Second Week at Kvismaren

There is just way too much to say, and I could not possibly find the time to write down everything I learned. (Nor would anyone want to read all the minutiae, I reckon!) So here are a myriad of bad to decent-quality photos from my second (and last) week at Kvismare Bird Station. I hope the explanations in the captions will give an impression of the week's highlights. I can confidently claim that I am hooked on ringing as of now, and will gladly try to improve the skills I've just begun to develop as opportunities may arise. It feels like I added a whole new dimension to appreciating birds! Now when out birding in the field, I tend to look more carefully at even the common birds and enjoy the plumage nuances like the stage of molt, for example, in addition to studying the more common "jizz" stuff. 

I had the chance to completely "process" many birds on the last 3 days of my stay, and here is a list of the 20 species I ringed, weighed, fat- and PJM-scored, aged and sexed (when possible) and released successfully:

Reed Warbler, Sedge Warbler, Marsh Warbler, Willow Warbler, Blackcap, Icterine Warbler, Garden Warbler, Common Whitethroat, Lesser Whitethroat, Tree Pipit, Red-backed Shrike, Great Tit, Blue Tit, Marsh Tit, Coal Tit, Bearded Reedling, Penduline Tit, Nuthatch, Yellowhammer, Reed Bunting.

And the additional 6 species I was at least able to extract from the net or hold/release over the two-week stay:

(European) Robin, Blackbird, Thrush Nightingale, Barn Swallow, Great Reed Warbler, and...a Bluethroat!

Good birding!

Monday, Aug 19, took the 3pm bus the nearby church to Örebro (~30 min), and then was picked up by a friend with a friend, who had just driven ~2 hrs from Stockholm, and together we traveled another 2.5 hrs to find a bird that VERY thankfully was still hanging around: an adult Black-winged Kite (Elanus caeruleus) from Spain! Once considered conspecific with White-tailed Kite in North America and the Black-shouldered Kite of Australia. The main difference is the wing-tail length relation on perched birds (with closed wings): for Black-winged the wings project beyond tail tip a little, while for White-tailed the tail projects beyond tips of longest primaries.

Small sampling of the 900+ (Common) Cranes (Grus grus) spread across this field. As many as 15,000 migrate through Central Sweden in the fall!

Roe Deer (Capreolus capreolus)

Löten, Rysjön at Kvismare: Great migration watching point: water full of Greylag Geese at the moment (Bean Geese in October I heard), and the wet fields alongside hold hundreds of resting (Eurasian) Teal ( which have still not completed flight feather molt), and large flocks of waders, most notably Lapwings, Ruff, Spotted Redshank and Greenshank.

This Teal...made somebody's meal! (Åslaholmen)

Some Ruff (Philomachus pugnax) chilling out at Åslaholmen, Fågelsjön at Kvismare.

Adult Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica) with long outer tail feathers and stunning pattern of variously shaped white spots on 5 of the 6 pairs of tail feathers.

Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica), held in the UK/US ringer's grip (the way I learned working there).

Great Reed Warbler (Acrocephalus arundinaceus) truly is great! More than twice the size of a regular Reed Warbler, it is hard to believe the two are related at all!

Great Reed Warbler (Acrocephalus arundinaceus)

Nest of Great Reed Warbler (Acrocephalus arundinaceus), some skillful weaving, huh?!
Kvismare is the currently one the the country's strongholds for this relatively new breeder in Sweden, and there have been breeding biological studies conducted since 1983.

One single, miniscule scar from ringing a Red-backed Shrike, a.k.a "Devil Bird". Some ringers were not so lucky as I was, and received much more extensive damage from these birds!

Immature 1st autumn male Blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla) noticeably undergoing molt in head feathers; female-like chestnut-brown feathers are being replaced by adult male black feathers. Probably the ugliest Blackcap I've seen so far...poor guy.

The same Blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla) is also seriously molting the upper-wing greater (secondary) coverts; nearly all are pins or "flags" (when most of the barbs are still encased in the sheath, but some have started to break out towards the distal tip).

Whitethroat (Sylvia communis) with a white central tail feather!

Ummmm.....

