Army Ornithological SocietyGibraltar 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.
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