An interesting observation of Arctic Skua (16 April 2009)

Today it was cloudy and partially rainy. We made a very interesting record here in Aras Station. We saw an arctic skua. Not only our Finnish ringer Jukka but also our British ringer Richard identified it and we also took some pictures however they are not in very good quality. Besides arctic skua, we observed 1 great snipe, 1 griffon vulture, 1 bearded tit, 2 redshanks, 1 booted eagle, 1 egyptian vulture, 1 merlin, 1 golden eagle, 1 black stork, 6 Alpine swifts. Today we ringed 11 birds out of 5 species.
Today's birds are:

Chiffchaff
Bluethroat
House sparrow
Lesser whitethroat
Ortolan

Yellow wagtails arrived (15 April 2009)

Today it was cloudy an rainy. It was around 8 degrees all day. We had quiet a lot of yellow wagtails. However it was a rainy day, we had good observations such as griffon vulture, lesser spotted eagle, golden eagle, sandgrouse, red-footed falcon and black stork. Today we ringed 24 birds out of 10 species.

Today's birds are:

Chiffchaff
Bluethroat
Pendilune tit
Lesser whitethroat
Song thrush
Yellow wagtail
Redstart
Savi's warbler
Thrush nightingale

Hakuna Matata (14 April 2009)

Today our volunteer Serhat Cacekli from Koc University left. When leaving, he sang a Kenyan song called "Hakuna Matata (No problem)" that James taught us. Our British ringer Richard Taylor joined us, too. Now there are one Finnish, one Kenyan, one British and one Turkish ringer at Aras Station. It was warm all day. The number of vultures hanging around our carcass increased and we also saw some egyptian vultures, too.

It was cloudy and around 8 degrees. Today we saw 4 black and 1 griffon vultures around the carcass. We also had good migration including 15 Montagu's harriers, 2 pallid harriers and 1 black stork. We ringed 11 birds out of 5 species.

Today's birds are:

Chiffchaff
Bluethroat
Siberian stonechat
Whinchat
Yellow wagtail

Scops Owl (13 April 2009)

It was warm all day and we had the first scops owl of this season. We had a barbecue party in the afternoon because our volunteer Serhat Cacekli would be leaving in the following day. We observed the osprey flying over the ponds again. Our carcass worked out today and we saw three black vultures soaring over it. We ringed 25 birds out of 11 species. Our two new volunteers from Kafkas University Biology Department joined us today. Their names are Fatih Mahmudoğlu and Tuğçe Kara. They are very experienced about the work done in Aras station because they participated in our project more than a month last spring.

Today's birds are:

Chiffchaff
Bluethroat
Cetti's warbler
Pendilune tit
Song thrush
Willow warbler
Robin
Siberian stonechat
Little whitethroat
Sedge Warbler

11 species in one day (12 April 2009)

It was again very cold in the morning and got warmer in the noon. Since we started, we had the most diverse day of the season. We not only observed, but also ringed the first black cap of the season. 5 professors and associate professors from Kafkas University Veterinary Faculty visited us at the station and our ringer Sedat Inak gave them brief information about what is being done in the station. He also showed ringing process of a bird as demonstration. We ringed 21 birds out of 11 species. We observed ravens and magpies around the carcass we left yesterday, but not vultures yet. We also saw an osprey catching a fish over the ponds around our station. Today it was an important day for our Finnish ringer Jukka because he ringed his first house sparrow :-)

Today's birds are:

Chiffchaff

Bluethroat

Pendilune tit

Swallow

Siberian stonechat

Starling

Black cap

Great tit

Whinchat

Water pipit

House sparrow

A very good day of new species (11 April 2009)

It was very cold in the morning and it even snowed until noon. In the afternoon it was very sunny and the snow melted. Today is one of the best days of ringing since we started since March 15. We also saw 3 black vultures soaring over our station. Sedat and Onder drove to Tuzluca for shopping and saw a dog carcass hit by a car on the way. They carried it on the other side of Aras river just opposite of our station to attract vultures. The carcass is visible from the station and even magpies started to come today. We also had a very new species of Aras station and ringed a wood pigeon.The other interesting bird of the day was a male sparrowhawk that we ringed. We ringed 30 birds out of 10 species.

Today's birds are:

Chiffchaff

Bluethroat

Cetti's warbler

Pendilune tit

Song thrush

Willow warbler

Redstart

Lesser whitethroat

Sparrowhawk

Wood pigeon

Bluethroat Shower (10 April 2009)

It was very cold in the morning and got warmer in the afternoon. Today we had a lot of bluethroats all day. The wind which occurs in the evening did not let us have many birds. We ringed 23 birds out of 5 species today.

Today's birds are:

Bluethroat
Cetti's warbler
Swallow
Siberian stonechat
Starling

James arrived (9 April 2009)

Today our Kenyan ringer James Kuria Ndungu arrived at Aras Bird Station and started to work with other colleagues in the station. He previously worked with Dr. Çağan Şekercioğlu in Ethihopia. Our volunteer Muhammed Karslı left the station. It was a warm day all day long. We ringed 17 birds out of 7 species. We had the first jacksnipe of the season.

Today's birds are:

Chiffchaff
Bluethroat
Pendilune tit
Kingfisher
Swallow
Jacksnipe
Siberian stonechat

Swallows arrived (8 April 2009)

It was warm and clear before the noon. It got cloudy and rainy in the afternoon. Today we ringed the first swallows of this season. It seems that swallow shower will start in a few days. We ringed 22 birds out of 7 species.

