Back into the swing

I am pleased to announce that there are now 4 new whinchats with colour rings. I haven't caught the ringed bird (yet), but there is plenty of time still. It is a relief after yesterday. It’s usually the case that the first day of fieldwork doesn’t go to plan and yesterday was no exception. After a long morning I just couldn’t catch any of the birds and came back frustrated. Let's hope that yesterday was just ‘one of those days’ after the good day today.

 One of today's 4 new whinchats, still in beautiful plumage even after flying over the Sahara. One of the birds, hatched this year, was in such terrible condition I wondered how it made the journey. I hope it gains condition before making the return flight.

Things do seem different from last year and I think it is because it is still early and the ground is wet and the vegetation thick. It is tricky to find a good place to put traps. Yesterday we set them at the edge of a corn field where 3 birds were chasing each other, plus two more sets by other birds in the area. For the whole morning the birds did not really respond to the playback. Everybody seems very intolerant of their each other (and of me) and all around there are whinchats chasing each other and ‘ticking’ - their way of showing their irritation at trespassers.

The fieldsite after the rains. There is little bare ground and the vegetation is 

green and lush - a far cry from when I left it in April.

This morning we decided to take a different approach and set mist nets in the tall maize. These very fine nets are almost impossible to see amongst tall vegetation, providing you work before sun and breeze give them away. To my surprise they worked well and 3 of today’s bird were caught in the nets. I will take advantage of the maize before it is harvested in late October. The more birds I can catch with nets the better, as it might well be a case of ‘once bitten, twice shy’ with the spring traps. Normally, ornithologists use mist nets to catch small birds like whinchats, and I will indeed use them for whitethroats later in the season. Sometimes, however, it is not possible to use nets because the habitat is too open, or perhaps something else works better, like spring traps. Both methods are good for different situations, and most importantly they are safe for the birds. The word ‘trap’ does sound a little harsh, but these are brilliantly designed and work a treat without stressing the bird.

On the left is a set trap showing the trigger, which when pulled springs the netting shut (as demonstrated by the cotton bag on the right). The playback is put nearby.

For whinchats, spring traps are perfect as they take advantage of the bird’s natural behaviour. Whinchats typically perch on the top of small bushes, flying down every so often to pick prey from the ground. They are also territorial and so will respond to the song and calls of whinchats. Birds use song and calls to attract mates, broadcast territories, announce the presence of a predator and to let each other know where they are. Consequently, birds will often come to investigate the songs and calls of birds of their species. Whinchats are no exception and treat the sound of another whinchat as the presence of an intruder. Using ‘playback’ simply means playing songs and calls to get a bird’s attention. With this in mind, it is relatively straightforward to catch a whinchat. You will need:

whinchats

4 or 5 spring traps

live bait (the wigglier the better)

playback

a small isolated bush

equal parts patience and perseverance
a sprinkling of good luck

The key is to use the playback to get your bird to come near the traps. If the traps are placed where the bird will see the baited triggers, they will fly down to feed, spring the trap and you will catch your whinchat. A small bush on its own is best - that way the bird is close to the ground (and your traps) and not perched far away. I use maggots for bait as they definitely tick the wiggle box and are marvellously resilient, even under the African sun (you get used to them after a while, getting hold of them is the unpleasant bit!). Getting all of this right is often trial and error and you have to move to a different bush (or 5). Some birds are just not bothered to too suspicious to catch. Some are so territorial that they will perch immediately above the playback and become so transfixed that they ignore the bait. The worst culprits will perch on every single bush apart from the one with the traps underneath. I'm sure these birds are deliberately trying to wind me up! Getting it to work is rewarding, and I am always excited to check the traps. Whinchats are brilliant little birds to ring as they are a bit of a challenge to age and sex (but almost always possible) and have an air of robustness and resilience about them that is reassuring to any ringer. Plus they are really gorgeous.

I am off to take a tentative drive down to my other sub-site. I suspect that the road is undriveable so it may be that I will have to wait to see if my birds have returned. I am excited to see this site. There is a river running along one side and I often see great birds there.

Emma

Old friends

After two more trips into the field (kitted out with a new pair of rubber boots) I have found 4 more colour-ringed whinchats from last year. These birds are again in or very close to the same tiny territories they held last year. It’s like they never left. This brings the total up to 7 so far, and I am confident that more will show up as the weeks progress. It is still early and it is likely that there are more birds that I haven’t found. It is quite easy to miss birds when re-sighting as they only need to be on the wrong side of a bush or foraging on the ground for you to not see them. It is fantastic news to find so many returning birds this early. At the end of the season I will be fitting geolocators to map migration routes, and it is very promising and somewhat of a relief to know that there is a high chance of recovering a good number next year. It is going to be fascinating to find out where they spend the summer and the routes they take.