Who doesn't want a young fluffy Reed Warbler on the end of their pen?! :)
(Btw, bird eventually flew off looking in good shape...sometimes they just need a little time)

Canada Goose (Branta canadensis) in the back on the left, with a white patch on forecrown, above the base of bill; reminiscent of a Barnacle Goose (B. leucopsis)! I'm quite sure that it isn't a hybrid with leucopsis, as the upper breast is not dark, and the coloration and size is typical for a normal canadensis.

One of the smallest birds I have held...a Coal Tit (Periparus ater ater)! Showing white tips on 2 of the 3 pairs of tertials, in addition to the 2 wing-bars formed by white tips to the greater and median coverts.

1st fall White Wagtail (Motacilla alba)

Nice birds!

My last morning was the most amazing day of the whole experience, as we caught many new (for me) and thus cool birds, starting with this striking adult male Yellowhammer (Emberiza citrinella).

Like most adult passerines this time of year, this guy is molting his flight feathers (remiges): here one can see a short primary growing in, as well as a secondary. The inner, fully-grown new primaries look crisper, with less abrasion, darker and glossier than the outer 2 long primaries, which are old and will be replaced later. Also notice the 2 outermost tail feathers, they are new feathers still growing.

Yellowhammer (Emberiza citrinella)

Magpie (Pica pica) was not very fun for Teresa to band; that bill (as I tested out myself) packs a mean punch! Gorgeous bird really, though! All of the greater coverts have been shed, while new ones have just started to grow, exposing the shafts of the secondaries seen here.

Even fault bars (growth bars) across the tail, which line up like this, indicate that the tail feathers grew simultaneously, and therefore this is most likely a yearling bird (but don't use this alone in determining the age of the bird!) Bird is either a Reed or a Sedge Warbler, can't remember (oops)

Bluethroat! (Luscinia svecica), young male I think, with red above the blue bib. One of the last birds caught in our nets on my last day, and it was only the 2nd one of the season (supposedly most pass through in September), so I felt I was quite lucky indeed!

Would not cooperate for a closed-wing pose; flapped almost continuously...oh well, still beautiful, right?

The fantastic tail of a Bluethroat!

And one last pic of the Bluethroat, because...you can never have too much Bluethroat, right?!

The smallest bird I've handled for sure is this tiny fella: a yearling Penduline Tit (Remiz pendulinus)...I cannot imagine how they ring Goldcrests! They supposedly habitually hold their heads down like this when being held, so not the most photogenic bird, nevertheless a very exciting catch!

Found out why their legs are difficult to bend straight from their usual 90° angle between the tibiae and tarsi! :)
Matt is demonstrating here the incredible hanging ability of the Penduline Tit, which probably comes in handy for building their magnificent nests...it just hung there for about 30 seconds before taking off! :)

Marsh Warbler (Acrocephalus palustris) with a tick on its face. :(
These can be notoriously difficult to separate from Reed Warbler (A. scirpaceus) if it is quiet and in the wrong habitat, but in the hand there are several features to separate these birds. For one, the overall color is lighter, with more olive tone and less brownish, even on yearlings. Also they have fractionally shorter bills which changes their expression in a subtle way, and some (like this bird) have a slight yellowish eyebrow above and in front of eye, which rarely (if ever) is shown on Reed Warblers. Then there is the wing...

...Marsh Warbler have a combination of longer primary extension AND shorter notch on the 2nd outermost primary than Reed, and so in this pic I wanted to show how comparing the position of the notch (yellow) to where the secondaries end (red) aids identification of this bird. For a Reed Warbler these lines would more or less line up, but when the yellow is closer to halfway between the primary tip and the red line (as here) the bird can pretty safely be labeled a Marsh Warbler. Other small, in-the-hand differences are that Marsh has lighter-colored (not-so-dark) talons and the yearlings have less distinct tongue spots than Reed :/

First Week at Kvismaren

The beautiful Kvismaren Bird Station!

My first week at Kvismaren consisted of a lot of watching; starting by watching how mist nets are set up correctly and how to take them down after the trapping session is finished. The nets are made of fine thread and so one must handle with care and note when there are holes, so that they can be sewn up back at the station later in the day. Then I watched many trapped birds being extracted: the rule of thumb is to grab the "legs" at the upper part called the tibiae (grabing the tarsi could break something as they are weaker), then gently push the wire from the foot and talons. Next work on getting the wings free and finally the head. So the main idea is to find which side of the net the bird flew into and to extract it backwards direction. In special circumstances one may have to extract the head before one of the wings or someother order than this rule if the bird is especially tangled. Warblers usually are straight forward, Tits tend to get a bit more tangled.

