Spring Fieldwork is Over

Spring fieldwork is over. It ended a couple of weeks ago and now we are preparing the material for stable isotope analysis. After ca. 20 field trips and over 400 waders captured (and a few recaptured with a foreign ring), we gathered hundreds of samples, not only from birds but also of the different components that compose the estuarine food web. It will tell us interesting and important information about the migration strategies of the birds using the Tagus estuary on route to their northern breeding grounds.

Long but cheerful nights and days were passed in the field, with too much mosquito bites also collected. Ask Pedro! Less appealing were the days in the lab (joking! although it is true ; ), but that is part of the process and fundamental to have meaningful data sets.

We hope to have preliminary results in the next weeks. For now, we share a few images of this spring.

Enjoy! 

The core team of Tagus estuay fieldwork

Ringing by day. Dunlins and Ringed Plover.

Ringing by nigth. Black-winged Stilts, Grey Plover, Little Egret and Bar-tailed Godwit.

 

Expedition to the Bijagós Archipelago, Guinea-Bissau

On the 12th of January, Lisbon airport was highly crowded, and the Invisible Links team was there, anxiously waiting to check-in on the flight to Guinea-Bissau.

That was the start of the three week trip to the Bijagós Archipelago, the second most important wintering area for waders in the eastern Atlantic. As it happened in previous expeditions to Banc d'Arguin (Mauritania) and Sidi-Moussa (Morocco) the main goal was to collect biological samples representative from the Bijagós’ trophic  web, so, not only from waders, but also their prey, the prey of their prey, and so on! (take a look here and here). Some of the team members, using their feet, even “collected” and transported to Portugal a couple of Djigan, the native name of what scientists call Tunga penetrans. The females of this species burrow into exposed skin of mammals and feed there while the eggs develop!

The first week was mainly dedicated to explore the area: where birds roost, possible catching sites, places to collect invertebrates, etc. In addition, some members of the team also participated in the World Waterbird Count, along with technicians from Instituto para a Biodiversidade e Áreas Protegidas da Guiné Bissau and Gabinete de Planificação Costeira da Guiné Bissau as well as other experienced ornithologists from Europe. 

Beside the long walks across the forest, the recognition of the place included to travel on very comfortable (or not!) bikes from one end to another of Bubaque island (an unforgettable 30 km ride, they say). 

For part of the time the team was reinforced with two Guinea-native ornithologists - Hamilton Monteiro and Mohamed Henriques – whom, by sharing their expertise on birds and making the contacts with local populations, proved to be crucial for the success of the expedition! The gang moved a lot between and within islands to accomplish all the pre-established goals. Those travels were not always easy to arrange, but they managed to perform numerous nights of catching and ringing in several different places. Regardless all the difficulties the team was able to collect over 200 samples (almost half from birds!), which are now getting ready for analysis.

 During some of the bird catching sessions the team also captured (undesired) mammals, in some nights as many as birds! Fortunately, they did not catch other big mammals also present in the tidal flats during the day (see the picture below).

 

Apart from the work the team still had time for birdwatching, and managed to observe a large number of new and colorful species (once that was the first time in Guinea-Bissau for the most). Plus, they made new friends, as Helena, a kind young little girl that talks a lot! She is the granddaughter of Dora, the owner of the hotel (Casa Dora) where the team stayed for a bunch of nights. It is a very nice hotel! Part of the team departed a few days before the end of the expedition, which was a pity because they did not get the taste of Bissau night life at the X-bar!

 text: Camilo Carneiro

photos: Teresa Catry & Camilo Carneiro

New expedition to Banc d'Arguin Nov/Dec 2013

As it happened last winter, I joined a NIOZ expedition to the Parc Nacional du Banc d’Arguin (PNBA). This time, the five hours between flights at Mohamed V airport (Casablanca) went much smoother as I met a Portuguese birdwatcher, allowing a very nice and long chat. He left Lisbon in the same flight, but he was heading Gambia for a bird week!

The Dutch team arrived just before the flight to Nouakchott. Pierrick Bocher, a Professor at the Université de La Rochelle also joined the team.

After a short night at the Hotellerie Rachad, a good breakfast, the shopping and bureaucratic work, we left Nouakchott towards Iwik. The first afternoon and next morning were dedicated to make the field station inhabitable: clean everything, wash kitchenware, store food, et cetera. Then the work started. My mission was to reinforce the tasks carried by the Invisible Links team last winter (see http://www.migratagis.blogspot.pt/2013/03/expeditions-to-banc-darguin-mauritania.html), i.e., collect more samples!

