History: The nature reserve "Schlammwiss" was founded in 1982 by the foundation"Hellef fir Natur" (HFN). Afterwards the group "Letzeburger Natur- a Vullenschutzliga" (LNVL) founded the station "Schlammwiss". The station is leaded by the "centrale ornithologique Luxembourg" (COL), a part of the asbl. Natur & Emwelt. Due to the fact that Luxembourg doesn't have its own bird ringing central, we work in cooperation with Royal Belgian Instutitute of Natural Sciences. Therefore, we use rings from the Belgian Museum of Natural Sciences.

Location: The bird ringing station "Schlammwiss" is located in Luxembourg, between the communities Schuttrange & Munsbach. The nature reserve is part of the 375ha big Syrvalley and is an extremely important Natura 2000 zone. The reserve is periodicly flooded due to the Syr river, which is an important generator of biodiversity.

Research area: Around 30ha are used for researche, on a length of 1km and a width of 30-120m. The main area is covered by reeds and wetlands (20ha). Furthermore, the resarch area is subdivided and caracterized by an orchard, a forest, several ponds distributed throughout the reedbed and a purification plant (SIAS). The main techniques employed are mist nets and rail traps in order to realize population estimates (i.e. breeding population, migration, overwintering population) and survival estimates by Capture-Mark-Recapture. There are several projects running in the nature reserve and visitation are possible.

Begonnen wurde das Biodiversitätswochenende am Samstag, den 09.06.2018, um 9:00 Uhr mit einer Einführungsveranstaltung in Oberfeuelen. Nach Erläuterung der zu verwendenden Datenbank „iNaturalist“ konnten erste interessante Gespräche bei koffeinhaltiger Stärkung und Croissants - gestellt von den Organisatoren - zu Stande kommen. Schließlich machten sich Botaniker, Entomologen, Mykologen und viele weitere Fach-Experten auf den Weg, um Fauna und Flora der Gemeinde zu erfassen und diese einschließlich der Standort-Koordinaten in der „iNaturalist“ Datenbank zu registrieren.

Aus dem ornithologischen Bereich leisteten vier Helfer des Beringungs-Teams der „Schlammwiss“ in Uebersyren ihren Beitrag zur Datenerfassung. Gewählt wurde eine etwa 8,5 km lange Route, die verschiedene Wald-, Offenland- und urbane Flächen enthielt und somit ein breiteres Artenspektrum abdecken konnte.

Insgesamt wurden 49 verschiedene Arten identifiziert, die wie in Abbildung 1 zu sehen, 183 Beobachtungspunkte umfassen. In der Ortschaft war der Haussperling (Passer domesticus) mit Abstand am häufigsten anzutreffen, gefolgt von Rauchschwalben (Hirundo rustica). Darüber hinaus konnte ebenfalls ein Feldsperling (Passer montanus) entdeckt werden. Etwas außergewöhnlicher war der Fund eins Gebirgsstelzen-Pärchens (Motacilla cinerea).

History: The nature reserve "Schlammwiss" was founded in 1982 by the foundation"Hellef fir Natur" (HFN). Afterwards the group "Letzeburger Natur- a Vullenschutzliga" (LNVL) founded the station "Schlammwiss". The station is leaded by the "centrale ornithologique Luxembourg" (COL), a part of the asbl. Natur & Emwelt. Due to the fact that Luxembourg doesn't have its own bird ringing central, we work in cooperation with Royal Belgian Instutitute of Natural Sciences. Therefore, we use rings from the Belgian Museum of Natural Sciences.

Location: The bird ringing station "Schlammwiss" is located in Luxembourg, between the communities Schuttrange & Munsbach. The nature reserve is part of the 375ha big Syrvalley and is an extremely important Natura 2000 zone. The reserve is periodicly flooded due to the Syr river, which is an important generator of biodiversity.

Research area: Around 30ha are used for researche, on a length of 1km and a width of 30-120m. The main area is covered by reeds and wetlands (20ha). Furthermore, the resarch area is subdivided and caracterized by an orchard, a forest, several ponds distributed throughout the reedbed and a purification plant (SIAS). The main techniques employed are mist nets and rail traps in order to realize population estimates (i.e. breeding population, migration, overwintering population) and survival estimates by Capture-Mark-Recapture. There are several projects running in the nature reserve and visitation are possible.

