Last day of the season today!!
Personnel; MKS, TMJ, MFG, 1x ’Crane Girl’
Weather; A clear calm morning. A light NE wind began to pick up late morning, patchy cloud in the afternoon.
Projects; Standardised CES Ringing (Vallen, Fågelsjön)
Ringing totals; Nets 06:50 – 11:30
Chiffchaff 4
Wren 1
Robin 1
Redpoll 1 (flammea)
Reed Warbler 2
Willow Warbler 1
Bearded Tit 16
Blue Tit 11
Brambling 1
Reed Bunting 18
Great Tit 7
TOTAL = 63 (+ 15 Control)
A pleasant mornings’ ringing for our last day here at Kvismare. The wind of the last week dropped off and the morning dawned calm and sunny. Bearded Tits were everywhere today and for every one ringed there were several more moving around the area. The Willow Warbler was an adult bird and quite large with very greyish brown plumage tones – presumably of northern origin, an acredula-type bird.
So, that is that. The season comes to a close here with a final total of 5897 birds of 79 species. Top scorers were Reed Warbler (1174), Sedge Warbler (806), Reed Bunting (664) and several unusual species found their way into the nets such as Common Crossbill, Red-breasted Flycatcher and Grey Wagtail.
The habitat changes early in the year certainly had a big effect on the numbers and species caught during the season. The exceptionally good weather over the summer helped to balance things out a little as we were able to ring almost every day throughout the period. The final total is a little lower than the last couple of years but then you have to back to 2003 for the last time over 6000 birds were ringed here. 2013 has finished comfortably above the 10-year average for this site.
A big thanks to everyone involved with the observatory in 2013, staff, volunteers and visitors. It has been a successful year and hopefully one to remember for everyone involved.
Have a nice winter everyone – we are going south!!!
Matt & Teresa