Falsterbo

A week ago I arrived in Falsterbo, SW Sweden, where I joined Stephen and Marcel in the autumn migration campaign. Here, I met Caroline, Albin and the 'Southwest Gangsters' (Emil, Ulrik and Oscar), and a some other great birders like Björn Malmhagen and Måns Karlsson.

Now, there are working two different ringing stations: one in the lighthouse garden, and another one in the Flommen reedbeds. For the moment, I go every day in Flommen, but sometimes I'll go to do some ringing mornings in the lighthouse.

Flommen is an extensive reedbed with Cladium mariscus, the typical habitat where Reed Buntings (Emberiza schoeniclus) breeds. We basically catch Reed Warblers (Acrocephalus scirpaceus) and Segde Warblers (A.schoenobaenus), but there also quite common Marsh Warblers (Acrocephalus palustris), Barn Swallows (Hirundo rustica) and Willow Warblers (Phylloscopus trochilus).

1st-year Sedge Warbler

1st-year Marsh Warbler

During my first ringing morning in Flommen, we caught this beautiful juvenile Rosefinch (Carpodacus erythrinus), that was a lifer for me!

The day before, my second morning in Flommen, we caught this 1st-year Lesser Whitethroat (Sylvia curruca) in the same net. Also a lifer for me...

In spite of this interesting birds, last days we are trapping only a few birds (between 10 and 30 each day). The migration has already started, with some Tree Pipits (Anthus trivialis), Yellow Wagtails (Motacilla flava), Crossbills (Loxia curvirostra) and Barnacle Geese (Branta leucopsis) flying over, but for the moment the migration is quite slow. For example, we only have caught two Whinchats (Saxicola rubetra).

On the other hand, it seems to be an invasion of Two-barred Crossbills (Loxia leucoptera) in Europe, that has produced some sightings in Germany, Denmark, Sweden... Here in Falsterbo, usually with Common Crossbills flocks, we have detected many of them.
Talking about Crosbills, this interesting bird was caught in the lighthouse garden.

1+cy female Common Crossbill. Look at the obvious moult limit in the inner GC's (and the pale fringes in the outer ones). The question is, when this bird born? Some Crossbills born in winter, so it's quite impossible known exactly if they fledged in December or in January.

In the afternoons, I have been in different places around the Falsterbo peninsula, in order to know the best sites and can go there often. Some gardens and parks are already a good place to find something interesting for me. For example, is easy to see some Wood Warblers (Phylloscopus sibilatrix) and Icterine Warblers (Hippolais icterina) wherever, and also some interesting subspecies like the White-headed Long-tailed Tit (Aegithalos caudatus caudatus).

I was not surprised when we heard and then we saw this Crested Tit (Lophophanes cristatus), but the gangsters were very happy because it's a rare bird in the Falsterbo peninsula.

Two days ago we went to 'the Heath', the best place in Sweden to see raptor migration. Despite we didn't see a lot of birds, an adult White-tailed Eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla) was very good for me. We saw a Honey Buzzard (Pernis apivorus), some Red Kites (Milvus milvus), Common Buzzards (Buteo buteo), 17 White Storks (Ciconia ciconia), 2 Ospreys (Pandion haliaetus)... and lots of Sparrowhawks (Accipiter nisus), probably the commonest migrating raptor.

The omnipresent Sparrowhawk...

Just before leave 'the Heath', a large Common Gull (Larus canus) flock appeared, eating some insects and making acrobatic flights.

Seawatching from Flommen and Nabben has been very good. On 4th August we saw a juvenile Black Guillemot (Cepphus grylle), and on 6th we saw a Red-necked Grebe (Podiceps grisegena). I also enjoyed a male Velvet Scoter (Melanitta fusca), lots of Eiders (Somateria mollissima) and also Harbor Seals (Phoca vitulina) and Grey Seals (Halichoerus grypus).

During some nights we did some Tern and Wader ringing, but all this stuff deserves another post.

Adult Arctic Tern (Sterna paradisaea)

If you want to see daily Ringing Totals, just go to the Falsterbo Bird Observatory webpage, and click 'Ringing'.

Km

Last week was probably one of the most intense ones this year. Everything started in 21st July, when I make a quick visit to Pyrenees.

The idea was to spend two days there in order to meet some friends and see some species that I'll miss that August (last 2 years, I spend a month living there). I'll miss specially the 'Vultures poker': Griffon, Black, Bearded and Egyptian. All that birds together are only possible to see in Catalan pre-pyrenees, in Boumort area. Actually, Black Vulture's population is clearly increasing (due to the reintroduction project, see their webpage). I've to say congratulations to all Black Vulture reintroduction's team because of their good work and better results.

