tchagra
Sunday 31st August 2003, 10:12
Hi All
This Autumn the Spanish ringing Programme includes what is called Proyecto calidris,basically organised wader ringing sessions,at certain times in July,August ,Sept and Oct.
We dont have down here in the South West any huge estuaries that are available for wader ringing but there are some smaller sites that get a good movement in the Autumn.
Our spanish group is covering Tarifa as 1 site and the Guadiaro estuary as the other.
On Sat night we did our session at the Guadiaro starting at 19.00 hrs.using 4 waders nets plus a couple of nets set in the reedbeds to catch any passerines.
First net round catch a very scrawny juvenile Reed warbler carrying no fat ,very liitle muscle ( really sharp sternum) and a generally small bird with a wing length less than 60mm.!!!
The president of our group has had a couple of earlier sessions in the reeds and he showed me his results and they were quite staggering,1 adult Reed warbler had a fat score of 70,and weighed 15 grammes.,but all the rest were juv birds and most weighed less than 10 grammes and most had very unusually short wing lengths less than 60 mm.,and carrying no fat with very little muscle.
It has been a disastrous breeding sessions here for this bird,a cold wet windy spring and the seawater penetrated the marsh badly with the strong onshore levanter pushing it in,and water levels were too high.
Very few mosquitos around too,so food supplies ahve been scarce to feed the young birds in the nests.
As dusk approached we started the Swallow tape lure and in piled all the birds to roost attracted by the tape.In all we extracted about 150 birds,not bad for the first swallow roost of the autumn.
In with them were a couple of red Rumped Swallows too.
As there are so many birds they are kept in special collecting boxes and when ringed kept in the boxes to roost overnight them
released at dawn.
Later on we will also catch big numbers of migarting Yellow wagtails by same method.
In Spain group ringing sessions are a bit of a "party" time.Loads of people turn up,apart from the ringers,friends ,wives,gril friends and of course the children.Things are very laid back,time outs are taken for food and drink,taking photos and videos,anything goes.
This is typical Spain,and this is generally how the "normal " Spanish ,certainly in Andalucia live,and the EU will not change that,NO WAY JOSE!!!
You will see what it is like from a few of the shots that I took during the evening into the early hours of Sat.morning.
I left at 01.45 hrs.and the other guys were still finishing the Swallows and were still trapping waders.Some will be there till first light I guess!!!
We had a good catch of wadres this time while I was there,1 Little Stint,1 adult Curlew sandpiper,2 juv.Kentish Plovers,4 Ringed Plovers,1 Greenshank and 12 Sanderling which were a nice mixture of juvs.and moulting adults.
The next session at the Guadiaro is at end of Sept.and this should make for some really interesting reading
Your Spanish Correspondent
This Autumn the Spanish ringing Programme includes what is called Proyecto calidris,basically organised wader ringing sessions,at certain times in July,August ,Sept and Oct.
We dont have down here in the South West any huge estuaries that are available for wader ringing but there are some smaller sites that get a good movement in the Autumn.
Our spanish group is covering Tarifa as 1 site and the Guadiaro estuary as the other.
On Sat night we did our session at the Guadiaro starting at 19.00 hrs.using 4 waders nets plus a couple of nets set in the reedbeds to catch any passerines.
First net round catch a very scrawny juvenile Reed warbler carrying no fat ,very liitle muscle ( really sharp sternum) and a generally small bird with a wing length less than 60mm.!!!
The president of our group has had a couple of earlier sessions in the reeds and he showed me his results and they were quite staggering,1 adult Reed warbler had a fat score of 70,and weighed 15 grammes.,but all the rest were juv birds and most weighed less than 10 grammes and most had very unusually short wing lengths less than 60 mm.,and carrying no fat with very little muscle.
It has been a disastrous breeding sessions here for this bird,a cold wet windy spring and the seawater penetrated the marsh badly with the strong onshore levanter pushing it in,and water levels were too high.
Very few mosquitos around too,so food supplies ahve been scarce to feed the young birds in the nests.
As dusk approached we started the Swallow tape lure and in piled all the birds to roost attracted by the tape.In all we extracted about 150 birds,not bad for the first swallow roost of the autumn.
In with them were a couple of red Rumped Swallows too.
As there are so many birds they are kept in special collecting boxes and when ringed kept in the boxes to roost overnight them
released at dawn.
Later on we will also catch big numbers of migarting Yellow wagtails by same method.
In Spain group ringing sessions are a bit of a "party" time.Loads of people turn up,apart from the ringers,friends ,wives,gril friends and of course the children.Things are very laid back,time outs are taken for food and drink,taking photos and videos,anything goes.
This is typical Spain,and this is generally how the "normal " Spanish ,certainly in Andalucia live,and the EU will not change that,NO WAY JOSE!!!
You will see what it is like from a few of the shots that I took during the evening into the early hours of Sat.morning.
I left at 01.45 hrs.and the other guys were still finishing the Swallows and were still trapping waders.Some will be there till first light I guess!!!
We had a good catch of wadres this time while I was there,1 Little Stint,1 adult Curlew sandpiper,2 juv.Kentish Plovers,4 Ringed Plovers,1 Greenshank and 12 Sanderling which were a nice mixture of juvs.and moulting adults.
The next session at the Guadiaro is at end of Sept.and this should make for some really interesting reading
Your Spanish Correspondent