Not a bad start!

Post date: May 8, 2015 4:12:18 PM

It has been a long time since I wrote in this blog! I did do some bits of bird ringing in Krankesjön during the past month or so, especially for a project on malaria and to collect ticks from tits and thrushes. There was nothing special to report, but the total number of birds ringed has been updated regularly on the Results webpage. I also received from the Swedish Ringing Centre the ringing information of the recaptures made last year, including the Reed Warbler with the Belgium ring, as well as of one of my Chiffchaffs that was retrapped in France during the winter. I might produce some maps in the near future depicting these controls.

But, today I carried out the first session of the Constant Effort Site (CES), which is used to monitor bird abundance, productivity and survival. This is only the second year and it is important that it is completed, so that these data can contribute to calculate national trends for the various bird species (otherwise the data collected during the first year would be pretty much useless).

I set up the same number of nets used previously (54 m), at the same location at 5am, and they were kept open until 11am, being visited to remove birds every 30 min. The weather was pretty nice, light wind, slightly chilly (7ºC) early on but got warmer, and while I open the nets there was a Bittern booming very close (but hidden) and a very noisy dawn chorus, though I could detect calls of nearby Water Rail and Kingfisher (both not so common here). The two birds caught while opening the nets promised a good start of the CES!

In total, there were 16 birds caught, one of which was a retrap (an old Reed Bunting wearing a ring not belonging to me), of eight species. Curiously, Garden Warbler was the most common species (five birds), a species that arrived only recently from the wintering areas in Africa, and I suspect that some of the birds may have been passage migrants that are still moving further north. Perhaps the highlight was an adult female Redstart, the first of the year, though I had already ringed three males in other parts of the lake. This total is much better than the one from the first session of the previous year, and I wonder if it is a good omen... As usual, the number of birds caught per species is described in the results webpage, so I will just leave you with a couple of pictures.

Adult female Redstart/Rödstjärt

Garden Warbler/Trädgårdssångare

Similarly to last year, the second session will coincide with a ringing demonstration for the students of the Faunistik course from Lund University. I'll post again then!

Júlio M. Neto