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Introducing pt-ducks (1 Viewer)

DRodrigues

Well-known member
Just remembered to introduce hear our web-page http://pt-ducks.naturlink.pt, including the use of nasal saddles on ducks in Europe. For those more sensible, read first the info about nasal saddles that is on the page, before taking conclusions.
I updated captures file few days ago. With the last 2 months captures we established a new pre-season record with 677 new mallards captured – result of a good breeding season, bigger breeding population (as a result of changes in hunting regulations that occurred last year (induced by some results of our duck captures), and winter floods) and higher capture effort since we now have a student helping us on captures. Captures could even be higher since had the IUGB congress in Sweden during August and S. Jacinto pond was “cleaned” (cut of vegetation, some digging and sediment extraction) during 20-24 August. The advantages resulting from the intervention at S. Jacinto are that we have the best resighting conditions since ever, there is a new place available for the construction of a new big trap (hope that will be possible to do it until October…) and that ducks have much improved habitat conditions, potentially fixing more birds and also increasing captures…;)
First 2 creccas also marked this season.
Dates and other details of the next duck course are confirmed.

All the best,

David
 
Season Greetings

Translating the photo writings from Portuguese it means Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!
Long time since last post, so most things were updated...;)
The duck pond of S. Jacinto Dunes nature Reserve usually receive North American duck species. The Anas americana was observed several times in the past and during one winter there were 4 males and a female (see it at fotos on http://pt-ducks.naturlink.pt). Last season I only observed a male once. This male is on the area since more than one month ago, but is not the same from last season since is a juvenile. Never know if will capture it...
European wigeon is also an interesting specie since it's the one with higher recovery distances (some at 5400km) and also the specie of the longer lived marked duck we have – a male marked in March 2000 that already returned this season to S. Jacinto, was also seen in Finland, which mean it already travelled more than 54000 km!!!

People interested in coming to the next duckcourse has less than one month to confirm registration.

All the best,

David
 

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change of address

For those that still didn’t noticed, pt-ducks address changed to http://www.pt-ducks.com – please update the link.
Also updated several pages.
At captures included the pre season results. Mallard captures were similar to previous years with some better results in Mondego Lowlands. Captured some non flying ducklings of platyrhynchos and strepera – from this last specie we ringed 2 of the brood of 3 of a female born at S. Jacinto last year, also recaptured. Also marked a female that had a brood of 8 ducklings – although capturing all of 8 we couldn’t even ringed then since were just 1 week old and didn’t have plasticine… The strepera mystery continues since, as on last years, birds marked during last 3 months disappeared and we don’t know where they went… For the first time we captured a crecca already in July! Although seeing moulting creccas we didn’t capture more. There was a pair of marked clypeatas and an unmarked male that stayed all summer in S. Jacinto. We didn’t confirmed breeding but it might be possible that it happened near-by Ria de Aveiro - after some weeks of absence the female was seen with flying juveniles after her. 3rd summer with moulting clypeatas at S. Jacinto but also didn’t capture any…
At fotos, following the Arrabio (Portuguese name for acuta) you will find a great photo taken in France from a bird saddled in Spain – It’s usual for me to notice nasal saddled ducks when flying.

Dates for the next duckcourse are confirmed

David
 
pt-ducks update and celebrating 20 years of waterfowl capture and marking in Portugal

Long time since my last post about this...
Regarding last season update, the news aren’t the best since for the first time in 10 years we didn’t managed to reach 1000 birds captured… :-C
I had decided to reduce capture effort in order to increase resighting effort – I was planning to do only one day of captures (instead of 2), each time I would go to S. Jacinto and use that extra day for extra resighting. However captures were reduced during autumn (none day with more than 100 new ducks...), so did 2 days capture as usual, although only went once a month to S. Jacinto, from October to December – no formal project, neither funding for field expenses…
As during previous winters, the resident pair of Accipiter gentilis continued to flush migratory ducks from the main pond to a secondary pond where we don’t do captures, at S. Jacinto, but the worst happened on mid-January when a big storm, like a hurricane, occurred in central Portugal, with very strong winds and heavy rain that destroyed many trees at S. Jacinto, flushed most ducks from the site and flooded Mondego lowlands… A big willow felt over the net roof of the big trap and we passed the remaining winter (thanks Tim!) and early summer cutting trees that felt down and repairing the big trap. However we managed to end the season with more than 20.000 birds captured although not reached 18.000 ducks nasal saddled, even trying to force it…
The EVOA project lagoons showed me that you need more then lots of ducks (8500 teals... see video at http://www.pt-ducks.com/Fotos.htm#Tejo – choose full screen, full HD and increase volume!), knowledge on how to capture ducks and loads of experience of doing it, to have success on captures. As it was a new place where I only could go few times, there were loads of ducks and I wanted to minimize disturbance, I went by the safest way and didn't managed to capture any duck during winter – tried 4 times... During the summer of 2013 I "learned" the place, had the help of Luís Arede doing his degree thesis there and captures started, including teals during September!...

