Tuesday, 16 December 2014

December visit to Bahri

Marwa and I were at Bahri Sewage Pools again last weekend. We caught lots of Northern Masked Weavers and Sedge Warblers, plus a few Reed Warblers and other birds. The weavers had all moulted out of breeding plumage and were in bright, fresh non-breeding plumage. A few juveniles were still in the final stages of wing and tail moult.

Freshly moulted Northern Masked Weaver, Bahri Sewage pools 12th December 2014

Little Bee-eater, Bahri Sewage pools 12th December 2014 

There were a few other good birds around including four Southern Pochards, a couple of Tufted Ducks, four White-tailed Plovers, some Glossy Ibises, and three Eurasian Coots. A Little Swift was our first at the site.

Southern Pochards and Tufted Ducks, Bahri Sewage pools 12th December 2014

2 comments:

  1. How did you get them to land in your hand like that? Sorry you're gone from Sudan. Is there a book you use here? Ben M, Khartoum

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  2. Hi Ben. The birds were captured in mist-nets as part of a research project on weavers. The weavers were fitted with a small plastic ring on the leg, each with a unique number. Every bird was measured and photographed and then released. When recaptured at a later data it was then possible to look at changes in plumage with age, etc. A few other species were also captured and released without rings, though I usually took a few photos of the interesting ones. On Sep 6th 2010 I wrote a blog summarising the best books to use on a visit to Sudan (http://birdingsudan.blogspot.com/2010/09/bird-books-to-use-in-sudan.html). Hopefully this will help you decide which is best to use.

    Tom

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