05 June 2015

A good catch of breeding warblers – Sabkhat Al Fasl

Nicole and I went ringing at Sabkhat Al Fasl on 29 May. This is much later in the year than we normally go, but as we have not been for a few weeks due to other commitments and windy weather we decided to give it a go. We were not expecting too much as the wind was forecast to be quite strong and the temperatures are high, combined with the fact that the migration season is almost over. We set the first five nets before it was light and started catching as soon as the nets were up. In fact we caught so many birds we had to close the nets and did not put up any more. We caught 40 birds in the first hour and a half and as we only have two ringers and we take a lot of data from each bird we did not finish processing them until 09:00, by this time the wind had increase and we had to call it a day. We caught eight species of birds including Caspian (Eurasian) Reed Warblers, Indian (Clamorous) Reed Warblers, Graceful Prinias, Sedge Warblers, House Sparrows, Willow Warbler, Red-backed Shrikes and Turkestan Shrike. Most of the Caspian (Eurasian) Reed Warblers and Indian (Clamorous) Reed Warblers had brood patches indicating they were breeding and we caught a very early fledged juvenile Caspian (Eurasian) Reed Warbler as well. Despite all the birds caught we only had a single re-trap and that was an Indian (Clamorous) Reed Warbler originally ringed in early April 2015.
Willow Warbler
Willow Warbler
Sedge Warbler
Sedge Warbler
Caspian Reed Warbler
Caspian Reed Warbler
Turkestan Shrike - male
Turkestan Shrike - male
Turkestan Shrike - male
Turkestan Shrike - male
Turkestan Shrike - male
Turkestan Shrike - male