Photos from the island Rottumerplaat (June)

European honey buzzard sheltering for bad weather (photo taken from our kitchen).  

Barrel jellyfish 

Herring gull nest containing two eggs. 

Common shelducks with young 

 Sea holly Eryngium maritimum

 

Middleton Island..? 

Marsh harrier chicks, of one of our four breeding pairs. 

Photos from the island Rottumerplaat (April - May)

View towards the southeast 

Six Eurasian Collared Doves Streptopelia decaocto 

Red-breasted flycatcher Ficedula parva, on migration 

Four-egg clutch of Eurasian oystercatchers Haematopus ostralegus 

Herring Gull Larus argentatus three-egg clutch, including one dwarf egg. 

 Barn swallows Hirundo rustica

Common Crane Grus grus, before spending a few minutes on the island.  

Beached European hare Lepus europaeus  

Dune erosion 

Eurasian spoonbill Platalea leucorodia colony

White-tailed Eagle Haliaeetus albicilla 

 Waders, seals and the Eemshaven industrial area on a clear day...

Photos from the island Rottumerplaat

Year of the Sturnus vulgaris

One of the first two colour-ringed Common Starling Sturnus vulgaris today at the bird ringing station Hessenpoort, in Zwolle, The Netherlands. Ringed by Jan van Dijk.

In The Netherlands, Commong Starlings are rapidly declining. The reason for their decline is poorly understood. Sovon (Dutch Centre for Field Ornithology) and the Dutch branch of Bird Life, announced 2014 to be the “Year of the Starling”. These rings can be donated to ringers/starlings by the public: https://www.vogelbeschermingshop.nl/uitgelicht-natuurcadeau?product_id=827 They’re 8 Euro’s each, but should last a starling’s life time.

Survey of beached birds and mammals: São Jacinto – Torreira, Portugal. March 27, 2014

British-ringed Atlantic Puffin

Yet unidentified dolphin

Latest peregrine nest box in Zwolle (The Netherlands) gets occupied!

Recently I devoted a blog entry to the developments of the Peregrine Falcon Falco peregrinus population of Zwolle, The Netherlands. On February 18, 2014, I helped Jan van Dijk (Raptor Workinggroup Zwolle) with installing a new nest box on a transmission tower in the north of the city, where a potential breeding pair has been observed for about a year now (http://www.timvannus.blogspot.nl/2014/02/the-peregrine-eyries-of-zwolle.html).Today Jan informed us the birds already accepted the box (and not the top of the tower's staircase) and that there is a lot more going on with the Peregrines in Zwolle: http://ringert34.blogspot.pt/2014/03/toppie.html

Incubating adult female Peregrine falcon in the new nest box in the north of Zwolle (photo: Jan van Dijk).

Picking up Puffins on the first beached bird and mammal survey between Sao Jacinto and Torreira

On March 14 2014, a survey of beached birds and mammals was conducted along a 10 km long transect between Sao Jacinto and Torreira, by Pedro Moreira and me. The transect included 5 km of closed off beach belonging to the Sao Jacinto reserve, who gave us permission for this survey. The idea was to get an impression of what species and their numbers had been washing up on the beach along the northwestern coastline of Portugal during the previous months. None of this 10 km of beach gets regularly cleaned, making it a very suitable length of coastline for this study.

Another motivation for this activity had been the reports of large numbers of dead seabirds that washed up on beaches in France and Spain, after the ‘wreck’ that occurred earlier in the year in the Bay of Biscay due to continuing bad weather conditions (See http://www.sott.net/article/274701-Update-Tens-of-thousands-of-dead-seabirds-have-now-washed-up-in-Bay-of-Biscay and http://www.timvannus.blogspot.nl/2014/03/dead-british-seabirds-are-finding-their.html).

 The 10 km transect we walked from Sao Jacinto to Torreira.

Results

Which of these birds died in the wreck that occurred in the beginning of the year remains difficult to determine, with the absence of earlier survey results. We suspect this had been the case with all of the puffins that were found. Even the few of those that we found on the recent tide lines showed signs these had been floating in the ocean for a while. All of the Lesser Black-backed Gulls had died recently and these were probably all local birds. Also the Common Guillemot and one or two Razorbills appeared a bit too fresh to have come all the way from the Bay of Biscay.

Beached Atlantic Puffins.

 

 Three Lesser Black-backed Gulls and two Razorbills.

 Great Northern Loon.

Unidentified Seahorse...

...and a coconut.