Ross's x Snow Goose hybrid
Ageing Spotted Crakes
Citrine Wagtail ssp. calls
Eastern Black Redstart ID pages
The chiffchaff files
Dusky Warbler calls
Blyth's Reed Warbler
Red-backed x Red-tailed Shrike hybrid
House x Tree Sparrow hybrid
crossbill calls
redpoll ID
Status and distribution
The Asian Connection
Dutch birds
In fine feather
TURNSTONES
turning stones to see what's underneath
grebes
moult
redstarts
bird vocalisations
hybrid redstart
chiffchaffs
genetic analyses
bird vocalizations
redpolls
Bijgewerkt op: 9 apr 2021
It's been a while since the last update, but I didn't sit still!
Thijs Fijen and I analysed the occurence of Dusky Warblers in the Netherlands, in relation to the huge autumn 2020 influx in NW Europe. See here.
But how to identify a calling Dusky? For sound and sonagram analyses of Dusky Warblers and the most common pitfall species, see this ID article.
The - long announced - paper on Chiffchaffs is now due to be published! Extra photographic material of Siberian Chiffchaffs (and a single Scandinavian) to go with Chiffchaff taxa in the Netherlands: a ten year genetic study (van der Spek & de Knijff 2021; Dutch Birding 43:2) can be found here.
Finally, please see the blog post with a summary of the ringing activities in Meijendel in 2020.
2020 ringing report Meijendel out now!
The technical year report on the ringing activities in Meijendel, Zuid-Holland, the Netherlands in 2020 has been published!
The report (in Dutch) can be downloaded here or by double clicking the cover image (pdf; 4MB).
An English summary can be found both in this blog post and in the report itself. A series of photos has also been added below.
For the bird ringing activities in Meijendel, Wassenaar, Zuid-Holland, the Netherlands, 2020 was a good year with a couple of surprises. It is superfluous to mention that the corona crisis held the world in its grip. Fortunately everyone in the group stayed healthy. There was a restriction on the number of people allowed to ring at the same time for most of the year and all of our excursions and lectures were of course cancelled, but these were just minor nuisances and otherwise there was little effect on our activities. During 90 days and approximately 530 hours, during all months save January, we ringed 6,616 birds and re-trapped an additional 1,266 (14% out of the total number). During the year we passed the 100,000 mark of birds being ringed since the turn of the century. At the end of 2020, the tally stood at 104,773. Birds were ringed for the following projects:
1) Breeding bird study Constant Effort Sites (CES);
2) Spring migration, dispersion and autumn migration;
3) Genetic studies on Lesser Whitethroat and Chiffchaff taxa;
4) A zoonoses study (pathogens that can be transferred from animals to humans), for which we took blood samples, throat and cloaca swabs and trapped mosquitos;
5) Re-trapping Adults for Survival (RAS) Sand Martin (pilot);
6) RAS Jack Snipe (outside Meijendel).
43 species were trapped more often than the long-term yearly average dictates. For ten of these, 2020 was even the best year since 2000: Great Spotted Woodpecker (10; was 8 in 2015), Sand Martin (9; was one in 2019), the rapidly increasing Cetti's Warbler (35; was 14 in 2019), Siberian Chiffchaff (12; was 7 in 2017), Savi's Warbler (7; was 4 in 2013 & 2019), Redwing (171; was 126 in 2001 & 2007), Pied Flycatcher (12; was 11 in 2003), Stonechat (8; was 6 in 2019), White Wagtail (29; was 11 in 2019) and Greenfinch (120; was 42 in 2007). On the other hand, 33 species 'under performed'.
In all we trapped 80 species, slightly more than the average over the past ten years (78). No new species were ringed. Major misses were Eurasian Sparrowhawk and – for the first time this century – Marsh Tit. There were some surprises in return. The rarest species caught were a Blyth's Reed Warbler (our 2nd), a Thrush Nightingale (3rd), two Dusky Warblers (5th and 6th) and an Aquatic Warbler (6th). The latter bird perhaps wore the most spectacular foreign ring of the year: it appeared to be ringed along the French west coast the year before. Other interesting recoveries included a Blue Tit ringed in November 2019 and recovered in autumn 2020 in Ventes Ragas, Lithuania. Remarkably we re-trapped a Ventes Ragas ringed bird in Meijendel on the very day we ringed this individual! A Greenfinch reported from France was our first foreign recovery for this species. For Cetti's Warbler we received our first recoveries to date: we re-trapped both a Dutch west coast and a central Belgian bird, while one of our own birds from 2018 was recovered in the east of the country. A UK-ringed Lesser Whitethroat was a novelty. CES in 2020 was good. The number of adult birds was around the long-term average, while the number of young birds later in the season was relatively high. Feather samples of Lesser Whitethroat and Chiffchaffs were collected for genetic analysis, with a focus on late autumn. A paper on a ten year genetic study on Chiffchaffs was accepted by Dutch Birding magazine, and is due to be published in 2021. With the current Covid-19 crisis, and the West Nile virus being diagnosed in the Netherlands for the first time in 2020 (both on birds and humans), the importance of the nationwide zoonoses studies we participate in was firmly emphasized. In Meijendel, blood samples and cloaca and throat swabs were taken from 214 birds divided over 32 species for this purpose. For a new zoonoses related study we also trapped mosquitos. An international Common Starling study, launched in 2018, was unfortunately postponed for another year due to technical problems with the transmitters. It is now expected to take off in 2021. One of our ringers will lead this study as part of his PhD. Finally, during a special on Meijendel's nature, our ringing station featured in a well-received programme on national television. The focus was on our long term Common Nightingale data. Fortunately we managed to trap a few during the recordings, so we had something to show as well!
Smart lockdown birding
It would be odd not to mention the current global crisis.
I know people who have lost relatives, I know underpaid health care workers that run a serious risk of getting infected, and I know people that are on the verge of losing their pub. But when Covid-19 hasn't hit you personally it's fair to say that, on the whole, the Dutch have been lucky. We have a functioning government, relatively few people got infected and economically we can take bigger blows than most other countries.
And then there was our so-called smart lockdown. We did not get locked up in our houses. Protected areas and parks are still open to the public, as long as you stick to the rules of social distancing. Which means we can still go out birding: a major difference compared to birders in several other countries I spoke to. And out I went nearly every day.
I had a record number of encounters with Ring Ouzels. Short-eared Owls seemed to be everywhere I went. Asio species are my favourite owls!
One even flew over my house!
And well, I even illegally twitched a Black-headed Wagtail (illegal since it could be considered a gathering). Since it was within my birding territory I just couldn't restrain myself - though perhaps I should have.
Some nice raptors included a few White-tailed Eagles (also with one over my house!)
And sightings of another spring delight: both kite species, like this Red.
There were singing Wood Warblers and a Serin, a Purple Heron and a Caspian Tern, and studying non-breeding wagtail forms is always sweet. That kind of stuff.
The latest addition to the long list of scarcer-but-not-rare-birds was this Golden Oriole.
But despite being out a lot, enjoying returning migrants, and seeing all those smart birds it was my slowest spring to date when it comes to truly unexpected encounters.
Was I getting slow? Are the years starting to count?
Perhaps not! This hybrid House x Tree Sparrow was unexpected.
By finding it I at least proved to myself that I was still keen to some degree. And you know what: it's actually more interesting than many rarities!
I have a thing for hybrids, and I've always wanted to see one of these. I devoted a page to record it properly.
Stay safe and healthy everybody. And who know what late spring has in stock!
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