Torreira - Sao Jacinto beached bird and mammal transect (February 25, 2015)

Striped dolphin Stenella coeruleoalba # 1 No, a Common dolphin Delphinus delphis




Tail entangled?




Striped dolphin Stenella coeruleoalba #2 No, scientists are still trying to ID this one...




Tail cut off? Carcasses were reported to CRAMQ, who picked them up this morning for investigation. Unfortunate for the Greater Black-backed gulls which had found them first.




Yet another domesticated animal on the transect, a dog.

Finally!! A glass float! With original Japanese oysters attached to it!?

Two rare gulls for Portugal

Iceland gull Larus glaucoides, second winter. Still residing near Murtosa today. I was informed it’s the American subspecies L. g. kumlieni, and it’s the second winter the bird appears at the cow dung rich meadow.




Caspian gull Larus cachinnans, first winter. Seen on two dates in January in the Aveiro region. Possibly the first record of this species for that area. Found by Pedro Moreira.

Last gull rings to be read at the Eirol landfill? (February 17, 2015)

Today the landfill of Eirol got visited by Pedro Moreira and me for another day of gull ring-reading. Beforehand we got informed that certain measures were going to be taken to take care of the gull problem. These measures initiated yesterday. In about half an hour we managed to read four rings, all on Lesser Black-backed Gulls. Then a falconer made its appearance, together with two Peregrine falcons and a gas cannon.

 

Adult male Peregrine falcon.

 

Gas cannon

 

Panic
 

The first panic among the circa 4000 Lesser Black-backed Gulls and 300 Black-headed Gulls was caused by the falconer’s female Peregrine that got flown around the site for a short while. After this it was the gas cannon that made the gulls decide to abandon the site. We were later informed that the falcon had also flown away. Its gps signal indicated it already had made its way to the coast within a few minutes, probably faster than any of the gulls. In the end it was the gas cannon that made the gulls completely abandon the landfill.



Empty landfill...



Peregrine kill, but from Eirol's own falcon.


Regular blog readers will already have gotten used to the presence of a Peregrine falcon on the Eirol landfill (see previous posts). That bird already successfully reduced the number of Black-headed gulls at the site. During the past couple of weeks this now 2nd cy bird had remained faithful to the site. Today we searched for prey remains left behind by that falcon and found remains of another four Black-headed gulls. However, we did not see the bird itself. The last observation of it came from the falconer, who informed us that yesterday, after releasing his own Peregrine, our young falcon came to attack it and defend its feeding ground.

The current bird eradication program is planned to continue for two months. I suspect it will also keep out the Black kites from the landfill, which are supposed to arrive during the second half of February, and have already proven to be successful in reducing gull numbers to zero there during summer.

Green-winged teal and more @ São Jacinto (January 20 - 21)

Eurasian wigeons Anas penelope were abundant...



Eurasian teals or Common teals Anas crecca were even more abundant...



And among these there was an uncommon teal, which ended up in our captures: a 2nd cy male Green-winged teal Anas carolinensis, a North American species.



A single Common pochard Aythya ferina.



Perhaps the biggest surprise was the presence of a sleepy female Lesser Scaup Aythya affinis, another North American species and the second individual to show up at the pateira. We all remember this one, of course: http://btoringing.blogspot.pt/2014/11/portuguese-ringed-lesser-scaup-in-wales.html

Eirol landfill, Portugal (January 12, 2015)

One of two adult Herring gulls Larus argentatus present at the site.




Herring gull number two.




Ringed Mediterranean gull Ichthyaetus melanocephalus, from Véron, les Prés Pendus, Yonne, FRANCE 48,07N 3,17E. One of two birds observed.




A Pied wagtail Motacilla alba yarrellii (top) and white wagtail M. a. alba (bottom).




The only signs of the young Peregrine falcon Falco peregrinus that resided at the landfill for some time (see previous posts) were 10 older remains of Black-headed Gulls Chroicocephalus ridibundus…

...and, remarkably, the remains of a 1st winter Lesser Black-backed Gull Larus fuscus. Not a common prey for a Peregrine.

Ringing garden birds in Zwolle, the Netherlands (January 4, 2015)

 

Colour-ringed Tree sparrow

With Jan van Dijk (Stichting Avifauna Zwolle). 32 birds, 9 species, one recapture:


Great tit Parus major 10

Eurasian blue tit Parus caeruleus 9 (1)

European robin Erithacus rubecula 1

Common blackbird Turdus merula 3

Goldcrest Regulus regulus 1

Dunnock Prunella modularis 2

Eurasian jay Garrulus glandarius 1

House sparrow Passer domesticus 2

Eurasian tree sparrow Passer montanus 2



Eurasian jay



Goldcrest


Happy 2015!

Peregrine Falcon at the Eirol landfill: the story continues (December 3, 2014)

During recent visits to the landfill we were pleased to see the immature Peregrine Falcon Falco peregrinus (or hybrid?) was still around, putting some pressure on the Black-headed Gull Chroicocephalus ridibundus population. Recently, many new gulls have arrived from the north. The number of Black-headed Gulls increased to about 500 birds. Many of the new birds will have been unaware of the falcon’s presence. This will make them easy prey for the Peregrine, which is still operating from the top of the same Eucalyptus tree, aiming for the gulls that come to take a bath in the ditch below the tree. The ground around this ditch is currently littered with the remains of at least 9 Black-headed Gulls.










Among the new gulls that recently arrived at the site was this Black-headed Gull from Poland (White THPP).




The single Common Gull Larus canus were recorded on December 3, 2014.




It would be interesting to see how the Black-headed Gulls will deal with the presence of the falcon this winter. Since I’ve never visited Eirol in December there’s no data available about the number of gulls present at the site around this time. At the time the Taboeira landfill was still operational, during four visits in December 2011, I counted between 2500 and 5000 Black-headed Gulls...