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15 June 2016

Ringing at Either Mangroves – Either

Abdullah Alsuhaibany and I went ringing for a day at Either Mangroves trying to catch Mangrove White-eye so we could obtain blood samples for analysis. We got to the site at 05:30 when the temperature was already 30 degres Celsius and humidity at 95%. The high tides also made the ground where the nets were to be set very soft and sticky meaning that we had to wade their with bare feet, quite painful with the mangrove roots. We set four nets over a 750 metre long stretch on the mangroves but the high temperature, humidity and distance from net to net made ringing extremely taxing. I know for certain I was more tiered after this ringing session than any other I have done. At the end of the day it took 1.5 hours to take down four nets and process that normally takes twenty minutes. We did have a good day however, with seven Mangrove Warblers, three Mangrove White-eyes, two Collared Kingfishers, one Clamourous Reed Warbler (not the Clamourous (Indian) Reed Warblers we catch in the east of the Kingdom) and one retrapped African Collared Dove. Not many birds for all the hard work but three more samples of the Mangrove White-eye and three more sets of Biometrics to look at.
Mangrove Reed Warbler
Mangrove Reed Warbler
Mangrove Reed Warbler
Mangrove Reed Warbler
Mangrove Reed Warbler
Mangrove Reed Warbler
Mangrove White-eye
Mangrove White-eye
African Collared Dove
African Collared Dove
Clamorous Reed Warbler
Clamorous Reed Warbler