Report of the month - May

 

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.

 

Summary of the ringing activity this month

In may, the bird ringing station "Schlammwiss" caught about 638 birds of 36 species. This number is subdivided in 484 E, 102 W and 52 K. None bird foreign origin has been caught.

 

The total amount of birds for the month  is higher than the average amount of birds caught in april at the station. The graphic below shows the average amount of birds for each month during the years 2001-2014.

 

 

E:  first capture of this individual

W:  recapture of an individual which was already captured this year

K:  individuals which were ringed one or more years ago or individuals with a foreign country or station

 

Top 5

1. PARMAJ Great Tit 215
2. ARCSCI Reed Warbler 80
3. PARCAE Bluet Tit 57
4. FICHYP Pied Flycatcher 40
5. ARCPAL Marsh Warbler 26

Interesting birds captured:

  • 1 Actitis hypoleucos
  • 1 Falco tinnunculus
  • 1 Lanius collurio
  • 3 Linaria cannabina
  • 3 Luscinia megarhynchos
  • 5 Phoenicurus ochruros
  • 1 Picus viridis

First spring arrivals:

Species Date
Phylloscopus collybiata 10.3
Phoenicurus ochruros 24.3
Luscinia svecica 25.3
Rallus aquaticus
31.3
Sylvia atricapilla 31.3
   
Phylloscopus trochilus
1.4
Acrocephalus schoenobaenus 7.4
Sylvia communis 8.4
Regulus ignicapilla 9.4
Sylvia curruca 14.4
Luscinia megarhynchos 21.4
Acrocephalus arundinaceus 22.4
Sylvia borin 22.4
   
Acrocephalus scirpaceus 1.5
Locustella naevia 1.5
Lanius collurio 10.5
Locustella luscinioides 10.5
Acrocephalus palustris 13.5

Summary

Distribution of the age:

Code Amount Definiton
C 1 older than four years
B  8 born four years ago
A 4 older than three years
9 5 born three years ago
8  6 older than two years
7  12 born two years ago
6  26 older than one year
5  42 born last year
4  208 age unkown, but not born this year
3 10 born this year
2  / age unknown
1 316 nestling

Distribution of nestlings - Code 1

Species Latin name Quantity
Great Tit Parus major 215
Blue Tit Parus caeruleus 53
Pied Flycatcher Ficedula hypoleuca 40
Black Redstart Phoenicurus ochruros 5
House sparrow Passer domesticus 3

Foreign birds that we controlled this year:

Month Species Country
January / /
February Sturnus vulgaris Beglium
March Phylloscopus collybita Belgium
  Phylloscopus collybita Belgium
  Emberiza schoeniclus France
April / /
May Acrocephalus scirpaceus Sweden

 

The team of the bird ringing station Schlammwiss are mostly volunteers who did an excellent work this month!

 

 We say thank you for everyone who was helping this month!

 

 

 

 

 

In summary we spent around 51 hours during 17 days working at the station.

 

 

 We also welcome the visitors on our station:

 

 

All our sightings of this month are saved in ornitho.lu

Observation

Compute total number of birds

Compute total number of observation


The weather information are offered by Meteolux.lu

 

Thank you!


Photos of this month

Extra story:

 

 

Thanks to the editiors of this report:

Charel Klein

Jim Schmitz, Cédric Brodin, Max Steinmetz