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