tchagra
Tuesday 23rd September 2003, 12:52
Hi All
Now that the high season is over and hotel prices have come down to mid season and more reasonable ,my wife and I decided to have a 2 day ringing session at my private ste in a far flung corner of Andalucia,in the area of La Janda.
You may or may not know of the history of this area,but La Janda was once a huge inland lake,probably the biggest in Western europe anyway,but it was drained during the 1950's by the locals to set up huge farms.
As a result we lost at least 1 breeding bird for Europe,the African Marsh Owl.To see this magnificent bird you have to take a trip to Morocco now,where it can still be easily found at a coastal wetland area.
In La Janda there are wide drainage channels to carry the water around for the crops which incl.Maize,Cotton,Rice,Sugar Beet,plus some areas are kept for Cattle grazing,so despite the disasters,at least the farming is mixed and huge numbers of birds either breed or migrate through each year.
I have been lucky and have permission to ring on 1 of these farms but being an ex lake it is very flat with few trees and no shelter and is therefore influenced by the winds.
This year has been bad at this site,a cold wet windy spring,and extremely hot windy summer so have had all in all not as many sessions here as per normal.
The forecast was OK for Sunday and Monday .so we went for it.
It is a fair drive to the site too,takes 75 mins on a good run.
By mid day on Sunday had 3 sets of nets up in tandem ,all triple 60's.2 sets were in Maize and the other in Cotton near a drainage channel.
It was quite cloudy ,not too hot and with only a light variable E.wind,pretty good for here!!!
Apart from the ringing there were plenty of raptors moving through plus 100's of WHITE STORKS AND 21 BLACK STORKS.
Nets were closed for a late lunch at 14.00 ,and then went to book in to a local hotel for that night.It is so convenient for us as only 3 mins drive to the village,so we got unpacked and had a nice siesta and went back in the evening to the site and opened up the nest for a roost session from about 18.30.
Nets were close again at dusk at around 20.30.
Totals for the day were as follows
13 REED WARBLERS
22 WILLOW WARBLERS
3 WHINCHATS
1 SWALLOW
3 GOLDFINCH
1 CETTIS WARBLER
1 GARDEN WARBLER
1 FAN TAILED WARBLER
Also retrapped 2 WILLOW WARBLERS AND 1 REED WARBLER.
The Whinchats were ringing ticks for the year,and you will also notice the high proportion of birds were REEWA AND WILWA.
Almost all Reed warblers were trapped in the Maize and almost all Willow Warblers were trapped in the Cotton!!!
Never see many Whinchats down here so had to take a shot of them in the hand.,and they are purely passage migrants here.
Your Spanish Correspondent
Now that the high season is over and hotel prices have come down to mid season and more reasonable ,my wife and I decided to have a 2 day ringing session at my private ste in a far flung corner of Andalucia,in the area of La Janda.
You may or may not know of the history of this area,but La Janda was once a huge inland lake,probably the biggest in Western europe anyway,but it was drained during the 1950's by the locals to set up huge farms.
As a result we lost at least 1 breeding bird for Europe,the African Marsh Owl.To see this magnificent bird you have to take a trip to Morocco now,where it can still be easily found at a coastal wetland area.
In La Janda there are wide drainage channels to carry the water around for the crops which incl.Maize,Cotton,Rice,Sugar Beet,plus some areas are kept for Cattle grazing,so despite the disasters,at least the farming is mixed and huge numbers of birds either breed or migrate through each year.
I have been lucky and have permission to ring on 1 of these farms but being an ex lake it is very flat with few trees and no shelter and is therefore influenced by the winds.
This year has been bad at this site,a cold wet windy spring,and extremely hot windy summer so have had all in all not as many sessions here as per normal.
The forecast was OK for Sunday and Monday .so we went for it.
It is a fair drive to the site too,takes 75 mins on a good run.
By mid day on Sunday had 3 sets of nets up in tandem ,all triple 60's.2 sets were in Maize and the other in Cotton near a drainage channel.
It was quite cloudy ,not too hot and with only a light variable E.wind,pretty good for here!!!
Apart from the ringing there were plenty of raptors moving through plus 100's of WHITE STORKS AND 21 BLACK STORKS.
Nets were closed for a late lunch at 14.00 ,and then went to book in to a local hotel for that night.It is so convenient for us as only 3 mins drive to the village,so we got unpacked and had a nice siesta and went back in the evening to the site and opened up the nest for a roost session from about 18.30.
Nets were close again at dusk at around 20.30.
Totals for the day were as follows
13 REED WARBLERS
22 WILLOW WARBLERS
3 WHINCHATS
1 SWALLOW
3 GOLDFINCH
1 CETTIS WARBLER
1 GARDEN WARBLER
1 FAN TAILED WARBLER
Also retrapped 2 WILLOW WARBLERS AND 1 REED WARBLER.
The Whinchats were ringing ticks for the year,and you will also notice the high proportion of birds were REEWA AND WILWA.
Almost all Reed warblers were trapped in the Maize and almost all Willow Warblers were trapped in the Cotton!!!
Never see many Whinchats down here so had to take a shot of them in the hand.,and they are purely passage migrants here.
Your Spanish Correspondent