History: The nature reserve "Schlammwiss" was founded in 1982 by the foundation"Hellef fir Natur" (HFN). Afterwards the group "Letzeburger Natur- a Vullenschutzliga" (LNVL) founded the station "Schlammwiss". The station is leaded by the "centrale ornithologique Luxembourg" (COL), a part of the asbl. Natur & Emwelt. Due to the fact that Luxembourg doesn't have its own bird ringing central, we work in cooperation with Royal Belgian Instutitute of Natural Sciences. Therefore, we use rings from the Belgian Museum of Natural Sciences.

Location: The bird ringing station "Schlammwiss" is located in Luxembourg, between the communities Schuttrange & Munsbach. The nature reserve is part of the 375ha big Syrvalley and is an extremely important Natura 2000 zone. The reserve is periodicly flooded due to the Syr river, which is an important generator of biodiversity.

Research area: Around 30ha are used for researche, on a length of 1km and a width of 30-120m. The main area is covered by reeds and wetlands (20ha). Furthermore, the resarch area is subdivided and caracterized by an orchard, a forest, several ponds distributed throughout the reedbed and a purification plant (SIAS). The main techniques employed are mist nets and rail traps in order to realize population estimates (i.e. breeding population, migration, overwintering population) and survival estimates by Capture-Mark-Recapture. There are several projects running in the nature reserve and visitation are possible.

History: The nature reserve "Schlammwiss" was founded in 1982 by the foundation"Hellef fir Natur" (HFN). Afterwards the group "Letzeburger Natur- a Vullenschutzliga" (LNVL) founded the station "Schlammwiss". The station is leaded by the "centrale ornithologique Luxembourg" (COL), a part of the asbl. Natur & Emwelt. Due to the fact that Luxembourg doesn't have its own bird ringing central, we work in cooperation with Royal Belgian Instutitute of Natural Sciences. Therefore, we use rings from the Belgian Museum of Natural Sciences.

Location: The bird ringing station "Schlammwiss" is located in Luxembourg, between the communities Schuttrange & Munsbach. The nature reserve is part of the 375ha big Syrvalley and is an extremely important Natura 2000 zone. The reserve is periodicly flooded due to the Syr river, which is an important generator of biodiversity.

Research area: Around 30ha are used for researche, on a length of 1km and a width of 30-120m. The main area is covered by reeds and wetlands (20ha). Furthermore, the resarch area is subdivided and caracterized by an orchard, a forest, several ponds distributed throughout the reedbed and a purification plant (SIAS). The main techniques employed are mist nets and rail traps in order to realize population estimates (i.e. breeding population, migration, overwintering population) and survival estimates by Capture-Mark-Recapture. There are several projects running in the nature reserve and visitation are possible.

This is a recapitulation of the waterpipit project this winter 2017/18. You can find more information about the project here.

In total, we caught 115 Anthus spinoletta this winter . This is the second highest number of this species capured at the birdringingstation "Schlammwiss" since 2000. The highest number was with 117 captures in 2015/16.

Grafic above: About 72,2% of the birds this winter were captured for the first time (E) and 15,7% are controlled birds that were ringed the years before (K). Furthermore, we recaptured 14 of those birds again this winter (W).

Grafic right: The majority of controlled birds (K) were ringed last winter 2016/17 and 2015/16. Furthermore, one individual was ringed 2013/14 and one 2012/13. This bird is older than five years.

In summary, we have spent about 12 hours ringing, plus several hours of working on the site.

Hannah K., one of the volunteers of the birdringingstation Schlammwiss and student at the Universität Trier, has recapitulated the first results of our breeding monitoring. The document (in German) summarizes the breeding year of 2017 and is available below by clicking on the documents.

We say thank you!

History: The nature reserve "Schlammwiss" was founded in 1982 by the foundation"Hellef fir Natur" (HFN). Afterwards the group "Letzeburger Natur- a Vullenschutzliga" (LNVL) founded the station "Schlammwiss". The station is leaded by the "centrale ornithologique Luxembourg" (COL), a part of the asbl. Natur & Emwelt. Due to the fact that Luxembourg doesn't have its own bird ringing central, we work in cooperation with Royal Belgian Instutitute of Natural Sciences. Therefore, we use rings from the Belgian Museum of Natural Sciences.

Location: The bird ringing station "Schlammwiss" is located in Luxembourg, between the communities Schuttrange & Munsbach. The nature reserve is part of the 375ha big Syrvalley and is an extremely important Natura 2000 zone. The reserve is periodicly flooded due to the Syr river, which is an important generator of biodiversity.

Research area: Around 30ha are used for researche, on a length of 1km and a width of 30-120m. The main area is covered by reeds and wetlands (20ha). Furthermore, the resarch area is subdivided and caracterized by an orchard, a forest, several ponds distributed throughout the reedbed and a purification plant (SIAS). The main techniques employed are mist nets and rail traps in order to realize population estimates (i.e. breeding population, migration, overwintering population) and survival estimates by Capture-Mark-Recapture. There are several projects running in the nature reserve and visitation are possible.