Although I had my own work, getting bird samples (mainly toenails) was dependent on the effort made by the NIOZ team to capture birds. Of course I helped to raise that effort and altogether we managed to achieve very good catches! Within  all captured birds, we had quite a number of recaptures, including birds ringed in Europe (along the East-Atlantic Flyway) and some recaptures of colour ringed birds, allowing replacement of old worn rings.

Sampling invertebrates at Baie d'Aouatif

 Apart from work, and rather unexpectedly, I managed to add a new species to my bird list: the Black-crowned Sparrow Lark Eremopterix nigriceps. This species was never spotted by the NIOZ team in the peninsula in previous years, but this winter several birds were present! I also managed to have a glimpse of what I think it could be a Cape hare Lepus capensis!

It was “mooie”, and I think it is fair enough to claim that the mission was accomplished!

Camilo Carneiro

Sunset at Poste d'Iwik

NEW RESEARCH FELLOWSHIP 
(November 2013)

In the scope of the project "Invisible Links: unveiling origins of migratory waders using biogeochemical markers" a new call is open for a Master Research Fellowship.

Job description

Main research and tasks: i) participation in ringing sessions and bird sampling; ii) participation in the sampling of estuarine biota, namely water, sediment, plants, invertebrates, etc; iii) participation in bird census; iv) participation in data compilation and data analysis; v) participation in laboratory work, namely invertebrate identification and sample preparation for stable isotope analysis; vi) participation in bird captive experiments in Monsanto. Fieldwork will be carried mainly at the Tagus estuary (Lisboa), but there may be a need for participation in work in western Africa (Guinea-Bissau or Mauritania).

Host institution: Museu Nacional de História Natural e da Ciênica and Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa

Fellowship duration: 3 + 4 months, starting on the 1st of December 2013. Candidates should send a (max. 2 page) motivation letter and a CV (max. 4 pages, with grades) to teresa.catry(at)gmail.com until the 15th of November.

More informations available at http://www.fc.ul.pt/concursos?id=692.

Dunlins' resightings from Banc d'Arguin, Mauritania

Last January, we extended our dunlin colour-ringing program to Banc d'Arguin, Mauritania, one of the most important wintering areas for this species. Dunlins were colour ringed with a combination of 3 standard colour rings plus one blue flag (instead of the green flag used at the Tagus estuary, Portugal). Despite the low number of birds marked during this first expedition, we have already 2 resightings! 

One of the birds, WO-BfR, was captured by Hugh Hinsley in Cuinabunag-Benbecula (Western Isles, Scotland) in early May. The other one, GW-BfR, was spotted by Geoffrey Hunt in Ballylongford, Kerry (Ireland) by the end of July.

 

 

 

Camilo and Pedro colour-ringing a dunlin at Banc d'Arguin, Mauritania

Foraging dunlins at the mudflats of Banc d'Arguin, Mauritania

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.

 

Expeditions to Banc d'Arguin, Mauritania 

December 2012 and January 2013

The winter 2012/2013 has been a mark in our long-term shorebird projects. In the scope of the new project Invisible Links we started to broaden the geographic borders of our study areas and headed for southern wintering areas within the East-Atlantic Flyway: Mauritania and Morocco.

The Banc d'Arguin stands on the African Atlantic coast, where the ocean and the desert meet. The coastal area comprises shallow coastal areas with extensive mudflats covered by seagrass, small islands, coastal swamps and sand dunes. The Banc d'Arguin is one of the most important areas in the world for migratory waders, holding approximately 2 million birds!

The main goals of the two expeditions were to (1) sample the several components of the trophic web to study its functioning through stable isotope analysis, (2) sample wader toenails to assess their isotopic signatures and describe a characteristic and reference signal for Banc d'Arguin, (3) improve the knowledge on the diet and foraging behaviour of small waders, with particular focus on dunlins and sanderlings.

Sampling invertebrates at Banc d'Arguin

Sorting invertebrate samples at the Iwik field station

 Our expeditions to Banc d'Arguin gave us the opportunity to expand the Dunlin colour-ringing program started in 2008 at the Tagus estuary. The help of the NIOZ team was crucial during night captures. Dunlins were colour ringed with a combination of 3 standard colour rings plus one blue flag ring.

Colour-marked dunlin (Calidris alpina)

January is also time for the annual waterbird count leaded by PNBA (Parc National du Banc d'Arguin). We joined the PNBA staff to the islands of Niroumi and Arel to count thousands of waders that use this islands to rest during high tide.

Integrating the PNBA staff team to perform annual waterbird counts at Banc d'Arguin