Army Ornithological SocietyArmy Ornithological Society Blog
Gibraltar Ringer 15
Last blog of this week and it sees us at a low ebb. The wind has changed again and we have gone from manic to depressive in a day. These current westerlies just prevent anything moving, keep us in sunshine early in the day when we need cloud cover, and even preventing raptors from crossing the Straits. We had to lay off our recorder and raptor counter early for some sightseeing, leaving self, Julia and Carl to patrol the mostly empty nets. Not all bad news, as we caught a juvenile Black Redstart (pictured) and spent some considerable time working out why it was not a Common. Not difficult but with a first for the trip we have to ensure that records are 100% before submitting to the Gibraltar Ornithologic and Natural History Society. A more IT savvy reporter would have a picture of both to compare the two. It's not going to happen!
With early furling of nets and unable to download our data as the Jew's Gate site were playing data catch-up, we decided in desperation to do some sea watching. Fifteen minutes was enough to clock Cory's Shearwater, Northern Gannet, Morocco Cormorant and endless Yellow-legged Gulls. No cetaceans. Besides, Ann Powell had been promised an ice cream and wasn't going to let us renague on the deal. What a disappointment to miss a further hour and a half looking at the sea! On return to Bruce's Farm we were treated to a fly past of an African Monarch, more commonly seen at the Botanical Gardens. For those with an interest in bird food I include a photo below.
Tomorrow sees the return to UK of Sue and John Wells and we lose Carl Powell for the day to Jew's Farm where temporary resident ringer Ray Marsh will give him the once over. Mark Easterbrook's blog from Cyprus comes out on Sunday night and so I will create some blog space resuming Monday night when Robin Springett returns to us.
Gibraltar Ringer 14
Sitting in stifling afternoon heat having entered 145 records into the Jews Gate computer, Andrew's blog makes us all here yearn for cooler climes, winter thrushes and, dare I say it, variety. After 78 Blackcaps and 47 Robins, I made an unseemly grab for the single Wren that rose to the rarity value of the only Orphean Warbler (pictured) caught today.
Yesterday lacked numbers but included two new species for the trip - Northern Wheatear and Reed Warbler - to accompany Bonnelli's Warbler, Spotted Flycatcher and Stonechat. The large number of Pied Flies has dwindled considerably and been replaced by Robins. Even the Sardinian Warblers have almost disappeared. We are not exactly blase about Nightjars - how could you be with such cryptic plumage and affronted attitude accompanied by loud hisses and a gape that seems larger than the bird itself - but today's European Nightjar was the first to be released without a photo record.
Hardly mentioned have been the raptors, but with John Wells here as the non-ringer, he has been able to spend more time on the raptor count than the rest of us. The result has been an impressive record of fly-by birds from sparrowhawks through harriers to eagles, and today, Egyptian Vultures to add to the GONHS data base. He has also assumed the post of cat catcher from Mark Cutts, while Sue Wells continues to record - today for two and a half hours before getting a leg stretch!
SPTA West
Actually it is more like SPTA Centre as the main western area was out of bounds as large metal hunks charged around with lots of other smaller metal hunks. My car is not built to withstand that sort of impact so it took to stony tracks elsewhere. Near the Deptford Down air strip they have been breeding pheasants, as I soon discovered when keeping a tally on numbers. It went down on birdtrack as species present. There were still lots of Chiffchaffs about and on the open areas there were Stonechat and Yellowhammer. I also saw my first flock of Fieldfare for the winter as birds flew over me. It was also the day of my last sighting of a Swallow (so far). A Robin tried to drown out the Apache flying nearby amongst the cacophony of other bird calls. It was a a lovely day with 27 species plus lovely examples of Command Speckled Wood butterflies. Visiting the impact area on a sunny afternoon produced a Red Kite and a soaring Ring tail as well as Meadow Pipits gallore. A flock in the distant looked like Golden Plover and I was positive I saw another flock in Gloucestershire as I headed to Wales for a funeral. All I need to do is confirm they are back on the Plain! The cold chill now in the air certainly helps portray an autumn air though when ringing there was a Whitethroat and a Grasshopper Warbler in the nets which should not be here. I have to remind myself that an Indian Summer was still here until a few days ago. As ever there were still lots of Chiffchaffs and Blackcaps as well as Meadow Pipits. Another Goldcrest was caught and Great Tits developed a taste for my flesh. Ringing again on the site a few days later we were distracted by the boom, whistle and bang coming from the west as we collected more Chiffchaffs, Blackcaps and Meadow Pipits from nets. All morning this noise went on and from where my was parked I could see the dirt rising up as the whistling stopped. That morning another Hen Harrier flew past and on a net run a Merlin also flew past very quickly. It was the last day of ringing at West Down until April next year so having talked about the arrival of thrushes around the place I was able to ring my first Redwing. The exercise on the West is over and this weekend winter surveys start.
