Today is labor day. However it is officially an off day here in Turkey, we kept ringing at Aras Station :-) Today the weather was a little cloudy and partially rainy in the afternoon. We ringed 30 birds out of 13 species. We ringed the first garden warbler of the season this year.
We finished the month of April here at Aras station with 5 ringers from Kenya, UK, Netherlands and Turkey. Today it was a nice day and we ringed 42 birds out of 17 species.
Today was a maginificient day of ringing because we had the most numbers of the birds since we started at Aras station this season. We ringed 99 birds out 18 species. First red-backed shrikes of the season arrived at the station and unfortunately they already killed two birds in the net, too.
Today it was warm all day and we had really good numbers of birds. We ringed 60 birds out 20 species.
We ringed 27 birds out of 11 species. The weather was warm all day.
Today we ringed 25 birds out of 11 species.
Today we again ringed less birds 25 out of 12 species due to bad weather.
Today two of our new volunteer from Netherlands joined us. Their names are Arnold and Luc. Arnold is an experienced ringer whereas Luc is a trainee. Out Turkish volunteer Fatih and Tuğçe left the station as well.
Today is national sovereignty and children's day in Turkey and it is 86th anniversary year of the establishment of the Turkish parliament. Then founder of Turkey Mustafa Kemal Atatürk gifted this day to world children and it is being celebrated as children's day.
Today we still had bad weather and we could only ring 12 birds out of 6 species.
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 :-)
