28th May 2015
Staff: DWE, JMY, MBR, TMJ, EKP, DHT, MTA
Weather: Sunny, a bit windy
Projects: Great reed warbler, Ortolan bunting, Skylarks, Crows
Ortolan bunting (EKP, JMY)
Starting close to home today, as there was an Ortolan bunting singing close to Ängfallet whilst we ate breakfast. We managed to locate it from the back garden and read it’s colour rings. We can confirm that it is the same bird that was singing here a couple of weeks ago- which had gone completely quiet and unseen again until now- so that’s good news!
Skylarks (EKP JMY)
The weather took a turn for the worse again this afternoon, but we had a little time to watch over two of the skylark plots and think we have pinpointed a nest site- difficult to find in the tall hay.
Great reed warbler (MTA, DHT, MBR)
In Rysjön, a female was caught which to the team’s delight was one that had been fitted with a light logger the previous year. As the logger can detect time of sunset & sunrise each day, it’s possible to track where the bird has been. MTA also had the luck to catch a male Penduline tit. This Penduline tit is an old friend, because it was already ringed – in Vallen, Kvismaren, 19th of September 2014;
Crows (DWE, EKP, JMY)
Hoping the rain would hold off, we visited some of the crow nest sites to see how climb-able the trees were; the chicks in these nests will soon be big enough to ring. The first couple of trees proved trickier than expected, even with a cleverly designed ‘hanging ladder’ made with scaffold poles, as branches were too weak or too high to support the ladder. We had to start thinking about new ways of accessing the nests…
JMY