Fieldwork frustrations

Bad rain this week has meant that we have been without internet for a while, hence the late post... This week’s task has been to try and catch some of the returning birds from last year. Along with presenting a good opportunity to test my Whinchat ageing and sexing skills and see how individuals have changed since last year, the main reason is to make sure that I will be able to catch returning birds with geolocators next field season. Fitting the geolocators is one thing, but to download the data I will need to have them back. So yesterday I chose two of the returned birds and made the decision that I would do whatever I needed to do to catch them. This is much easier said than done! The experience of being caught once using bait, playback and traps is enough to make them wary and rather un-responsive of playback, and so the traps don't work. Yesterday I tried a long line of nets by each of the birds but was well and truely outsmarted. I think I was trying too much at one time with two birds. This morning I tried just one of them and added more nets to the set up to make a big giant C shape. The theory is that at some point there will be enough net to cross the whole territory and catch the bird, even if it sees the net. I spent the morning running around waving my arms and looking like an idiot at the same time, but it was worth it as I managed to catch one bird from last year. Irritatingly this was not the originaly bird I was after! So I have mixed feelings about our sucess. The original target has taken to flying over the top of the net, so I think the only way to catch this bird will be to set a further line of high nets in front or behind the first line. It's a lot of work for one bird and not entirely urgent right now, so next time I will swap to the other bird I tried yesterday and give this one a rest. I may need more people with me to run around waving their arms to persuade it to fly in the right direction. It sounds a little mad but now the birds know what I am up to I need all the help I can get!

Gotcha! One of last year's birds, Blue-Blue-Red, now fitted with a brand new red ring to replace the bleached one

Some exciting news is that earlier in the week I saw a colour-ringed Whitethroat at my site ‘John’s Farm’ whist catching whinchats. This is brilliant. It means that the Whitethroats have also come back to last year’s wintering grounds. I am working in quite a small area of a large site that is quite good for Whitethroat, so it is very promising that this bird was very close to the territory it held last year. The Whitethroats present quite a problem when trying to determine territoriality and residency over the winter period. They are very ‘skulky’ birds that move quickly and quietly in dense bush and it is very hard to read any colour ring combinations if you spot one. Sometimes I feel like I have put colour rings on mice, and mice with wings for that matter. I have tried quite a few methods of re-righting colour-ringed birds effectively, but even with playback and a spotting scope you can never be sure they are there, and if they are that you will see them. I have had to lower my ambitions and work with determining site fidelity and residency over the winter rather than territory size like I am doing for Whinchats. I am doing this by placing mist nets with playback throughout the site to catch and colour-ring whitethroats and then repeating this several times over the winter. Next week I will begin netting for a week throughout my two sites, and I will then repeat this after Christmas. I will colour-ring all the Whitethroats I catch. Any resident birds are likely to be re-caught the second time, along with any birds that I colour-ringed last year that have returned. I am really excited about netting the first time as I think there is likely to be more birds from last year. This site also has some great species that we don’t often catch at APLORI, such as Emin’s Shrike and Yellow-fronted Canary, so maybe I will have some added treats. This morning we worked hard setting up nets ready to start catching on Monday.

We are still having some rain and were treated to a heavy downpour yesterday morning right as we got out of the car. The night before there was a big storm with dramatic lightning and extremely loud thunder that had me quivering under my mosquito net int he early hours. There have been bad floods throughout Nigeria and it does seem like a lot of rain for this time of the year. I hope things cal down soon, although I am not looking forward to when it is as dry as a bone and I come back from the field covered with a layer dust.

This weekend I climbed the big rocky hill in front of the house to get a view of the Reserve. Last time I did this was in late March after the bush fires and there has been quite a transformation with the rains. It’s a brilliant place to watch the sun going down with a whiskey (if you have any) and a good book. Just don’t forget the head torch or the climb down gets interesting. This time a family of Rock-loving Cisticolas came to investigate me, much to my amusement. Their call is exactly like a squeaky dog toy and is quite hilarious when you are surrounded by about 10 of them.

Amurum Forest Reserve from the top of the hill

Keep posted for news next week on how many Whitethroats have made it back this year and into my nets.

Emma