The Ortolans are feeding!
Personel; Teresa, Torben, Lena, Nico, Magnus, Marianne, Mikael
Weather; sunny and warm all day, just a light breeze
Projects; Great Reed Warbler, Farmland birds, Sörön Nest Boxes
For Lena and Mikael this lovely summer day started with another Great Reed Warbler session in Egeby and unsuccessfully tried to catch a logger male but instead caught two unringed males. Meanwhile Teresa scanned Fågelsjön and Åslasjön and was able to rediscover a bird that had disappeared for some days. Later Teresa and Lena went to Oset and checked the nest of the logger male there. It still has 5 eggs, so everything is alright.
While the Great Reed Warbler group was out on the lakes, the farmland group spread around in the fields. First they went to Ökna utmarker to check the skylark nest that was found a few days ago but the bird is still on eggs. Also they could confirm the presence of two Ortolans in that area. Around Ängfallet they also observed the woodlands to find out if the Ortolans started feeding their chicks, but they didn’t see anything… yet.
After that Torben and Marianne went to Sörön to ring some chicks in the nestboxes. Mostly they found Great Tits and Blue Tits, and the Pied Flycatchers are mostly still on eggs which means that we will have to go back once more.
In the evening then, Nico finally saw the Ortolan at Ängfallet with some insects in its beak. That means the Ortolan pair is actually feeding chicks! That is fantastic news because we can study their behavior and their favorite routes so that we can be able to catch the female and take its logger. This may contain very interesting information, so keep your fingers crossed that we can catch it!
TLR