Birds of Saudi Arabia: Bahrain

Showing posts with label Bahrain - Common Moorhen. Show all posts

22 May 2012

Ringing at Alba Marsh (Bahrain)

As the temperatures are getting hot now we decided to ring in the evening rather than the morning when the temperatures are more bearable. We arrived at the marsh just after 15:00 hrs and set up two nets in the two prime locations. Bird activity was very low as the main migration period is now finished for the region, but the heat prevented us from setting more nets. I flushed a bird from the reeds into the net on the way out after having set the second net which turned out to be a Caspian Reed Warbler. Brendan and I had quite a discussion on this bird and took all sorts of measurements to rule our Marsh Warbler and Blyth’s Reed Warbler. Whilst we were doing this Adbulla and Mubarak arrived to lend a hand.

Clamorous Reed Warblers

We caught thirteen birds in total, which was more than I had envisaged prior to arriving. This included five Caspian Reed Warblers, two Clamorous Reed Warblers, three Common Moorhen, one Black-winged Stilt (chick), one House Sparrow and one Graceful Prinia. Abdulla ringed the Black-winged Stilt and one Common Moorhen as they were ringing ticks for him and I ringed the other birds. The main excitement was from one of the Clamorous Reed Warblers that was a re-trap of the bird ringed in Oman in 2008 (see previous post on this bird). The bird is a female and is starting to sit on her second clutch of eggs as she had a brood patch similar to when we caught her in early April. The adult Common Moorhens had very worn fight feathers and looked a bit worse for wear.

Common Moorhen (adult)

Common Moorhen (juvenile)

15 December 2011

Bahrain - Morning Ringing Session at Alba Marsh

I went ringing again at Alba Marshes in Bahrain with Brendan in the early morning. I was unable to go over to Bahrain in the afternoon due to family commitments so we went in the early morning. This was the first time we had tried the site in the morning and it proved to be very successful for us. Brendan and I put up three 18 metre mist nets in the normal place in the reed beds and a double panel 14 metre net to the side of one of the 18 metre nets. All nets caught birds and our final count for the morning amounted to 27 birds of nine different species. Abdulla and Mubarak came along just as we finished setting up the nets and Abdulla helped me with the ringing whilst Brendan was keeping an eye on the nets and me as well. I ringed Common Moorhen that I had not ringed before, and all the other birds mentioned with the exception of Little Bittern that Brendan had not ringed before. We had three re-traps including two Clamorous Reed Warblers and a Bluethroat, all of which had been ringed at the same site with one of the Clamorous Reed Warblers ringed in February 2011 as a breeding adult female with a brood patch. The final count was one Daurian Shrike, one Common Moorhen, one Little Bittern, one Graceful Prinia, two Water Pipits, three Common Chiffchaffs, four House Sparrows, five Bluethroats (plus a re-trap) and six Clamorous Reed Warbler (plus two re-traps).