Army Ornithological SocietyGibraltar 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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