On 18-09-1993 I captured my first ducks at S. Jacinto! On Mondego I started on July 1993 but the really “fun” started at S. Jacinto and if wasn’t this area I probably would stop captures long ago… On the other side, if EVOA existed in 1993, I probably never would start captures at S. Jacinto – yes the potential is so big!
Some curiosities from the 20 year results:
- the oldest duck that we obtained until now died during the season 2012-13. It was a male mallard marked at S. Jacinto on 29-09-1998, as juvenile, and was observed until 19-07-2012, already wearing the second nasal saddle… During May of this year we found his head bones still with the saddle, so lived at least 14 years!;
- the bigger movement obtained was from a male wigeon marked in S. Jacinto and shot in Siberia – Russia, at 5392 km;
- the duck that flew the biggest distance was another male wigeon, also marked at S. Jacinto, that was photographed near a holidays home in a Finish lake, at 3162 km. As it returned to S. Jacinto the following 8 winters, it flew more than 53750km!

From the more important results I can select:
- we managed to estimate monthly survival rates for mallard at S. Jacinto and found that adult females had significantly lower survival rates than adult males, because >50% of adult females were or still had to do primary at 15 August (when traditionally duck hunting started al Portugal). Locally we managed to delay the start of duck hunting to around 7 September and adult female survival during the first hunting month increased almost 20%. At national level we managed to implement this during two hunting seasons but after politicians ruined the ongoing process. I’m still fighting to implement adaptive management at S. Jacinto area, all stake holders agree with the idea but still didn’t found the needed funding…;
- we proved that lead poisoning is also a serious problem in Portugal, reached an agreement with all stake holders on December 2006 but politicians didn’t managed to publish the needed laws until now, although during last 3 years there is a pseudo lead ban “to EU to see”,…;
- we found wigeons and teals moulting primaries in Portugal, so site management must be adapted. On EVOA we already found teals moulting this month, confirming my suspicious since 2 years ago.

Publications references can be found at pt-ducks and also at http://www.esac.pt/AvesAquaticasCinegeticas/Publicacoes.htm but we have loads of data to publish – hope next years will be better on this…

Captures, Duck Course, Fotos (feel free to use the small videos under CC conditions), and cr-telescopes were updated. Interesting to note that 20 years ago I started with a Nikon ED60 with a 20-45x zoom and nowadays I usually use my telescope combo equivalent to a 41-124x 100º AFOV zoom and can also use a 53-178x 102º AFOV zoom equivalent, when higher resolutions are needed and it works well...
 
2013 captures update

I updated captures at http://www.pt-ducks.com with total captures of 2013.
As for last season, the news aren’t the best since captures decreased again and I must go back to 2001 to find lower numbers…:-(
Besides last winter problems, captures were reduced again during autumn (none day with more than 100 new ducks), still don’t have a formal project (no funding for field expenses…), so only went once a month to S. Jacinto from October to December…
Positive things were that captures started at EVOA project lagoons during the summer of 2013, teals were captured already during September (including some moulting primaries!…), and Luis Arede is staying there for a 1 year position with some time available for captures and resightings. Besides the interesting capture of the male Aythya affinis, Luis resighted at EVOA several teals marked at S. Jacinto (and also some French marked…), and one of those was a male that I marked during November and it’s a carolinensis!... It still hadn’t the nuptial plumage when I marked it, I was ringing alone and was speeding up to end ringing not much after sunset – ended ringing with the help of a frontal-light… You have a video of it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPLUZI4avdE&feature=youtu.be
During 2013 we passed the 18000 ducks and 15000 mallards nasal saddled.
Also updated nasalsaddles and duckcourse – feel free to divulge within potential interested people.
 
2020 captures update and capture record

After updating the 2019 captures during late December, today I updated the last video where we established a new absolute record for captures within a day, including all species and capture methods!!!...
See it at the end of captures, at http://www.pt-ducks.com
 
This season we captured more pintails during a cannon netting session than during all previous 29 years all together, and established a new record of total captures within a day – see video at the end of captures at PT-Ducks

Interestingly, the video from the previous record, from January 2020, went "viral" in the last few weeks and already has more than 350,000 views!!!...
 
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