Lagoa de St Andre, Portugal - 2 to 12 September 2013

The 2^nd saw the start of a 10 day ringing session at Lagoa de St Andre on the Atlantic coast of Portugal about 140km south of Lisbon. Ringing sessions have been undertaken in the area for over 20 years and most years a group of UK ringers associated with the Maple Cross ringing group have assisted during part of the autumn migration. As Denise is still working she remained alas back in the UK.

 

No ringing was done on the first day, just some additional net erection, with ringing beginning in earnest on the Wednesday, together with some more net erection.

A couple of sections of nets were erected for waders, but the lagoon is not tidal, although  spring high tides allow a little seepage in at high water but no more than the odd inch or so of water, so there are no high tide wader movements and catches are just reliant to random catch of birds moving around to feed or where disturbed by raptors or the local farmer/cattle.

The second day was the busiest with 114 birds, but after this the passage dropped and the remaining days were moderate in respect of the days totals, especially if you extract the Swallow or Yellow Wagtail roost totals. Also on the 11^th the bulk of the wader totals was due to the fact one of the group spent the night out with the nets, on the first night after they were erected on the 7^th, where as most day they were only dropped around 4.30am

Evening roosts remained low, with the only catch of any reasonable numbers were 36 Swallows on night of the 4^th and 17 Yellow Wagtails on the night of 4^th and 9^th, all processed the next day.

There was an absence of Tree Sparrows the usually roost in the reed bed and boats catch numbers.  Reed Warblers dominated most daily catches, with Willow Warbler numbers building up on the last 3 days.

 

Savi's Warbler

Redstart

  Nightingale 

  Wryneck

 Red Advant 

  Melodious Warbler 

 

Short-toed Treecreeper 

 

Lang's Short-tailed Blue

 

Scarce Swallowtail

Totals (new birds only, excluded re-traps) for the period were:

	3/9	4/9	5/9	6/9	7/9	8/9	9/9	10/9	11/9
Ringed Plover						1
Dunlin						11	2	2	1
Little Stint						1
Redshank						2
Green Sandpiper						1
Common Sandpiper						3	6		1
Barn Owl							1
Nightjar		1							1
Kingfisher		1							1
Hoopoe			1
Wryneck		1				1
Great Spotted Woodpecker								1
Swallow		3	36	6		1		7
Tree Pipit			2	1	2		3
Yellow Wagtail			17	5	9	6	2	17
Fan-tailed Warbler
Wren		2
Robin				1		1
Bluethroat		1					1
Nightingale	1	1		1		2	2		1
Redstart	1
Whinchat	1	1	1	1
Stonechat	1		1	2	1
Blackbird		2	2	5	1	1		1	1
Cetti’s Warbler	11	6	5	4	3	2	3	1
Fan-tailed Warbler		1	1		1				2
Savi’s Warbler	2	3		1	1	1		1
Grasshopper Warbler	1	3	1	2	1		4	1	3
Sedge Warbler	2	2	2	3	3	3	1		3
Reed Warbler	25	35	9	15	15	12	15	21	22
Melodious Warbler	1	1		2	3	2	1	1
Sardinian Warbler	1	5	1		3	1	1	1
Whitethroat	2	2		1	1		3	3	3
Garden Warbler	6	1	4	9	6		2	3	3
Blackcap	2	9	1	6	4	2	3	1	1
Chiff-chaff		5		3	2	1	3	3	2
Willow Warbler	14	15	9	4	11	11	23	25	27
Pied Flycatcher	2	4	1	1	2	2	3	1
Spotted Flycatcher							2	1
Blue Tit		4	2	3	1	1		5	2
Great Tit		1	1			2	1
Jay					1
Southern Grey Shrike						1
Greenfinch
Hoopoe
Short-toed Treecreeper								1	1
House Sparrow			2			4		1
Greenfinch	1	1	2	1	2	5	3
Goldfinch			1	1				3	2
Common Waxbill		2	1				2
Red Advant		1
Bluethroat
	74	114	103	78	73	81	87	97	72

Broadwater GP - 9 September 2013

With CL ringing in Portugal, DL arranged to meet MRB and Margaret to continue monitoring Broadwater, a relatively new site for the group that has not previously been covered in the autumn. MRB has made a couple of visits since my last outing there with a marked shift from mainly Chiffchaff in the catch of 28 birds on the 2nd to more than half of the 53 birds being Blackcap on the 5th when Chiffchaff  ETY928 was also controlled.

On arrival we were unable to set up due to persistent (unforecast) rain, but after about half an hour it eased so we put up two 60s and a 40 in the most productive positions that just happened to be those closest to our base.
The rain threatened throughout our session and started again at about 10.40am - and shortly after 11am we packed up as there seemed no prospect of a let up in the rain. There were certainly no sunny spells that featured so prominently in the forecast.

All birds were of just four species.

Total: 32 (2)

Blackcap10

Chiff-chaff  17 (1)

Blue Tit 2

Great Tit 1 (1)

Broadwater GP - 1 September 2013

CL & DKL arrived on site at about 8.30am to improve the situation regarding putting up nets. The site used to house a concrete works and much of the ground is rock hard and pegging in is impossible. We moved some breeze blocks and attached a few guys to make net erection on future visits less problematic.

 The site is covered with 100s of Buddlea bushes and moss covers most of the concrete.

Four nets were put up and the first birds were ringed at 10am. We didn't gain the sense of large numbers moving about the site as on the visits in August, nevertheless we still managed 34 birds.
Leading species was Chiffchaff (9 new and 2 retrapped) followed by Willow Warbler (7) and Blackcap (6). We also got a second young Goldcrest and a Lesser Whitethroat.

Juvenile Lesser Whitethroat

Robin in post-juvenile moult

Total: 32 (2)

Wren 1

Robin 2

Reed Warbler 2
Lesser Whitethroat 1

Blackcap 6

Chiff-chaff  9 (2)

Willow Warbler7

Blue Tit 2

Great Tit 1