And now for something completely different?

While walking in Parque da Fontenova in Aveiro (Portugal) on February 25, my I caught a somewhat strange white bird among several Black-headed Gulls that were foraging on the grass. At closer inspection it appeared it was also a Black-headed Gull, but with a colouring defect in its wings (http://observado.org/waarneming/view/81965799). Unfortunately, I wasn’t carrying a camera. Today March 1 the dogs got a walk in the same park and also the gull appeared there again. Coincidentally I ran into Pedro Moreira, who luckily brought his camera with him as he was already on the lookout for this particular bird. Pedro sent me the following photos.

Partially leucistic Black headed Gull Parque da Fontenova in Aveiro, Portugal. March 1, 2013 (photos by Pedro Moreira).

As far as defects in colouring go, this type of deviation seems to occur more regularly among this species. See i.e. http://www.frankmajoor.nl/kokmeeuwen-kleurafwijkingen-1-nl.shtml. Not as completely different as I first thought, but still a beautiful bird to see.

São Jacinto gets flooded (February 21 – 22)

During these two days I assisted David Rodrigues with duck captures at São Jacinto, Portugal. The exceptional amount of rain that fell in Portugal during the past few weeks/months (as well as a dysfunctional drainage system due to the lack of proper maintenance) caused large parts of the Sao Jacinto reserve to flood. Reportedly, the water level has not been this high since 1995. Most of the lower trails around the pond were flooded, making our work very difficult. This is the main entrance to the reserve.

The trail to the field station, with a water level higher than my rubber boots.

Several of the oaks that I sowed near the pond last year were having a hard time too. Most will survive the flood, I suspect.

Following the rains is a massive outbreak of mosquitoes, making our work in the woods almost unbearable.

Due to the large amount of rainfall, surrounding areas currently are interesting for ducks as well, resulting in a relatively low number of ducks in the ponds of the reserve. At the same time the high water level caused the largest traps to largely disappear under water, meaning our trapping efforts were limited during this stay, as we could only operate a few of the smallest traps.
    

Common teals Anas crecca were most abundant; roughly 650 birds. We only managed to capture seven of these, which was a bit of a disappointment.

  

Regardless of the recent rains, the invasive acacia is currently flowering again as never before.

 

The ducks were still getting the attention of the Goshawks Accipiter gentilis. For them the breeding season has started, meaning the male now has to deliver prey to the female. I could enjoy several hunting hawks around the pond, flushing the ducks repeatedly. This made resighting teal saddles fairly easy, as many would otherwise remain hidden in the vegetation.

The puddles attracted large numbers of frogs; in particular Pelophylax (unidentified green frogs) were abundant, more abundant than there were ducks in the reserve.

During this stay I managed to record two new bird species for my São Jacinto reserve list: this Great Cormorant Phalacrocorax carbo was actively hunting and subsequently drying its wings in the pond, and a calling Carrion Crow Corvus corone, which flew over our heads at the field station.