My nearest neighbours

Feral pigeons Columba livia domestica are zen as ****.

New balcony birds

Two White storks Ciconia ciconia inspecting a potential place for their nest... in the heart of Amsterdam (De Pijp, March 30, 2018).

´The Russian bear in Amsterdam´

Something with the moon tonight...

Super Blue Moon above the city.

"Here you can think what you want."

Hibernating Amsterdam parakeets

Ring-necked parakeets Psittacula krameri visiting a potential nesting cavity today, in a wall in Amsterdam Oost. Reportedly, it were Great spotted woodpeckers Dendrocopos major that constructed the cavity first, but it was later taken over by the parakeets. Whether any of these bred there this year remains unknown. For Amsterdam there are only two other reports of Ring-necked’s occupying holes in walls (here the species nests in tree cavities), but breeding did not get confirmed. This one fits at least three parakeets. Perhaps they find some warmth together this way; it’s currently cold as **** here and much too early for breeding. (Thanks Frank!)

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).

Ring-necked Parakeets and some raptor action in Amsterdam North, The Netherlands (January 15, 2014)

Preceding the upcoming national count of roosting Ring-necked Parakeets Psittacula krameri, yesterday’s afternoon Ruud Vlek and I visited the known parakeet roost in Amsterdam North. After crossing ‘The IJ’ by ferry and before meeting up with Ruud, I inspected ‘Overhoeks’ (former Shell headquarter) for the presence of Peregrine Falcons Falco peregrinus. At about 15:30 a single Peregrine appeared, circling above the tower. A few minutes later it perched on the tower’s concrete overhang. The bird was obviously in a hunting modus and flew off towards the west, away from my location. At 15:45, on a second walk around the tower, prey feathers were flying off the roof, indicating a prey had been caught.

Carrion Crow Corvus corone, below the tower.

After meeting up with Ruud at dusk and our arrival at the roost, there were few parakeets present. But large numbers came in only shortly after, forming pre-roost gatherings in surrounding trees. At that time we counted 722 Ring-necked Parakeets.

Based on our past experiences at the roost site, we know that the gathering of the parakeets not only attracts our interest, but also that of several raptor species. At 16:52, just when the first few hundred birds had settled in the roost trees (where we were hoping to eventually conduct a total count) a Goshawk Accipiter gentilis appeared, diving straight into this group of birds. What followed was an explosion of parakeets, which all evacuated the roost site. We found back some of these birds in scattered groups in other trees in the area. These groups were then only photographed, but while doing this a number of birds returned from their hideouts and joined the groups that had already been inspected by us. At that point it became too dark for a recount.

Today I analyzed this last round of photos and these show the presence of at least 532 parakeets. Marking every visible parakeet in Paint and counting the dots is one of the preferred methods, but it can only be done when the photos allow it. Due to distance and parakeet density, on the second photo it got too difficult to distinguish all individual birds, so I probably missed a few there. Our first count (722 Ring-necked Parakeets) will be the result of yesterday’s action. I hope things will go easier on Sunday, the day of the national count.