Ringing

2110 birds have been ringed including 90 retraps since the project began in August 2005. There has only been one recovery to date which was killed by a shrike in the nets. While this is a little disappointing it is not surprising given that the birds are coming from areas where ringing is not practiced and going down the east coast of Africa which is again under recorded.

2007 was our best year yet with 1410 birds ringed including 78 retraps. 300 of these were caught in April by Juan Carlos, a visiting ringer from Spain. JC ringed every day for four weeks. He established permanent net sites and helped us develop a ringing station in Badaan farm. Ringing at the same sites continued after he left and data on summer breeders including Olivaceous warblers, rufous bush robins and graceful prinias was gathered for the first time.

911 of the 1410 birds ringed in 2007 were trapped in Badaan which brings the total number of ringed (retrapped) birds at the farm to 1171. We now concentrate our efforts there.

630 birds were ringed in 2006 (260 in Badaan) and 71 birds in 2005 (0 in Badaan).

The number of terns ringed has now risen to 358 (90 in 2006 and 268 in 2007). Pulli of white-cheeked (50) and lesser-crested terns (40) were ringed in 2006. In 2007 we took 2 boat trips north to Jarrim islands and ringed 129 white-cheeked, 170 lesser-crested and 69 bridled tern pulli. These trips will be a part of the ringing year for the foreseeable future.

We have come a long way from ringing sparrows in the garden in 2005. We are already excited at the prospects for 2008.

To view a full summary of numbers and species ringed click HERE

As on most weekends these day we spent Friday morning and Saturday afternoon at Badaan Farm. There are plenty of other places we could go to ring but the farm just offers the best return on our efforts in December.

Ringing station - we do sympathize and feel for those in cooler climes, Saturday evening was cool the temperature dropped I think below twenty for the first time this year. Time to get out the thermals.

Friday was a day when we caught only locally breeding species, nice to see as we build our knowledge data base on these.

Graceful Prinia Prinia gracilis

Palm Dove Streptopelia senegalensis - interesteing moult on this bird.

Saturdays' catch started with a Bluethroat and then a Stonechat
Bluethroat Luscinia svecica

Siberian Stonechat Saxicola maura

However this Saturday evening will go down as the day of the Pipit. Brendan had noted Pipits coming in to roost in a grassy patch during the week so at 4.30pm we set out two nets in a large V. Just as we had hammered the last peg in the ground, the pipits arrived, a nice mix of Water Anthus spinoletta and Meadow Pipits Anthus pratensis. We spent an enjoyable couple of hours in the dark ringing over twenty birds of these two species.

Meadow Pipit Anthus pratensis

Water Pipit Anthus spinoletta

Our local birding and ringing enthusiast Abdullah

Brendan, Abdulla and myself managed a short session of a few hours this afternoon after work. The fields as usual where full of birds however the number of species around was limited, mostly Doves egrets and larks with Water Pipits, Bluethroats, Stonechats, Starlings including Rosy, Indian Silverbills and White Wagtails moving around the open spaces. The White-fronted Goose and Purple Heron continue to walk around the farm and are seen often at a distance. The odd Wheatear and Shrike did put in an appearance in the fading light as did the Song Thrush amonst the palms. We even managed to flush a few quail however our nets in the fields yielded nothing but as we packed up we did manage to net an Isabelline Shrike, White-cheeked Bulbul and our second Song Thrush. These were ringed and photographed in the dark.

We decided on an afternoon session but at the moment catching anything to ring is hard work especially as the wind refuses to die down, however we did manage to add one species to our list that of Song Thrush Turdus philomelos