Army Ornithological SocietyGibraltar 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.
John N Wells | 19th Oct 2013 09:05 PM
Thank you to Roger for a terrific Blog. Great company and some great close-up views of birds in the hand. At least 4 European lifers : Tawny Pipit, Red necked Nightjar, Iberian Chiffchaff, Orphean Warbler. New Raptors were a great challenge: S.T Eagle, both Griffon and Egyptian and to be honest every booted seen was loovely. The ringing totals READ A TREMENDOUS EFFORT by the ringing/recording team.