Summary of the trackings in autumn and winter 2010

I decribe below the highlights of the autumn season from August till December. You will see that some ordinary birds like the starling and first year male blackbirds are really beautiful. In the field you don't realize that, till you held them in your hand. Let's have a look. . .

Ooijse Graaf:

5 September:

First a photo of the ringing site, Fabian and Bram ringing:

Common Whitethroat, adut male

Sedge Warbler

Grasshopper Warbler,  the beautiful striped undertail coverts:

17 October
male Blackbird first year: beauty in black!

Dunnock, we catched two of them:

Starling

De Meintjes

18 August

Our first Tree Pipit in the Meintjes; we  trapped two of them in the clapnet

Fabian with the two tree Pipits

Kingfisher,  1 year female: red underbill, greenish plumage

11 September

Pied Flycatcher, 1 year

19 September  

We had some problems with  the drainage of water. After some digging it turned out that a huge eel was blocking the small water pipe.
On his way to open water he was getting stuck in the small drainage. 

25 September

Jay: we catched two of them and that is a quite good result as we don't trap them very year.

Have a look at the coverts at the wings. You see the difference between the young bird and the adult one.

first year bird

adult bird

Bird ringing can also be a rather painful hobby: Fabian's thumb is strongly grasped by the Jay. Only after some time the Jay let off.

Gerrit and Fabian with the attacking Jay

3 October

We trapped our first and only Grey Wagtail of this year.A first year bird has buffy breast and a white throat. Adult plumage is worn. This bird has a fresh plumage.

Grey Wagtail, first year

10 Ocober

After the severe winter we were glad to trap a second Kingfisher. They are back in the Meintjes. The black bill indicates that this bird is a male.

Kingfisher, male

19 December

This year we trapped for the first time in winter. There were not many birds around. We trapped only 3, but 2 of them  were trapped for fist time in the Meintjes: Skylarks.

Hans and Fabian with the 2 Skylarks