The extracted birds are placed into cloth bagswith drawstrings at the top, and then everyone brings their birds to a central ringing table. Here one or two people ring the birds first (after identifying species), then take various measurements while another person records all the data. Biometrical measurements include the wing-length (explained in previous post caption), fat score (where one blows on the underside body feathers to check for fat deposits first around the neck (tracheal pit), then the abdomen, and finally the sides, and gives the bird a score between 0 and 8; 0 being no fat, and 8 being completely covered in fat), and finally (before releasing the bird), the bird is gently placed in a plastic tubular cup of appropriate size and weighed on a scale. If the bird is an adult, then many species this time of year are in the process of wing molt (sheding old feathers, and replacing them with new ones). For adult birds with missing or growing feathers, we fill out a molt card, where we describe the condition of all the flight feathers (remiges), indicating whether they are: new fully-grown feathers (usually darker centered and with less abrasion or wear on the tips and sides), pins (starting of a new feather, but feather encased in a "sheath"), flags (when sheath over pin opens and feather vanes start to appear from the tip of former pin), or new feathers which have not yet grown to full length.

After a few days I began to first learn how the set up and take down the nets, and to assist the more experienced personnel with carrying the transporting bags containing birds. The next step, only after several days of patient waiting, was to practice feeling comportable holding the small birds, with a firm but gentle hand. My problem (I guess normal for most beginners) is that I am not fiem enough when holding the birds, being very cautious able hurting them. Well, this is better than the alternative of course, and after about a week of holding birds I feel a bit more confident in holding them a bit firmer; getting a better feel for what is the appropriate balance of firmness and gentleness. I was given a few birds to hold, and to practice releasing them safely.

After returning to the station around 10:30am, the rest of the day pretty leisurely, but there are many activities including: birding local wetland sites, cleaning (Wednesday), cooking dinner (everyone takes turns cooking communal dinners each night), studying birds and Swedish (later mostly for me), and of course plenty of naps!

During my first week here, I have already had 2 lifers: Little Stint (Calidris minuta), which is an uncommon wader but a few are regularly seen in migration this time of year, and a more rare (but also becoming increasing regular in recent years) vagrant from the East: Pallid Harrier (Circus macrourus)! which we were very excited to see after racing in a car about 15-20 minute drive from Kvismaren to see, just before dusk. In addition to these lifers, I have had much pleasure watching many other waders: Curlew Sandpipers, Spotted Redshanks (up to 22 in one flock), many Common Snipe in the early mornings as well as flying groups of Golden Plovers. Greenshanks are tut-tut-tutting everywhere, and there are also small groups of Ruff seen at most sites with appropriate habitat, along with Wood, Common, and Green Sandpipers. We had a few Knots, a Sanderling and a gorgeous, bright-rufous adult male Bar-tailed Godwit. Dunlin are increasing in number, with adults recently joined by the first juveniles. Curlews can be hear frequently and I have seen a few land in the fields. The most common wader species, though, is the Northern Lapwing, most traveling in huge flocks; once we had a group that must have consisted of 800+ individuals (with 5 Ruff added in for spice)!

Besides waders there are of course lots of other great birds around. Every morning at 2 of the 3 ringing sites we watch fishing Ospreys, and there are several pairs of White-tailed Eagles in the area as well, with at least 2 1st year birds wandering around often. Hobby is relatively common here; I find one a day, on average. And so far have had 2 Peregrines, a few Kestrels and many Sparrowhawks. The most common raptor would have to be Marsh Harrier; impossible to miss! Many are 1st year birds from the area. Kites are not so common but I have seen one Red Kite, and a Black Kite was reported in the area also, but I have yet to spot one. There are Long-eared Owls in the area, and on the first night (when I stayed up extra late) I heard a dueting pair of Tawny Owls.

