Birds of Saudi Arabia: Bluethroat & Water Pipit – Ringing in Bahrain at the Chicken Farm

13 November 2011

Bluethroat & Water Pipit – Ringing in Bahrain at the Chicken Farm

On Friday I went ringing at the Chicken Farm with Brendan and Abdulla. Brendan and I put up three 18 metre nets, with two across an area of tall grass and one out onto a short cut area of grass. There were a lot of pipits, mainly Water Pipit as well as a flock of about 20 Eurasian Skylark in the area and we were hoping to catch a few of them. As it turned out we only managed to catch two Water Pipits as this was not the area where they are roosting at the moment. We are trying to locate this area as when we do we should be able to catch quite a few birds. The Water Pipits were caught at the same time and where an adult and a juvenile which allowed for comparison of the plumage features. The nets in the tall grass area only caught one Graceful Prinia although another three birds managed to fly into the nets but as they are so small also managed to wriggle free before we could get to them. Birdquest were in Bahrain for a couple of days and came to the Chicken Farm whilst we were ringing and saw the Water Pipits in the hand which was good. One of the Birdquest group ringed the adult Water Pipit as this was a new ringing species for him and I ringed the Juvenile which was a new ringing species for me. As we went to shut up the nets and take them down at the end of ringing Brendan managed to catch a first year male Bluethroat which was a great way to end the ringing day as Bluethroat was another new ringing species for me.