History: The nature reserve "Schlammwiss" was founded 1982 by the foundation"Hellef fir Natur" (HFN). Afterwards the group "Letzeburger Natur- a Vullenschutzliga" (LNVL) founded the station "Schlammwiss". The station is leaded by the "central ornithologique luxembourg" (COL), a part of the asbl. Natur & Emwelt. Due the fact that Luxembourg doesn't have it own bird ringing central, we're working in cooperation with Belgium. Therefore, Brussel aluminium rings of the Museum of Natural Science are used for the research in Luxembourg.

Location: The bird ringing station "Schlammwiss" is located in Luxembourg, between the communities Schuttrange & Munsbach. The nature reserve is part of the 375ha big Syrvalley and part of the zone Natura 2000. Through the research area flows the river Syr and affects it by periodic flooding.

Research area: Around 30ha is used for researches, on a length of 1km and a width of 30-120m. The main area is covered by reeds and wetlands (20ha). Furthermore, an orchards, a forest a several ponds in the wetland and of the purification plant (SIAS) is used. Mainly, mist nets and rail traps are used for the researches of the breeding population, resting birds and over wintering individuals. There are several projects running in the nature reserve and visitation are possible

The birdringing station Schlammwiss wish you all happy new year!

Click on the RTL-logo to hear the interview about the Temminck's stint (Calidris temminckii) from Jim S. (in luxembourgish).

It's the first bird for the birdringing station 'Schlammwiss' and probably the first who got ringed for Luxembourg.

The scouts group "Echternoacher Quaichleken" visited the birdringingstation 'Schlammwiss' the 24. March.

They visited the nature reserve, had closer view how birds get their metal ring and what we can do with this data. 

After the long morning they enjoyed a barbecue near our chalet.

You can read their report (LUX) below.

If you're interested for visit too - contact us

Journée en pleine nature <<Vallée de la syre>>

Les CFL, la ferme pédagogique A SCHMATTEN et la Fondation Hëllef fir d’Natur vous invitent en date du 29 juin et 08 juillet 2016 à un programme varié autour du thème de la nature dans la vallée de la Syre!

Faites votre choix, nous nous occupons des activités sur place et de vos déplacements.

(Offre limitée à 80 enfants par journée)

For the international wetlands day-ramsar we invited RTL TV at our birdringingstation to show the reserve and to indicate the importance of wetlands

(Video left in Luxembourgish) 

Thanks to the team!

We started the first with ringing activity this year. Our trainees had enough time to learn more about the identification of birds and to improve their skills. 

Furthermore we started with the first ringing activity for our waterpipit project.

In total we ringed 18 birds (all males). 

• 8 new
• 8 controll from 2012-2015

Unfortunately we found no GPS.

Visiting the arctic was always one of my childhood dreams.

This summer, I had the great opportunity to join scientists who visit Greenland every year as part of a long term project. We worked on a long term study on lemming cycles in North-East Greenland. With three other people, from France, Germany and Switzerland, we spent 2 weeks in the biggest national park of the world. The project is carried out in the Karupelv Valley (72.30 N; 24 W). With 3542 km2 the island of Traill is bigger than the surface area of Luxembourg (2586 km2).

The main work to carry out was to observe Sanderlings nests (Calidris alba) of which we find the first pairs in the area. We had to visit the nests every second day, mark the colour code of the adults, check if they got predated or not, ring the chicks when they start to run around in the tundra and to collect the tiny tags from under the sanderlings' nests after they finished breeding.

We had to also check the population of predators in the research area. Therefore we visited the old burrows of Arctic foxes (Vulpes lagopus) and counted the number of Long-tailed Skuas (Stercorarius longicaudus), Parasitic Jaeger (Stercorarius parasiticus), Gyrfalcon (Falco rusticolus) and Snowy Owl (Bubo scandiacus). Futhermore we searched chicks of Long-tailed Skuas to get some feather samples for an isotope research.

In two weeks we hiked about 200 km and checked all the important points in the research area. We slept in tents and spend our time eating and chatting in an old trapper hut from the thirties. Our shower was the whole Kong Oscar Fjord with Icebergs and as toilet we had to ditch a hole near a streamlet. We used flowing water from glacier and snow water to drink or cook and eat trekking food from cans (some from 2005 !!!). During the time in Greenland we had 24h light and between 0-15°C. The number of midgets was incredible and torturing! not even comparable with the deep jungles.

