And Spring Begins!

IC, TC and PML waiting for the right moment to capture the birds. Spring has come a bit rough this year!

Spring has arrived. And so did northward migration and another fieldwork season! For the first capture attempts we used a new and "homemade" woosh net at some high-tide roosts and we managed to capture some dunlins Calidris alpina, sanderlings Calidris alba, ringed plovers Charadrius hiaticula and Kentish plovers Charadrius alexandrinus.

Amongst these we had some recaptures, including two special dunlins captured on the 28th of March at the Brito saltpans: dunlin 3580058, a bird carrying a Swedish ring, and dunlin D018942, which was ringed by some of us at the neighbour Vale Frades saltpans on the 7th of January of 2003! At the moment of capture, this dunlin bird was aged as 5 (Euring code, meaning that the bird was born the previous year), so it is celebrating the 11th anniversary this year! Although impressive, and a really nice recapture information, remember that the longevity record for this species is 28 years and 10 months (see Euring list)!

  

Location of the Brito and Vale de Frades saltpans: two roosts ca. 6 km apart where the same dunlin was captured within 11 years!

 

 

 

 

Dunlin (Calidris alpina) with Swedish ring

TC and CC processing birds at Hortas fieldstation.