One if the birds I saw this morning was Red-Yellow-Red, one of the first birds I caught in January. That was the last time I saw it, and despite searching the area throughout the following months I never re-sighted it. To see it back, not only alive and well but about 10 feet from where I caught it last year was reassuring but also mildly irritating. It was like spotting a truant school kid. Where did it go last winter, and if it did leave that territory after it was ringed, why did it come back to the very same spot? Perhaps it had a favourite perch hidden out of sight, or perhaps it was like another of last year’s birds that had a strange tendency to perch high in a tree (which is not what whinchats are meant to do!). I am happy to see it back none the less. 

7 birds have now been found, all returning to the same territories as last year

This morning I also saw a whinchat with just a metal ring but no colour rings. It was in a territory held by a colour-ringed bird last year, but I think it is unlikely that it had lost its colour rings. I use three colours for each bird and all of the returning birds have their full set. This spot is close to one of the CES sites (constant effort ringing), so I suspect that it was ringed there previously. I can’t wait to find out. One thing I have already learnt is that the red rings have bleached over the European summer and are now pink, which is (unfortunately) very close to the orange I also use. I’ll have to re-think my combinations from now on.

One of the returning whinchats from last year with colour rings (white and blue)

Today I was lucky enough to have a wonderful sighting of a cuckoo perched right in the open for quite some time. A great perk of fieldwork is that you get can’t help but see a great deal of other birds and wildlife. After comparing my notes with the bird book back at the car I believe it was a migrant Common cuckoo from Europe. These birds are very similar to the African species; however this bird had a bill that was black all the way to the head and barring on the breast was clean and sharp. It is a stunning bird. As much as I love tropical species, you don’t have to be bright and flashy to be a treat for the eyes.

My field assistant has just returned from a successful mission to get bait for the traps, so I will begin catching tomorrow. Today we found at least 8 un-ringed whinchats so we already have plenty to start with. Interestingly, these new birds were spread throughout the habitat and not just at the edges like the at flooded part of the site. This spot is dry, so perhaps whinchats do indeed need dry ground. Tomorrow I will start here. I usually catch between 3 and 5 whinchats on a good morning and I have lots to do to make sure everything is ready. Today I was pleased to find a driveable track leading right to the site which makes work so much easier. I wonder when that bird from today was first ringed? Hopefully I will find out tomorrow as that metal ring has guaranteed that I will be making a bee-line straight for that bird.

Tomorrow I’ll post more about how exactly one outsmarts a whinchat and what ringing them involves.

Emma

A warm welcome

I have just returned to APLORI after a long break in the UK and it’s good to be back. The change at APLORI is quite something – the dry and dusty place I left in April is now lush and green. The Bishop birds are in their glorious red plumage and other birds are busy hurrying about with nesting material, all to a backdrop of stunning butterflies and wild flowers. It is also cool and cloudy – perfect weather for fieldwork!

I headed out to the field this morning to see if I could find any whinchats. My site is now more akin to a marsh than a dry savannah full of thorns and I quickly gave up on keeping my feet dry. I soon saw a whinchat and checked it for rings, and astonishingly it was one of my birds from last year! What a treat. I could barely contain my excitement, much to the amusement of my field assistant. I still remember where each individual held a territory, and amazingly this bird had returned to the same territory it held last year. It’s incredible... to think that this tiny bird flew all the way to Europe to breed and then found its way to the same bush in the middle of Africa is just amazing. Through the course of the morning I found two more birds from last year, again in the same territories or closeby. One was perched on the very same bush were I caught it last season. It's still early days, so I am excited to find just how many of last year's birds return. I am quite proud of them.

There were also new birds about, but not too many. I suspect that it is still early. The majority of the site is still empty, and I noticed that the whinchats are sticking to the areas on the edges of farms, especially maize fields. I wonder why – perhaps these areas are better protected from predators, or offer better feeding prospects? The middle of the site is indeed quite flooded and thick with grass, whereas farmed fields have plenty of dry, open ground where whinchats normally feed. I suspect that it’s a combination of the two. It seems likely that the ‘better’ territories have been occupied first. This has indeed been found to be the case in other long distant migrants, such as American Redstarts. It will be interesting to see if these early birds shift territories throughout the winter as more individuals show up and more territories are occupied. What will happen when the habitat dries out, the ground becomes bare and the crops are harvested? The best way to tell will be to ring these early birds as soon as possible, and that is the plan for the coming weeks. I will also re-catch later-year’s birds, although if they can remember their way back to the same bush, I wonder if they will remember what a spring trap is? Let’s hope not, as re-trapping individuals between years is key to a large part of my research.

 Three birds so far (circled in red) have returned to the same territories this year

I also visited one of the two smaller sites yesterday evening, again finding a few new birds. It was late in the day and the sun was on its way down, so I am sure there are more. There is not a whiff of a whitethroat yet, however, so I’ll spend the rest of the week scouting out the other sites and then next week will see the first CES after the rainy season. I suspect it will be busy! I wonder what the other site is like now. The rains have made it hard to get about, so let’s hope it dries out soon.

I'll be posting over the next few weeks about what the migrants are up to and on what the first CES of the season brings.

Emma

You can read more about my research here