I was very happy of the different bird species that I have seen up here, the beautiful flora and all the big mammals like Arctic foxes (Vulpes lagopus), Musk ox (Ovibos moschatus), Polar Bears (Ursus maritimus) and seals.

Already since two years one of our members of the Birdringingstation 'Schlammwiss' is working together with Christian Stange at Kaiserstuhl / Freiburg. During the autumn and winter the main work is the maintenance of the biotopes. For spring they start to control the nest boxes of little owls (Athene noctua) and hoopoes (Upua epopos) and to ring the juveniles. 

This year they checked the area around Ihringen and controlled about 12 nest boxes of hoopoes and 1 box of the little owl. 

Most of the hoopoes started already with the second brood. So most of the nest boxes which are inside of a vineyard cabin were empty or with eggs. We checked the empty boxes if any birds breed inside and checked what happen with the juveniles (Are we too late and they flew out? Did something happen? Did they breed?). We also checked the nest boxes around the vineyard cabin which are against the breeding pressure to see which birds used it. 

To check if something is inside of the box we checked the ground in front of the hole for faeces and smell on the hole to determine the present of juveniles (>> penetrate smell for the defence of the juveniles against predators like the beech marten (Martes foina)). We also check for marks on the hole to see if a beech marten already tried to get in. Than we close the hole and go inside of the cabin to get the juveniles. Before we open the box we shine with a light inside of the box to see if there are juveniles or the female with eggs. Inside of the box we check the condition of the nest box and have a look if we can find some remains of their food. 

We had only two nest boxes with juveniles which had the right size to ring. More than the half of the boxes had only eggs which mean that the hoopoe started with the second brood. 

We also we checked a nets box of the little owl which was impossible for Christian to check earlier. We found one juvenile inside of the box and another one outside in a natural hole.

Same as the population of hoopoe Christian Stange is also responsible for the little owl population at Kaiserstuhl. Both species need the same area and conditions to live. For the moment there are about 56 pairs with 160 juveniles at Kaiserstuhl. 

To the end we installed a new nest box for the scops owl (Otus scops) which has been seen and hearing a bunch of times at this area. 

Autor: Charel Klein

The Hoopoe (Upupa epops) breeding habitat was in good condition before forestry management started in Central Europe.

The Hoopoe had ideal conditions to breed  with orchards, meadows, wooded vineyards and open forests. The main distribution of this bird was from the south to the east of Europe.

With the beginning of  forestation of nutrient-poor soil in the 19th century, many biotopes disappeared. It declined in the 20th century with the growing livestock farming and the draining of meadows. Furthermore, the meadows became bigger because farmers started to use mineral fertilizer and liquid manure to fertilise the new fields. Fast growing grass needed to get mowed fast and this activity destroyed the foraging grounds of Hoopoes. Also, the use of insecticides in the fields, polluted the soil  Eventually the insects that Hoopoes feed on and fed the chicks on created abnormalities in the eggs and health of the birds, this happened mainly in the 1960's.

Not only the insecticides where having negative effects on Hoopoe populations, but also the breeding grounds of the Hoopoe was changing. The hoopoe is a cavity breeder and needs holes in big trees and in walls. Old fruit trees and big thick willows which are good breeding places for this bird were removed from the landscape. The destruction of orchards and the change in which fruit trees were managed from low-stem trees to high-stem trees left no cavities in trees where Hoopoe can breed.

Only  few pairs of Hoopoe survived in Rheinland-Pfalz till the 1980's. All of them used holes in walls to breed instead of trees. Although more than 100 pairs of Green woodpeckers (Picus vidris) were drilling nesting holes in trees still the Hoopoes were not utilising these cavities.

In May 3 members of the schlammwiss team (Joseph D, Raoul M and Charel K.) went to Turkey for 11 days. Turkey was our choice because (like the most ornithologists) some of the team have a list of birds they've in the Western Palartic and they had some missing in the eastern part.

We started our trip in Antalya and drove until the Lake Van. For the new and dangerous parts (Göksu Delta, Camardi, Osmanyie, Birecik, Syrian border + desert, Nemrut Dagi) we had the Faroese man Silas O. as guide with us. He knew a lot about the areas, birds and culture. We enjoyed the time with him and learned a lot about the culture and country!

Most of the time we drove the car to find new birds and to get new photos. We started at sunrise and went back to the hotel as sun set (everyday a different hotel in another city).

In summary it was a great birding trip with 237 birds (see list below) and beautiful landscapes! (click to see all the photos)

Autor: Charel Klein