Today we had a good warm spring day around 13 degrees all day. The most surprising event of the day was ringing three common buzzards. The number of the species and the number of the birds we ring is increasing day by day. Today we ringed 36 birds out of 15 species.
Today it was clear and shiny around 13 degrees and we got very good numbes of birds today. Since Jukka left, we are 3 ringers from now on. Sedat, Richard and James. Not only the number but also the number of the species increasd today and today we ringed 5 new species at Aras Station for this season. We ringed 43 birds out of 14 species.
Today we had very few birds due to bad weather of clouds and rain at 8 degrees al day. We observed a short-toed eagle migrating, bearded tits right behind our trailer, an osprey hunting in the pond and little crake. Today we ringed 11 birds out of 10 species.
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 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 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
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.
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 :-)
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 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.
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.
