Another very poor day (20 March 2009)

It was a cold day and it became mild in the noon. Then it became rainy in the afternooon. We ringed 13 birds out of 6 species:

Today's birds are:

Bluethroat
Reed warbler
Great tit
Chiffchaff
Yellowhammer
Bearded reedling

A day of new species (19 March 2009)

Today it was very clear and mild during all day. When we came to the station this morning, we had a surprise trapped in the nets. A long-eared owl. We were lucky of raptors today and we caught a marsh harrier later in the day. At the same time a lammergeiger was soaring over our station for about 5 minutes. We also have seen that migration has started and raptors are migrating along Aras valley up to the north.

It was 7 in the morning and 10 degrees in the afternoon and there was almost no wind blowing. It was sunny all day. We ringed 9 birds out of 8 species.

Today's birds are:

Long-eared owl

Marsh harrier

Chifchaff

Bluethroat

Blue tit

Stıonechat

Water pipit

Wren

A foxy day (18 March 2009)

The weather was clear and -3 degrees in the morning and there were very few birds. It was around 8 degrees at the noon and a breeze had just started and became a little cloudy. In the evening it was around 7 degrees. We saw the fox all day and even witnessed him sneaking, getting closer and hunting a ruddy shelduck. Thank God he has not touched our trapped birds on the nets yet, but yet!

We ringed 18 birds out of 5 species and most of them were trapped in the afternoon. We had a surprise we get back home because the water tank of the toilet was leaking water. We fixed and dried the floor for an hour. Thank God the water did not leak in the bedrooms.

Today's birds are:

Yellowhammer

Chiffchaff

Robin

Reed Bunting

Bluethroat

Sunny, windy, but not birdy (17 March 2009)

However it was not as cold as yesterday, this morning we started the day with a cold weather. Then the weather became sunny and in the afternoon it was windy. The fox has not been seen around all day. Today we ringed 13 birds out of 6 species. We set up new nets by the pond behind the ringing trailer. We are hoping to catch some reed species with those nets.

Today's birds are:

Song thrush

Yellowhammer

Corn bunting

Reed bunting

Chiffchaff

Whinchat

A poor day for birds (16 March 2009)

Although first day of the ringing started very well, today (16 March 2009) was very poor for the birds due to very cold weather. It snowed in the morning and melted until noon. Our team could only ring 8 birds out of 6 species in total today. We carry out our ringing activities with the help of volunteer students from Kafkas University. Their names are Mehmet Yılmaz, Ulvi Dardoğan and Mustafa Örki. A fox hanging around the nets was seen in the morning by Sedat. We hope that he does not get used to fast food on the nets. We will keep an eye on him.

Today's birds are:

Robin
Blue tit
Chiffchaff
Isabelline whetear
Song thrush
Yellowhammer

Our station started 2009 ringing activities (15 March 2009)

Aras Bird Research and Education Center started its 2009 bird ringing (banding) season on March 15, 2009, signaling the arrival of spring. Our licensed Turkish ringer Sedat Inak just launched the station yesterday with the help of KuzeyDoga field officer Emrah Çoban and 3 volunteer university students from Kafkas University.

35 mistnets were placed and 21 birds 7 species were trapped for the first day at Aras Station. We will let you know what is happening at Aras Station through this blog day by day. You can get information on how many birds, what species, interesting photos of the species, camp participants, station schedule and other exciting events by visiting our blog.

Species of the first day:

Robin

Bluethroat

Blue tit

Reed bunting

Chiffchaff

Blackbird

Yellowhammer