Schiermonnikoog (August 20 - 23)

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy (and all play and no work made Jack a mere toy..?), so I was off to Schiermonnikoog, a small island located in the Dutch Waddensea, for an educational as well as recreational bird ringing experience at the "Groene Glop", our bed & breakfast & ringing station (with Joop vA (and family) and Jorien vS).




At times it was crowded at the coffee table. Captures can be found on http://www.trektellen.nl







Bycatch: a Great Green Bush-Cricket Tettigonia viridissima







View towards the east, with Rottumerplaat on the horizon (where I once spent a summer looking towards the west...).




Northern wheatear Oenanthe oenanthe

Holes in a wall

Catching and ringing Sand Martins Riparia riparia occupying an artificial nesting site (a purposely placed concrete wall). Today @ Sekdoorn (Stichting Avifauna Zwolle).

Little ringed plover chicky

Charadrius dubius, 12.8 gram. Ringed today @ VRS Hessenpoort, Zwolle.




Little ringed breeding habitat.

Failure...

Two-egg clutch of Barn Owls (Tyto alba guttata) in a wall mounted nest box located in a green suburb of Zwolle, The Netherlands. An infrared camera connection showed that one of the two breeding birds disappeared during early egg-stage (halfway April), but the true cause of failure remains unknown. The box was installed over 20 years ago and became occupied by a single Barn Owl pretty much every winter and occasionally in summer. During summer 2015 a second bird appeared and a first breeding attempt was made the following year, which also failed during early egg stage. Today the box got cleaned out, the eggs were removed and 85 pellets were collected and will be used to identify prey items.

Phylloscopus trochilus acredula

Northern Willow Warbler, but a very difficult ID… Captured, ringed, measured and released today @ VRS Hessenpoort, Zwolle, The Netherlands.

Training on Dutch andorinhas (May 10, 2017)

Capturing, ringing, measuring, bleeding and releasing Barn Swallows Hirundo rustica from a crowded barn in Hasselt, with Joop v.A. The cows were playing outside.

A bit of twitching: Big Day Zwolle, The Netherlands (May 6, 2017)

1^st prize: “Team Rocket (?; Jasper, Reinier & Tim)”. 120 bird species found during a 12 hour (06:00 – 18:00) bicycle ride. An equation of the previous record.