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13 November 2013

Re-trapped Red-spotted Bluethroat - Alba Marsh (Bahrain)


An early morning trip to Bahrain to go ringing proved quite successful for us with 22 birds caught of eight species. Quite a few re-traps were processes all of which had been ringed at the same site by us. The most interesting one was an adult male Red-spotted Bluethroat that was originally caught in November 2012 and again in January 2013 showing the bird was using Alba Marsh as a wintering site. The fact we then re-caught the bird in November 2013 shows it is probably going to use the same site to winter again after having moved off north to breed. Bluethroats are difficult to assign to race unless an adult male is seen or caught, but this one looks like a svecica that breed in Scandinavia and north Asia as well as north-west North America and Canada and winter in southern Europe, North and North tropical Africa, Arabia and south and east Asia.
Red-spotted Bluethroat - adult male
Red-spotted Bluethroat - adult male
Red-spotted Bluethroat - first year male
We also re-caught a Common Kingfisher that we had caught originally at the same site a few weeks earlier suggesting this bird is also going to use the site as a wintering location. Other re-traps were Clamorous Reed Warblers that are resident at the site. A few Graceful Prinias were also caught, a species we have not caught for almost a year. They are really beautiful as well as small birds weighing only 6-7 grams and are resident at the marsh.
Common Kingfisher
Common Kingfisher
Common Chiffchaff
European Reed Warbler
Graceful Prinia 
Water Pipit