BIRDING RINGING AT CASARES
WEATHER; hot and sunny all day, 29C
Yes we are back in our summer home in Gaucin and luckily we are missing the uncomfortable heat wave in the rest of Europe, so far!! Temperatures here in the mountains have been around 25 - 29C with a nice a breeze.
This morning (Saturday 29TH) I visited my friends Penny and John Hale who have a finca on a nice plot of land near Casares, they are bird ringers and moth trappers, today they have invited another pair of ringers, Robin and Julia, to help John with the ringing of local patch birds and some migrant species, all the nets are in the scrub on John and Penny's land.
A view from Penny and John's terrace.
Over the last few days Robin and Julia have captured and ringed 22 species of birds including Melodious Warblers, Rock Sparrows, Sardinian Warblers, Blackcaps, Blue Rock Thrush, Serin, Cir;l Bunting and many common garden species.
Another view showing the pool and some of the scrub which consists of wild olive, carob tree and cistus
Today it was quite warm and very still and after a very clear night not many birds were around. Between 7:30 and 11:30am Robin and Julie caught 33 birds, two of which were Melodious Warblers. They have caught 7 different Melodious Warblers this week, most of them are juveniles and we assumed that they were moving down towards the coast in preparation for migration south to Africa. Most of them had begun to store fat for their long migration journey.
A juvenile Melodious Warbler showing fresh, undamaged, primary feathers
Overhead there are always Griffon Vultures in sight, I also saw a distant Peregrine Falcon and a family of Blue Rock Thrushes were up on the rock face adjacent to the finca.
The ubiquitous Griffon Vulture was ever-present during my stay.
It was a lovely morning, meeting Robin and Julia, seeing some smart birds in the hand and enjoying Penny's coffee and toast sitting on their terrace. Ah, how nice. Of course I could be back in the Uk mowing the lawn etc, I think not!!!