On 22nd July, while I was leaving Pyrenees, I noticed a strong feeling. I couldn't leave without a visit to Cuberes, so although my car was not prepared to, I decided to drive until there, and I decided to spend another night.

On 23rd July I came back home, and the following day I drove to Ebre Delta. It was also a 'birds+friends visit', but I only had a single day. The Alfacada area was very interesting. In a little flood ricefield, lots of terns (Sandwich, Common, Little, Gull-billed, Whiskered, a Caspian...) were resting and foraging. I was surprised by the 'big amount' of Black Terns (Chlidonias niger), the main part of them juveniles. And between them, 2 White-winged Terns (Chlidonias leucopterus), juveniles too. It was also interesting to see 3 Temminck Sandpipers (Calidris temminckii) and at least 2 Marsh Sandpipers (Tringa stagnatilis). Lots of Bar-tailed Godwits (Limosa limosa) were already migrating and also the main part of Curlew Sandpipers (Calidris ferruginea) are passing this weeks.

After doing more than 900 km and cross Catalonia two times in 2 days, on 24th July I started a walking route also in Pyrenees. We started walking in Puigcerdà, and we finished 4 days after in Aransa, passing for Andorra valleys, and doing about 50 km walking.

Between Puigcerdà and Feixa Refuge.

One of the best sightings of the route: this juvenile
Green whip Snake (Hierophis viridiflavus).

Civera valley.

Madriu valley.

Now I'm more than 1700 km north.
In 1st August I flew to Copenhaguen and I arrived to Falsterbo, in Sweden. I'll be here until 9th September, birding and ringing. The first night here was a little bit hard, because we went to do some wader ringing and the following morning, we went to Flommen reedbeds to ring passerines. So, I didn't sleep until we finished (more than 24 hours after leaving home).

The wader night was quite good. We caught a Red Knot (Calidris canutus), a juvenile Common Sandpiper (Actitis hypoleucos) and 2 Common Terns (Sterna hirundo).

See some more photos on this Stephen's post. Also, you can read some interesting things about ageing Sandwich Tern (Sterna sandvicensis) and also Red Knots in this Marcel's post. For the moment I haven't caught any sandvicensis, but I can wait...

Very soon I'll make another post with some stuff about the first week in Sweden!

Summer colours

July is known as the hottest month, specially  in lower areas inland Catalonia. Here, where I live, at 11 o'clock we usually have 30ºC and birding is starting to be a little bit hard. Also, there are only a few 'stimulating birds' these days: the main part you could see are common breeders easy to find everywhere. But in this hot dry lands, shrublands and harvested fields, lots of birds are waiting for being observed.

I decided to prepare some 'ringing stations' in different places (dry lands, maquis shrublands, burned areas and Pinus halepensis and P.pinea forests) around my village, in order to ring and do some birdwatching in different habitats and know a little bit more my neighbours. Although it has been quite hard (very high temperatures, lots of flies and mosquitos, burns...), I'm very happy for the obtained results and still more because of the interesting birds that I trapped.

Breeding Sylvia Warblers were my main objective in some of this stations. I've trapped lots of juvenile Subalpine Warblers (Sylvia cantillans) and also Sardinian Warblers (Sylvia melanocephala), two species that coexist in all my area. They can be extremely common when the habitat is suitable, but can dissapear quickly if it changes. I am quite interested in burned lands and how bird populations changes as trees regrow. This Sylvia Warblers are a good example of that.

Subalpine Warbler (Sylvia cantillans), juvenile

Sardinian Warbler (Sylvia melanocephala), juvenile

The Western Orphean Warbler (Sylvia hortensis) is the greatest Sylvia Warbler here, but probably the shyest one too when it isn't very common. I trapped this female in a place where I had never seen this species. She had a well-developed broodpatch, but could also be sexed by the head colours and iris.

On the other hand, Woodlarks (Lullula arborea) are more adaptable and start to breed when first trees grow and can continue breeding when the forest is 'fully grown'. Crested Larks (Galerida cristata) sometimes appear in burned areas, but is a scarcer bird and only appear if there are consolidated populations near (they use to live in agricultural areas).

Woodlark (Lullula arborea), juvenile

Crested Lark (Galerida cristata), juvenile

All this species don't have spectacular plumages, so let's see the authentic summer colours:
'Orange' is a recurrent colour these days, specially in growing forests and maquis shrublands. Stonechats (Saxicola rubicola) breeds there, where usually Woodchat Shrikes (Lanius senator) breeds too.

2cy (EURING 5) male Woodchat Shrike.

3J Stonechat, putative male (5 white GCs).

