Garden netting in Zwolle and more of the same Ring-necked Parakeets in Amsterdam, The Netherlands (January 19)

Coal Tit Periparus ater

On January 19 my friends and colleagues Jan van Dijk and Reinier Smabers visited me and the garden in which I grew up. This garden is located in a green suburb to the north of Zwolle, The Netherlands. I’ve been the ecological caretaker for it for many years. Due to the current high temperatures in this country, the majority of the wintering birds has not yet arrived. Bird’s, however, are always abundant in this garden (and fed regularly) and they were the reason that my guests brought 48 meters of mist nets...

Between 8:30 am and 1:00 pm we caught 77 birds. The following 76 were ringed, measured and released:

Long-tailed Tit Aegithalos caudatus  (2)

Eurasian Wren Troglodytes troglodytes   (1)

Short-toed Treecreeper Certhia brachydactyla  (1)

Eurasian Blue Tit Cyanistes caeruleus (37)

Great Tit Parus major (12)

Dunnock Prunella modularis (3)

European Robin Erithacus rubecula  (1)

Coal Tit Periparus ater (1)

Eurasian Tree Sparrow Passer montanus  (9)

Common Chaffinch Fringilla coelebs  (5)

Common Blackbird Turdus merula (4)

We caught one bird that was already ringed. This immature Eurasian Sparrowhawk Accipiter nisus was ringed on June 20 2013, as a pullus on a nest located about 4 kilometers from the garden, on the south side of the city, by Jan himself.

 

In the afternoon I travelled to Amsterdam, in order to participate in a national count of roosting Ring-necked Parakeets that was being held this same day. The parakeets at a roost site in Amsterdam North (which I’ve regularly counted the past few years) also have to deal with the presence of raptors, often resulting in mass disturbance, making it difficult to count the birds. Fortunately the raptors remained quiet last night and the evening resulted in an easy count of 680 Ring-necked Parakeets (no idea yet how many were counted in the rest of the city or country this evening).