adapting to this by running an extra session on the Friday morning that, thankfully, most participants were able to attend.
Passerine and near passerine highlights included several grasshopper warblers, stonechats, kingfishers, several dippers and good numbers of grey wagtail. Rock pipits were captured and colour ringed at Overton, and five mute swans and two black-headed gulls in Swansea. On the Burry a first winter little tern was captured along with a skylark, 49 ringed plover, 88 dunlin and a little stint.
Participants were given the opportunity to try dazzling, with many successfully capturing birds using the technique. In accordance with BTO protocols birds were ringed under (subdued) red light and held in pens to allow re-acclimatisation to light prior to their release.
As a result of the course a number of upgrades were recommended, and all participants were provided with feedback on areas to work on in order to continue their advancement. This outcome will almost certainly result in new projects commencing that will provide further important population data to the British Trust for Ornithology, as well as strengthening existing long-running studies.
Owain was given time off work to run the course by BSG Ecology, reflecting the company’s understanding of the importance of the training.
A detailed account of the course is here: Welsh Ringing Course 2025
