We started out at 5:15 with the nets open, and immediately had the feeling that there were a lot less birds around. The spring this year has been one with a lot more rainfall than the annual average, which means that the birds are spread out over a much larger area. This was felt very well in our ringing station. The group of British ringers that was with us are now back in Britain, so the number of nets open is much smaller. That we would be catching a lot fewer birds was clear, but to have a grand total of 24 birds out of 10 nets over four hours was quite low.
We are noticing that the number of Chiffchaffs (Phylloscopus collibyta) is slowly diminishing, the Lesser Whitethroats (Sylvia curruca) are still going strong, there is an increase in Balkan Warblers (Phylloscopus orientalis), and a large increase in Blackcaps (Sylvia atricapilla). Those are the predominant species, but to a lesser extent we are seeing a lot of others. The Sedge Warbler, the Reed Warbler and the Savi's Warbler are caught in steady numbers, also some Rueppell's Warblers (Sylvia rueppelli), and Eastern Orphean Warblers (Sylvia crassirostris). We did get one female Dead Sea Sparrow(Passer moabiticus) in the net, as well as an almost daily Cretzschmar's Bunting (Emberiza caesia). We are waiting for the change-over to Ortolan Bunting (Emberiza hortulana) that should be happening very soon.
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| Female Rueppell's Warbler |
Overhead migration is quite good, with a good mix of birds, the predominant being the Steppe Buzzard (Buteo vulpines), followed by Black Kite (Milvus migrans), and then Steppe Eagle (Aquila nipalensis). Other species we saw today were Short-toed Eagle (Circaetus gallicus), Osprey (Pandion heliaetus), Egyptian Vulture (Neophron percnopterus), Black Stork (Ciconia nigra) and Booted Eagle (Aquila pennata), but in much lesser numbers. There was also one Purple Heron (Ardea purpurea) migrating in the opposite direction, it seemed.
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