CommentsGibraltar Ringer 13
The story ended last night with us all just a little miffed that the water was not back on and we had been working hard on the hill all day. As duty dishwasher I was particularly unimpressed. The quote of the day (from a RAFOS member) was "No wife of mine goes outside in the pitch dark to collect water from the bowser...Here love, take my head torch!"
Our recorder was absent birdwatching today so the team is down to 3. Not good as we are expecting the high numbers of birds from yesterday to be repeated today. And so it was with all of us laden with bird bags after the first round including two Red-necked Nightjar (pictured below) and a Eurasian Nightjar. Julia Springett was volunteered to go around again as Carl Powell and I started processing the birds (we believe in equality here). Having ringed all birds with nothing particularly out of the ordinary, it was off again to clear the nets. A very small dark bird excited interest and proved to be our first Dartford Warbler! Very much a 'Spanish bird' we hardly expected to see one on migration. It was poorly prepared for its flight across the Straits and had the minimum of fat aboard. Carl then extracted an Orphean Warbler from the nets. Such a very large warbler, the juvenile, as this was, is a dull bird and not as distinctively marked as some guides would have it. On virtually the last round of the day, we went from dull to flamboyant and took the first Hoopoe out of the nets. This one was an adult female, and I have to say that this bird is more impressive flying away than in the hand where it is difficulty to appreciate the full plumage.
Last point it that when we released the Red-necked Nightjar, it flew up the track on which we were ringing. Unknown to us, it then landed on the track and we walked past it repeatedly throughout the day, its camouflage plumage working perfectly. It took a call of nature for the bird to decide that this was really going too far and it flew a few feet into thicker vegetation where it alighted on a rock to resume its daylight slumbers.
Gibraltar Ringer 12
Yesterday's lesson appeared to be to expect the Gibraltar weather to turn at a moment's notice - from still to squall in seconds. Don't trust the water system was another lesson that we learned after the blog went to bed. The joy of carrying water from bowser to loos pales quickly - no pun intended. So a late start this morning as the wind was already high and we needed to replace some guy lines in the dawn light. The new Song Thrush tape worked wonders and the first net round showed a huge fall of birds. It became obvious that we were just going to have to continually empty nets, changing ringers after each collection. Seventy one Blackcaps and fifteen Garden Warblers later, I am SO looking forward to a Blue Tit but it was not to be. The gusty wind managed to wrap a net around some old barbed wire and extraction proved difficult but this was the only net closed all day. A pity as it seemed to be on the very steep transit route up the hill for Song Thrushes. More a test of consistent ageing and sexing under pressure than the chance to have really long looks at some of the more distant migrants but this was broken briefly in the early afternoon with the appearance of a juvenile Stonechat - all spots and streaks. Although looking very much like a female, evidence of some early black feathers and white collar suggested it was more likely to be a male. The day was disappointing for raptors and only a few Sparrowhawks and Booted Eagles were seen through the low cloud.
A visit to Jew's Gate followed in order to upload 109 birds into IPMR (and of course to check on progress at the only other ringing site on Gibraltar). Despite being separated by only a mile and a half and due south of us at the southern end of the Rock, they have not yet picked up any of our birds. We appear to catch more birds but we probably have more footage of nets. Species caught are very similar with the glaring exception of Scops Owl which we have yet to hear anywhere near Bruce's Farm or Middle Hill. But they have running water...
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