Post date: Sep 8, 2012 6:02:43 PM
I just had a very intensive week ringing at Salreu, where the abundance and diversity of migrants have increased substantially. It culminated in today's session, which was open to the public within the program "Ciência Viva no Verão". The kids that attended this session (and the adults) will not forget the dance of the Wryneck, which was probably the bird (or rather birds, as there were three) most appreciated!
The previous evening, some friends (LPS, CC, EC, PQT and PT) organized a session to capture Yellow Wagtails at the constant-effort site. I believe they got just over 100 birds, apparently all migrants of the ssp flava, flavissima and thunbergii (no ssp iberia as far as they could tell). These birds are not included in the totals below, as I did not use my rings. The 12 wagtails caught this morning (included below) were still roosting at the site after being attracted with the song playback the previous evening. They also got two Reed Buntings, which I measured, color-ringed and sampled this morning (also not included below). It is strange that Reed Buntings have been caught in the evening during the past three weeks, but never in the morning, and they were all adult males.
There was only one acrola this week in five ringing sessions. They seem to be fewer this year, and the probability of retrapping any is extremely slim, not least because the birds that are around (two were seen by RC) seem to be stationary and do not respond to the song playback (they are probably fattening up in small territories or home ranges).
Also on a lower note, Yellow-crowned Bishops, the exotic from sub-Saharan Africa, just became the second-most abundant species in my ringing dataset this year (click on Ringing sub-webpage to see the totals).
There are some pretty interesting highlights this week, namely: (1) the first ever ringing record of Penduline Tit for this site, a juvenile in its first (partial) molt, suggesting that they may have bred here (a friend also photographed one a couple of weeks ago); (2) the arrival of various migrants of considerable interest, namely Winchats and Wrynecks; (3) as usual at this time of the year, Cetti's Warblers have moved into the reedbed where they spend the winter; (4) control of a French Bluethroat and a British Reed Warbler, and (5) cases of suspended moult in adult Spotted Flycatchers and Whitethroats and some very heavy (fat) individuals such as a Grasshopper Warbler weighing 19.7 g, Wryneck weighing 45.3 g and Great Reed Warbler weighing 38.8 g! The ringing totals for the week are:
Acrocephalus arundinaceus 3 (3)
Acrocephalus paludicola 1
Acrocephalus schoenobaenus 24 (2)
Acrocephalus scirpaceus 46 (8, including one with a British ring)
Aegithalus caudatus 1
Alcedo atthis 1
Anthus triviallis 12
Caprimulgus europaeus 1 (2)
Cettia cetti 22 (7)
Cisticola juncidis 2
Euplectes afer 32 (11)
Ficedula hypoleuca 8 (2)
Gallinago gallinago 1
Hippolais polyglotta 4
Jynx torquilla 6 (1)
Locustella luscinioides 4 (1)
Locustella naevia 10 (2)
Luscinia megarhynchus 2 (4)
Luscinia svecica 14 (1, from France)
Motacilla flava 12
Muscicapa striata 4
Parus caeruleus 1 (2)
Parus major 1 (2)
Passer montanus 2
Phylloscopus ibericus 1
Phylloscopus trochilus 37 (4)
Remiz pendulinus 1
Saxicola rubetra 2
Saxicola torquatus 1
Sylvia atricapilla 1 (3)
Sylvia borin 5
Sylvia communis 4
Troglodytes troglodytes (2)
This week I also saw a European Roller (apparently there war three at Salreu) and found and photographed a very rare dark morph of Montagu's Harrier (a juvenile), together with a Booted Eagle.
Early next week, I'll be ringing with some friends in northwest Portugal, where a few new species await me, as well as quite a lot of work processing all the Subalpine Warblers (Sylvia cantilans) that expect us! I'll post some news about it soon afterwards.
JMN