Cleaning up the place for science sake

Almost forgot I kept 'm in storage, but thankfully the scientific community also noticed the value of the 883 moulted feathers collected from below an unusual Barn Swallow winter roost, occurring in the streets of Aveiro (Portugal) some winters ago. They´ll fly from Paris to Canada in the near future, for stable isotope analysis, resulting in another publication in the coming year? But the Andorinhas these feathers belonged to, where are they now?

Snackbar "De Veluwe"

We´re open on Sundays!

Urban refugees

A neighbour destroyed their nest just before any eggs were laid. But those eggs were coming and the couple found refuge on our balcony. No time to build a nest. Around here, if not disturbed, exposed eggs like these usually get predated by Magpie Pica pica or Carrion crow Corvus corone.

Filtered Flamingos

While we were in the way

Total lunar eclipse July 27/28, from a Dutch dike, through some dirty lenses, while we were surrounded by a million mosquitoes.

Gulls on solar energy (Update on the roof nesters)

Today a visit to the top floor revealed that both Black-headed Gulls Chroicocephalus ridibundus and Common terns Sterna hirundo have large young. A small number of Black-headed gull chicks has fledged by now (I ran into one in the street below a couple of days ago). The solar panels seem to provide a useful shelter to the chicks. The Herring gull pair from the previous post (no solar panels present) lost all its chicks shortly after hatching.

Roof nesting gulls and terns in Amsterdam

Possibly the first known colony of Black-headed Gulls Chroicocephalus ridibundus on a roof in Amsterdam (Hoofddorppleinbuurt, 5 June 2018). The total number of nests remains unknown as they nest there between solar panels. A best guess... about 10 nests??  (update: turns out they're already nesting 'in good numbers' on roofs in the Westhaven area (annually?) and Amsterdam Zuidoost (2 pairs in 2015, thanks Ruud!).



About three pairs of Common terns Sterna hirundo nest among the Black-headed Gulls.






Herring Gulls Larus argentatus (photo above) and Lesser black-backed Gulls Larus fuscus also nest in the area, but their nests are more widespread and difficult to detect.