Bird ringing at
Cruzinha (which is a Portuguese Constant Effort Site (CES)) is carried out once a week
throughout the year, but during periods of migration, ringing is carried out on
a daily basis. Mist nets are the main capture
method, but the centre also has a Heligoland trap which we were keen to try
out.

Jo arrived at Cruzinha on 18 October, and her
first ringing session was the following morning. Richard arrived around midday
towards the end of that ringing session, and was ringing his first bird of the
trip, a robin, within 5 minutes of arrival!

Daily catch totals had been unusually small in
the weeks immediately prior to our arrival; one morning session had returned a meagre total of three birds despite the site operating 10 mist
nets. Thankfully things picked up a bit following our arrival; catch totals
increased and went on to include some new species for us to ring and process.

Three species dominated the birds captured,
namely blackcap, robin and northern chiffchaff (as opposed to the Iberian
chiffchaff). Surprisingly, Iberian chiffchaff are hardly ever caught at the
site despite their breeding range extending to within 14 km (north) of the site. 

During the ringing
session on 23 October, Richard set up his MP3 player to chiffchaff
calls, and set it in a fig tree near the nets. Amazingly, within about 15 seconds chiffchaffs began appearing above us.  After a short absence , we
returned to find 22 chiffchaffs in the nets. An excellent result! The
bird catch total that day was 57 birds, an unusually high figure for the site.

Over the course of the stay we were both able to add new species to our lists of species processed, some of which were birds unlikely to be captured back in Gower.  New species for Jo
were common redstart, firecrest, pied flycatcher, house sparrow plus the real
star bird of the week: a smart male lesser-spotted woodpecker. New species for
Richard were common redstart, azure-winged magpie (a species only present in
south-west Iberia outside of east Asia, where it also occurs) and also pied
flycatcher, which he had only ringed previously as pulli at Cwm Clydach. We
also processed a kingfisher each, as two Portuguese ringed birds were caught. 

The most significant birds caught (much to Heather’s excitement!) were the two ‘controls’ of British ringed birds we had on the last two days of our week-long stay. The
first on 26 October was a male blackcap that was aged a 3 (a bird that
fledged this year). The second control was a chiffchaff, also aged 3. We look
forward to finding out where in the UK these two birds were ringed, though we
know they weren’t from Gower unfortunately! 

The total for the week was as follows:

Several species were much in evidence in the
vicinity of our nets, and we tried – sadly unsuccessfully – to lure them in.
Little owls were calling around the grounds every afternoon and night. We’d get up before dawn each morning to raise
the nets and set up the tape lures in strategic places. No owl took the bait
however. A very brazen male black redstart would perch and flit about the
ringing table area very often, teasing us with its presence. Once again,
tape lures were deployed but the bird outsmarted us and stubbornly avoided
the nets, much to our frustration. Typically, two days after we left we heard
that Gui Réthoré, the Cruzinha’s bird guide, had finally managed to net the
bird. Well done Gui! A more uncommon bird heard very close to the nets was a
wryneck. This also refused to enter the net area despite the use of a tape
lure.

On the 21 October we had the opportunity to join
Gui  raptor watching for a
few hours near Sagres, on the far south west extremity of the Algarve coast.
Gui monitors the raptor movements during migration time near Sagres, primarily
as a lookout for the larger less manoeuvrable species such as griffon vulture,
nearing the wind turbines in the area that pose a mortal danger to the birds.
The turbine operators are notified who then shut down the turbines before the raptors are at risk. We saw short-toed
eagles, black kite, hobby, booted eagle amongst other raptor species.

We also assisted Heather on a wader count on the Ria de Alvor Estuary one afternoon. Good
numbers of various waders, gulls, terns and flamingoes were present on the
marsh, as well as large numbers of wheatear and several bluethroats.

Our experience at Cruzinha has been one to
remember; with glorious food, amazing birds and wonderful hosts. We hope to
return in the future. Thanks to Marcial and Paula Felgueiras, Bebe Soares, Gui
Réthoré, Filipa Bragança and all of the volunteers at Cruzinha for their hospitality, great
company and assistance. With special thanks to Heather Coats for our training
and allowing us to tag along!

Richard Dann & Jo Conway

11/06/2018