Congratulations David!

Last week David submitted his thesis entitled “The use of intertidal areas by foraging waders: constraints on the exploitation of food resources”. The thesis is currently being analysed by the Scientific Council and the viva will take place within a few months. The thesis is composed of 6 nice papers, some of them already out. Congratulations David, very well done!

And still, more ringed birds...

Two more sessions at Samouco and Pancas, and another 90 dunlins marked flying around. Mist nets and ah... “traps” were used with great success. Thanks to the “elite” teams, great job, great mood, and of course great work!


The Brito team




The Pancas team

A nice turnstone...

The curse was broken: a great capture at Brito's salinas!

After some relatively small catches (10-15 per session) at Brito Salinas, we made a FANTASTIC catch, well above our best expectations: more than 100 birds!! We released a few birds straight away from the net, because the team was relatively small (previous sessions undermined our optimism and we didn’t want to bother too many people…). Anyway, the team was superb, always very focused and swift. Some (most welcomed) reinforcements arrived a little later and we ended up by processing 72 birds. One of them had a Spanish ring, it will be interesting to know its story.

This great catch boosted our moral, and provided excellent training to everyone. Excellent discipline, hard work, but also very good humour (especially as the boxes were getting empty!). There are 185 dunlins now tagged in Tagus estuary (a lot of them marked yellow (picric acid) on the breast), so again, any sighting is most welcomed! Anyone in Siberia??

We are still accepting volunteers to learn with and help in our catches!!

FEBRUARY 2009

Cannon-netting at Seixal and Samouco saltpans

Pete Potts, Ruth Croger, Nick Humphrys, Fiona Hoggarth and (last but not least) our friend José Alves offered us an excellent help with some cannon-net catches during their traditional Godwit visit in February 2009. On the 26th February, we caught 113 birds in Samouco saltpans (109 Dunlins Calidris alpina, 2 Curlew sandpiper C. ferruginea and 2 Little stints C. minuta). The next day we went to Seixal roost to catch about 90 birds (7 Dunlins and ca. 80 Redshanks Tringa totanus). There are now over 100 ringed Dunlins in the estuary as well as a few Grey Plovers, and so information on their whereabouts are most welcomed: please do contact us!

A lot of people were involved in the captures and so all the work went very smoothly and efficiently. We ALWAYS welcome everybody regardless of their experience, and so we wish to thank Pete's team and ALL participants for their great help. An excellent team work, thanks a lot everybody!

DECEMBER 2008

First Dunlins (Calidris alpina) and Grey Plovers (Pluvialis squatarola) colour-marked in Samouco

Last friday, 12 of December, we have started the colour-ringing program in order to individually mark dunlins and grey plovers in the Tagus estuary. The first birds were caught with mist nets in the Samouco saltpans, during a ringing session led by Afonso Rocha (EASS - Ringing Station from Salinas do Samouco).

NOVEMBER 2008

Fieldwork is about to start.
Meanwhile, we had the opportunity to colaborate in another shorebird project in the Tagus estuary. In November, José Alves and the team of the Farlington Ringing Group led by Pete Potts have come to the Tagus estuary for the annual capture and colour-ringing of Black-tailed Godwits (Limosa limosa). A record was broken: 66 Black-tailed Godwits caught in a single canon-net shot!

This long term study on the migration strategies and population dynamics of the Icelandic godwits has developed an extensive colour-ringing program with several hundreds of godwits being individually marked throughout the population range. The team invites the active involvement of all birdwatchers in this project which can be achieved by reporting the time and location of any of these colour-ringed godwits. Any valid record (complete combination of colour-rings) will be replied with the complete life-story and details (age and gender) of that same Black-tailed Godwit! Just drop an email to j.alves@uea.ac.uk