18 April 2012

Ringing at Jasaer – Bahrain

I stayed in Bahrain for the full day so went ringing with Brendan and Nicole again in the afternoon to a new site for me at Jasaer, Here we met up with Abdulla so had the entire Bahrain ringing group together in a single site. Abdulla had up a single net and had just caught a Barred Warbler which he let me ring as this was a new ringing species for me. Nicole ringed the one we caught at Alba Marsh as she had not ringed one either. Jasaer is an area of tallish trees and scrub with nice rides to set the nets up in. Whilst I was ringing the Barred Warbler Brendan and Nicole set up three more nets to see what we could catch.
Barred Warbler

Barred Warbler

Just after we arrived the weather changed and the wind got up and it looked like it might start raining. After an hour it was obvious it would start raining so Abdulla and Nicole started taking down the nets and I carried on ringing under the supervision of Brendan or Abdulla. We caught 12 birds, two Barred Wablers, one Eurasian Blackcap, five Willow Warblers, two Common Chiffchaffs, one Willow Warbler and a Common Redstart. The Common Redstart was a re-trap and had been ringed by Brendan at the same site four days previously. I just managed to ring the last bird before the weather turned to rain and as can be seen from some of the photos it was almost dark and I had to use a flash to take photographs. This was at 17:00 hrs in the afternoon a time when it should have been full daylight and sunny but due to the storm this was not the case.
Common Redstart (male)

Common Redstart (male)

Common Redstart (male)

Eurasian Blackcap (male)

Eurasian Blackcap (male)

Lesser Whitethroat

Lesser Whitethroat
All in all a very enjoyable days ringing with 51 birds caught of which I ringed 33 birds and two new ringing species – Red-throated Pipit and Barred Warbler.