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.
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| Willow Warbler |
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| Sedge Warbler |
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| Caspian Reed Warbler |
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| Turkestan Shrike - male |
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| Turkestan Shrike - male |
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| Turkestan Shrike - male |