Half completed, with a new species and new foreign control

Post date: Jun 21, 2016 2:08:55 PM

With today's CES session (the 6th), half of the year's work has been completed. Although there was light rain for a couple of hours, the number of birds caught increased, reaching a total of 29 individuals of 11 species. A new species was ringed at this site (also my first in Sweden): a very young White Wagtail, which was quite surprising given the habitat (reeds and willows at the lake edge). There was also a second foreign control of the year, a Reed Warbler with a Belgium ring (the second from Belgium at this site). Otherwise, the commonest species was the Sedge Warbler, with seven birds caught, followed by Chiffchaff (five juveniles and one adult), Reed Warbler (four) and Reed Bunting (two juvs and one adult). As usual, the detailed results are posted here.

One of the juvenile Chiffchaffs (Phylloscopus collybita) caught today.

Last year I trapped 25 Chiffchaffs at this time of the season, a species that became the most ringed in 2015 (98 birds), so there seems to have been a decline, or they are slightly later this year. The rather poor weather of this session was most probably not a problem, as most birds were actually caught when it was raining! Anyway, it was unavoidable, as I'm leaving to Portugal for two weeks (where I hope to do some more ringing, which will be described in my personal webpage), coming back just in time for the next CES session.

Until then...

Júlio M. Neto