3J Stonechat, putative female (only white in innermost GC).

2cy (EURING 5) male European Stonechat

'Yellow'. Golden Orioles (Oriolus oriolus) are very beautiful birds but a little bit screamers. Aging and sexing them is a little bit difficult but very interesting... As interesting that deserve another post!

3+cy female (EURING 6)

'Blue'. European Jays (Garrulus glandarius) hide an spectacular blue design. They can be also quite tricky birds to age, but I think it could be easy with some practise. It's important to look carefully the number of black bars in the outermost GC and the bars design in primary coverts. Also, the colour on secondaries (deep black or greyish-brown) and the width of the outermost rectrice could be used as ageing features.

3+cy (EURING 6). Secondaries are deep black, it seems that
there is a moult limit but its just the difference between primaries
 and SS. Primary coverts with parallel and well-marked
black bars, and outermost GC with 10 bars.

'Green'. In this last post, I told about 'late June's migration', and I mentioned a Green Woodpecker (Picus viridis) as an example of non-breeders that appears in areas where is not a common breeder. Well, after that non-breeder, I also saw and trapped this juvenile, that had decided to come to l'Aiguamoll de la Bòbila while it's moulting primaries. Good choice! ;)

'Mixture': the Bee-eater (Merops apiaster) is probably one of most coloured birds in Europe. This feature makes it very beautiful and it'll be always a very special bird.

Ageing is quite easy. 1w birds retain primary coverts in its winter moult in Africa, so when they are back to Europe as 2cy birds, they are recognisable because of that. In spring and early summer, 2cy's primary coverts are blue, without the green tone present in alula and primaries. So that bird was clearly an EURING 5.

Sexing by plumage characters could be easy (as in that bird), or a little bit confusing. If you have any doubt, you should leave the bird unsexed.

The brown in secondaries should be more extensive in a male...

... and GCs should not have this green border. Also, in a typical male,
more GC and also median coverts are totally 'chestnut'.

Also, the mantle have some green feathers. A male should show
more intense yellow feathers and no (or only a bit) green.

But the bird I've enjoyed the most in the last weeks is not famous for its colours, but its spotted design and specially its texture are quite attractive too. I'm talking about the Little Owl (Athene noctua).

Juvenile Little Owls undergo partial moult, affecting head, body and some wing coverts. They retain primaries, secondaries, inner GCs and also primary coverts. Then, in the second calendary year, Little Owls undergo complete moult after breeding. Thus, that bird was a 3+cy (EURING 6), because there wasn't any contrast between wing feathers.
Sometimes, Little Owls leave unmoulted some secondaries in its complete moult. Then, sometimes it's possible to see two generations of secondaries. If there is strong contrast between two generations, the bird should be a 3cy (EURING 7) (because retained feathers are still juvenile), and if there is only a soft contrast, it should be a 4+cy (EURING 8). In autumn, contrast between two secondaries mean EURING 5, and soft contrast, EURING 6.

Puigpedrós

Yesterday I went with Joan Manubens, Bernat Ferrer and Guillem Carol to Puigpedrós massif, in Central Pyrenees, very close to France and Andorra borders. We should do more excursions like this one, it was really great.

   
We drove to Malniu Refuge, close to Meranges village. There, we parked the car and we start to walk. Soon, first mountain birds appear. Citril Finches (Carduelis citrinella) are very common in alpine fields near the refuge. Also, firsts Northern Wheatears (Oenanthe oenanthe), Common Crossbills (Loxia curvirostra), Bullfinches (Pyrrhula pyrrhula) and Goldcrests (Regulus regulus). I met again with Alpine Marmots (Marmota marmota), that were common during all jaunt.
  

Leaving the forest, stones predominate around the landscape. There, Citril Finches are also common, and some other alpine species appear. Water Pipits (Anthus spinoletta), some Black Redstarts (Phoenicurus ochruros), more Northern Wheatears and Alpine Accentors (Prunella collaris).
   

  

We climb to the peak of Puigpedrós [2913 m], with fantastic views from southern Andorra and France, and northern areas of Catalonia.
  

This year will be remembered by the strange meteorological spring and for late snowfalls (usually in early May, but in early June this year). As you can see in the photos, snow is still present in some parts. All this spring alterations caused also alterations in birds biology, specially in alpine specibes. As an example, yesterday (12 July) I saw nestlings of Citril Finches and Dunnocks (Prunella modularis)...
Last week I stayed in La Garrotxa, revising some nestboxes with Josep Ramoneda. We found a nest with 3-days nestlings!!

I hope we can repeat excursions like that one. Friends, birds and great places: perfect.