I visited this site for the third consecutive year from 3-13 October. Colin McShane from the Belvide R.G. has been organising ringing at this site for many years and had got a team of 12 together to operate there from 25 Sept - 4 October. I had to get a team up for the second half of the visit, this year I was the only SNRG member making the trip. However, Kate Moore who came with us last year wanted to return and between us we got up a team of 7 ringers plus Christine who would act as scribe again. The team consisted of Kate, Heather, Christine and myself from the midlands and Terry (ex-SNRG), Rebecca, Iain and Lauren from the Clyde R.G. in Scotland. Despite most of us having never met before we turned into a great team which made the trip so successful. The grand total was 2504 birds ringed, split closely between the two teams. We had a number of foreign controls including Reed Warblers from Germany and Belgium, Bluethroats from France and Belgium and a Blackcap and Chiffchaff from the UK.
Other highlights from the two teams' efforts were 16 Quail, 11 European Nightjar, 7 Red-necked Nightjar, 25 Hoopoe, 11 Wryneck, 124 Bluethroat, a Dartford warbler, a Paddyfield Warbler, a Bonelli’s Warbler, a Yellow-browed Warbler and 3 Penduline Tits. Other less exotic but surprising birds caught were a Wren, a Long-tailed Tit and 3 Tree Sparrows!
On Wednesday 8 Oct we had to close the nets early as the wind got up to be quite strong. So a leisurely afternoon lay ahead, some of us went to the beach, most for a swim but Rebecca and Terry went looking for colour rings on the many Lesser Black-backed Gulls there. Within a short time they had recorded the colour rings on 9 gulls, so far details have come back for 2 of them, a youngster from Flat Holm, Wales and one from Texel, Netherlands ringed in 2022.
Thanks go to Colin for making these trips possible and to ex-pats Carl and Julie, who, as usual, we had superb support from throughout.
The photos below were all taken by Rebecca Dickson.
Kev
No comments:
Post a Comment