Army Ornithological SocietyArmy Ornithological Society Blog
SPTA West
A few late Wheatears are passing through. Winter thrushes are arriving with flocks of Redwings and Fieldfares present. Over the weekend I saw 3 major flocks of Fieldfares at over 100 birds. Redwings are found by the small woods and I was able to count 17 flying around Imber Firs on Saturday. During that walk besides 27 bird species there were numerous fungi, some Fairy Shrimps and good plants including Small Toadflax, Pale Flax, Dwarf Spurge and of course a non UK plant, Hairy Rocket, found on training areas in Germany. On the walk there were large flocks of Goldfinch (50+), Rooks (150+), Linnet (30+) plus a range of woodland and grassland birds. Meadow Pipits have formed small flocks and Skylarks were calling. Small flocks of Starlings have started to form and on Sunday night I saw several flocks of over 200+ heading for refuge near their favourite winter haunt on Larkhill. There was also another flock of 100+ Fieldfare flying overhead and 50+ Golden Plover flying around the escarpment. There are quite a few coveys of Red-legged Partridge about that must belong to the local shoot but have survived so far. Sunday was not a good day for weather but this did not stop a team ringing near Marlborough so I can add Marsh Tit and Willow Tit to my ringing list. My fingers were easy meat for Blue Tits and Coal Tits though the greatest haul out out of the nets were Goldcrests. Last weekend was also rubbish weather and our Hen Harrier survey on the Imber area recorded no birds though one was recorded on Larkhill impact area. In fact hardly any birds were seen the previous weekend though there was a Snipe, some Starlings and in my location a miserably looking Robin. The weather forecast for the next week is not looking good.
CommentsGibraltar Ringer 19
The last day of the Gibraltar joint Services ringing project and the pressure is off less for the need to take down an awful lot of nets with only three of us remaining. Trafalgar Night had taken its toll yet we were only slightly later at opening. Not a huge number of birds, less of course, for Blackcaps but a reappearance of Garden Warbler, Sardinian Warbler, and Pied Flycatcher helped to maintain interest. Our second Sparrowhawk, a young male (pictured) was one of the few raptors seen, and contrasted with the big female ringed by Mark Cutts two weeks ago. Charlie Perez joined us to ring a couple of birds including a Garden Warbler and confirmed our earlier ageing methods.
A last visit to upload our data into IPMR at Jew's Gate confirmed that since we started ringing at Middle Hill on 25 Sep:
1136 birds were processed;
1099 were new birds;
32 were retraps;
5 were controls;
In addition, 7 birds were ringed in the Bruce's Farm garden.
Acknowledgments go to Charlie Perez for allowing us to ring on Middle Hill in the Upper Rock Nature Reserve, Julia and Robin Springett for all the preparatory planning work required to find equipment and accommodation, all our ringers, particularly Mark Cutts and Carl Powell, the back up teams of Ann Powell, John and Sue Wells and John Hughes, and it was good to catch up with Ray Marsh, a long standing AOS member.
Finally a photo of one of our ringing lanes, overlooking Gibraltar town.
Gibraltar Ringer 18
We finally topped the thousand birds ringed today. Not bad against some difficult weather conditions. Admittedly they are nearly all Blackcaps so there will be absolutely no excuse next year for mis-ageing juveniles at home. We have also got our act together in splitting Iberian from normal Chiffchaffs. All juvenile Chiffs are coming through here dressed in bright yellow similar to Willows and so even in the hand it has not been easy. With the Willows and Iberians gone last month, only basic Chiffs should be going through now. The hope that we could catch more Red-necked Nightjars has faded although a European Nightjar (pictured) was lured into the nets before dawn yesterday. The use of tape lures has been with mixed results. The weather plays a more significant part with nightjars and we have tried a variety of calls to attract migrants. This has not been an exact art and where we have played typical northern woodland calls, there have been Blackcaps. Clear though is that nets without tapes have caught less.
With Julia and Robin Springett at a Trafalgar night, I am now preparing to check all our data transferred to a memory stick from Jew's Gate this afternoon. I have no faith in this exercise without my IT guru Mark Cutts. I may just tweet the results!
No blog from Gib would be complete without the obligatory phot of a Barbary Macaque. Less for the theft of an apple, we have been unaffected by these guys who merely pass through under the nets.
Gibraltar Ringer 17
The current weather patterns are predicted to remain and so time to do something completely different. Having dropped off Carl and Ann Powell at the airport, we joined the cross border queue and later drove to La Janda - a birding site of some repute. Stinking hot day but driving through the rice fields at midday we were too wrapped up in Calandra and Crested Larks, Fan-tailed Warblers, storks and Griffons to worry. Of a total of 50 species within a few hours, highlights included a flock of over 1000 Glossy Ibis (pictured), Great Spotted Cuckoo, Black-shouldered Kite and a single Black Stork. Jury is still out on a single bird perched on a telephone wire (pictured below) for which we have three 'stake my life on it' opinions. A great day though and welcome break.
Ringing was resumed today but some enlightened individual had untied all our net guy ropes and ties in our absence. More a gesture of some kind than criminal damage but all nets had to be retied in the dark and so delaying our start. No wind means no birds and so we painfully climbed to a total of 40 ringed before drawing stumps. Charlie Perez joined us and once more gave us an insight into local peculiarities of moult, ageing and sexing, Gibraltar style. My juvenile female Black Redstart picture of 2 days ago therefore reverts to just juvenile despite my protestations! Garden Warblers should be aged on their tertials rather than tail. To address the balance, we did convince him that there was a way of sexing juvenile Nightjars by wing and tail pattern!
We now stand at 900 birds with little prospect of making the thousand with the current wind strength and direction but a final burst is needed before the weekend.
Gibraltar Ringer 16
Apologies should not be necessary for this shorter missive and our two readers can therefore get an early night. Yesterday's catch was a little similar to the previous day, a total of only 27 birds, but a chance retrap of the Wheatear allowed me to check out the less than distinctive plumage of a juvenile bird. To our raptor watch were added 15 Griffon Vultures circling quite low - a spectacle after endless Booted Eagles. We have also been troubled by a predator and so the cat trap was set for the third night running. While opening the nets I checked the trap to find a very large and angry, but well fed feral occupant. Some nice people from Avian Control took it away.
Today's slow start under clear skies (nice for stargazers, rubbish for ringers) picked up later and our second Black Redstart (pictured) was caught. Another juvenile and therefore an almost total grey plumage less for the tail which also helps to prove a female bird. At lunchtime, 4 Blue Tits were found in one of the nets. The first had been ringed at Jew's Gate, second and third by ourselves in the last few days and the fourth was unringed - quite a mix. Thirty birds in all and the Blackcaps just keep on coming.
Today was Carl and Anne Powell's last full day and Robin returns tonight. Carl never did get his C to A assessment as the paucity of birds at Jew's Gate made it impractical. One day!
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