16 June 2015

Lots of breeding warblers – Sabkhat Al Fasl

Whilst ringing last weekend we caught a lot of breeding warblers. It was a good days ringing even though it was summer and the temperature was 42 degrees Celsius. We caught 43 birds but only five species were involved and out of those five, two species only had a single bird, Red-backed Shrike and Willow Warbler. Most birds were Indian (Clamorous) Reed Warblers and Caspian (European) Reed Warblers with a number of birds having brood patches indicating they are sitting on eggs. The other species was Graceful Prinia, where a couple of birds also had brood patches. As it was hot and we needed to check the nets very frequently we only set seven out of out twelve nets but still managed a very good total of birds for us. This will be the last mist netting session we have until late August to early September as the temperature becomes too high to safety trap birds. Hopefully we will be able to go out a couple of times to try to trap some specifically identified species but this will depend on conditions and the birds themselves being present.
Caspian Reed Warbler
Caspian Reed Warbler
Caspian Reed Warbler
Caspian Reed Warbler
Indian (Clamorous) Reed Warbler
Indian (Clamorous) Reed Warbler
Graceful Prinia
Graceful Prinia