Flocks of 10-30 Siskins wander around wild fields and overhead there are always migrating Tree Pipits ("treepits") high up, and a bit lower are yellow wagtails, sometimes in loose "flocks". At one site (Äsön) we usually hear Common Crossbill (usually type C) and one day we had 2 Two-barred Crossbills. I am very satisfied to have the chance to really learn the flight calls of many passerines and waders well through repeated, daily listening. The rocky road to the main street, with open farmland on either side, usually are lined with Wheatears which when flushed by the car or bike flash their startling white tail and uppertail coverts, like white blinkers. There are a Greater Spotted, Green and Black Woodpeckers around, with Lesser Spotted present in lower numbers I hear ( haven't noticed one myself, yet ). Stock doves are relatively common, and regularly seen along with Wood Pigeons. Young Spotted and Pied Flycatchers, Red-backed Shrikes, and Whinchats are hanging around still (a few Bluethroats as well I suspect, but no luck here yet either).

Birds which have recently been reported in the nearby areas (but outside Kvismaren) which I potentially can still find, and are thus worth looking/listening for are: Broad-billed Sandpiper, Great Snipe, and recently Red-throated Pipit. All 3 of which would be welcome additions to my lifelist!

One calm evening Matt decided we should try to catch Barn Swallows before they head to roost. We set up a few nets at Vallen nearby, and used load playback to attract the swallows. When one of the large flocks came close enough to hear the recording, they all quickly dropped out of the sky and into the nets! It was an unbelievable sight and I curse myself now for not having a camera (next time we try I will bring for sure). There were about a 100 birds trapped in a few minutes time! This was when I was offered my first chance to extract birds from the net, for one thing there were so many and only a few people so they needed the help, but moreover because evidently they are particularly straight forward and relatively easy to extract from the nets; perfect for the beginner! They don't bit, peck, or make a lot of comotion or struggle during the extraction...and I got my hand shat on for the first time, yay! It was my baptism into the world of ringing birds.

Stay tuned for week 2 after I return to Dresden on Aug 26!
Now for the pics...

Found this cute little guy thankfully before anyone could step on him at Öby Kulle (site 4, where we ring on exceptionally windy mornings). It is a baby Smooth Newt (Triturus vulgaris). :)

Another Dawn at Kvismaren (can't get tired of them)

Wing and tail of a 1st-year Bearded Reedling (Panurus biarmicus). The obvious way to tell that this is a juvenile bird is the black edges to the tail feathers. Notice also the white outside edges to the outer primaries which, on the folded wing, produce a narrow white wing patch.

Here is a comparison of male and female juvenile Bearded Reedlings: a male on the left, with black lores and orange-yellow bill, and the female is one the right, with lighter grayish lores and grayish-brown bill. Notice also the black patch on the backs (easiest to see on the male in this pic), another indication that these birds were born this summer.

Spread wing of a juvenile Siskin (Carduelis spinus).

Juvenile Siskin (Carduelis spinus)

Juvenile Siskin (Carduelis spinus)

Spread wing of a Tree Pipit (Anthus trivialis). Notice the long tertials and outermost primaries are much longer than the inner ones and secondaries.

My first Beared Reedling, definitely the most colorful bird I have held so far!

Dawn at Vallen

Around 8am...

Our closest neighbors (unfortunately I forget their names).

After a typical afternoon shower at Kvismaren

European Rowan (Sorbus aucuparia) are everywhere and full of little sour and bitter berries, that supposedly make good jam at least. Will be great source of nutrition for waxwings and thrushes when they come through a bit later in the fall.

Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) perched at Åslaholmen (near Vallen) at Kvismaren.

Spotted Flycatcher (Muscicapa striata), here showing diagnostic streaked forehead and upper breast.

Spotted Flycatcher (Muscicapa striata), notice the pale-tipped feathers above the tail and on the back above the folded wings: that is a good indication that this is a 1st year bird.

juvenile Pied Flycatcher (Ficedula hypoleuca)

A gorgeous day to be in the countryside, with birds everywhere around you.

Porch of the Kvismaren Bird Station

Äsön (pronounced "Eh-sern") is one of the 3 trapping sites, where, depending on the weather can be slow or hopping with activity. It is at the tip of a peninsula jutting southward from the north end of Lake Hjälmaren (the 4th largest lake in Sweden, and connected by waterways all the way east to Stockholm, where it empties in the Baltic Sea). There usually are a few Black Woodpeckers wandering around, and small flocks of up to 12 of Common Crossbills. One day we heard a pair of Two-barred Crossbills fly over and land in one of the pines briefly, but then took off continuing south before I could get a good look at them.