Today's birds are:

Chifchaff
Bluethroat
Song thrush
Savi's warbler
Kingfisher
Swallow
Moustached warbler

Savi's warbler (7 April 2009)

Today it was rainy and cloudy around 10 degrees so that we did not have many birds at the station, but we caught the first savi's warbler of the season. We ringed 12 birds out of 6 species.

Today's birds are:

Chiffchaff
Bluethroat
Robin
Goldfinch
Redstart
Savi's warbler

Wild boar (6 April 2009)

It was a warm day around 17 degrees and there was no wind. We saw a very big wild boar when we are doing the last check. We had the second penduline tit of the season today. We ringed 20 birds out of 4 species.

Today's birds are:

Chiffchaff
Bluethroat
Song thrush
Penduline tit

Good migration (5 April 2009)

However we did not ring many birds today, there was a very good migration during the day. It was clear and around 13 degrees. We observed 83 common buzzards, 8 black kites, 1 steppe eagle, 1 lesser spotted eagle and 3 egyptian vultures migrating over our station. We ringed 11 birds out of 5 species today. We trapped the first wryneck of the season today.

Today's birds are:

Chiffchaff
Bluethroat
Cetti's warbler
Water rail
Wryneck

Two new species & two new volunteers (4 April 2009)

Today it was a clear and warm day around 15 degrees. We not only had two new species but also had two new volunteers Muhammed Kekeş from Kars and Hakkı Serhat Cacekli from Istanbul. We trapped the first kingfisher of the season. The other new species was Cetti's warbler. We ringed 23 birds out of 9 species.

Today's birds are:

Chiffchaff

Bluethroat

Reed Bunting

Bearded Reedling

Great tit

Dunnock

Siberian stonechat

Cetti's warbler

Kingfisher

Best day ever since we started (3 April 2009)

However it was cloudy today, it was quite warm. It was the best day ever since we started ringing including one march harries and one sparrowhawk. Wind started in the afternoon and got cold from 11 to 6 degrees. We observed 1 steppe eagle, 33 common buzzard, 1 black kite, 1 black vulture, 1 griffon vulture, 1 egyptian vulture, 1 pallid harrier, 1 black-winged stilt. We ringed 39 birds out of 8 species.

Today's birds are:

Chiffchaff

Robin

Bluethroat

Marsh harrier

Sparrowhawk

Bearded Reedling

Water pipit

Willow warbler

Warming up (2 April 2009)

Today it was a very warm day and it was around 17 degrees. We observed a huge volume of migration of mainly raptors in the Aras valley. We observed 40 black kites, 1 golden eagle, 25 sparrowhawks, 1 Pallid harrier and 6 alpine swifts. We ringed 19 birds out of 6 species. Jukka got used to the station today and had an orientation by Sedat.

Today's birds are:

Chiffchaff
Robin
Bluethroat
Yellowhammer
Corn bunting
Beared Reedling

Jukka joined us today (1 April 2009)

We have been fooled by three wild boars hanging around nets all day since today is April Fools Day. Our Finnish volunteer Jukka Hintikka joined us in the afternoon. It was quite warm, clerar and there was no wind. It was around 17 degrees all day.

Since March 15, 2009 until April we have ringed 230 birds out of 33 species.
and today we ringed 13 birds out of 6 species.

Today's birds are:

Chiffchaff
Bluethroat
Robin
Water pipit
Bearded reedling
Redstart

Last day of March (31 March 2009)

However the weather was clear and warm, we did not have many birds today. We observed a black vulture flying over our station. Our volunteer Cumali left the station. Sedat and Sezer are running the station from now on. We ringed 8 birds out of 4 species today.

Today's birds are:

Chiffchaff
Bluethroat
Song thrush
Moorhen

Two new species trapped (30 March 2009)

Today it was cloudy and rainy so that it was not a very good day of ringing. But we had two new species of this season. One is sparrowhawk and the other is redstart. Today our new volunteer Sezer Akkurt from Kafkas University Veterinary Faculty joined us. We ringed 9 birds out of 5 species today.

Today's birds are:

Chiffchaff

Bluethroat

Robin

Yellowhammer

Redstart

Sparrowhawk

First penduline tit of the season (29 March 2009)

Today is a very important day for Turkey because we are electing our local municipal leaders throughout Turkey. It was cloudy and rainy all day and we could have only 18 birds out of 10 species. We also observed two lammergaigers migrating over our station. There were only Sedat and Cumali at the station today and Emrah left in the noon for Kars.

Today's birds are:

Chiffchaff
Robin
Bluethroat
Yellowhammer
Stonechat
Siberian Stonechat (S. maura)
Song thrush
Dunnock
Sedge warbler
Penduline tit

News species are arriving (28 March 2009)

However it was a rainy and cloudy day around 10 degrees all day, spring shows herself day by day and the variety of species has been changing. We had 5 new species ringed today. Emrah came today in order to provide the logistics of the station. We also observed some migration including 65 black kites and 5 hen harriers. We einged 20 birds out of 7 species.

Today's birds are:

Chiffchaff
Bluethroat
Water rail
Water pipit
Meadow pipit
Pied flycatcher
Sedge Warbler