Spectacled Warbler Surprise !!

 Summary - Tuesday 29th March

Grounded Migrants: far fewer birds present today, with just 40 Subalpine Warblers seen. The only species showing an increase in numbers were Hoopoe (13) and Blackcap (23) however those figures may simply be an artifact of more extensive coverage. The Isabelline Wheatear was still present and the first Black-eared Wheatear of the year appeared on the road south of Beehive Pass.

The deep seated south-easterlies did however deliver one surprise in the form of a male Spectacled Warbler found in the sparse low scrub adjacent to the point car park at Kokinoghia. After giving some brief good views it sadly vanished before it could be photographed.

Visible Passage: very limited again, a single flava wagtail and a few Linnet seen heading north

Raptors: no migrants seen, but great views of up to 3 Short-toed Eagles recorded.

Bird Ringing: Weather allowing ringing will start on 31st March

Weather: A brisk south-easterly for most of the day, clear early on but soon overcast with no better than moderate visibility. Dry.

Isabelline Wheatear above Porto Kagio

Hoopoe at Kokinoghia

Giant Orchid at Mianes

Black-eared Wheatear on the road to Kokinoghia

First Day back at Cape Tenaro

So after missing the last two spring migration seasons because of the Covid-19 pandemic we are finally back at Cape Tenaro - hurray!!

Summary - Monday 28th March

A pleasant enough start to our visit (after a 3 year gap!) with a proper arrival of Subalpine Warblers. A decent selection of other migrants, given it is still March, of which Hoopoe and Redstart were the most conspicuous. The only scarcity seen was an Isabelline Wheatear on the road to Porto Kagio.

Grounded Migrants: A decent showing of Subalpine Warblers with 91 logged however they were very patchily distributed and given our late arrival and the wind were probably under-counted. No other migrants were present in large numbers however we did see a good mix of species including: 1 Common Sandpiper, 1 Wryneck, 10 Hoopoe, 12 Nightingale, 4 Rüppell's Warbler, 10 Blackcap, 1 Whitethroat, 7 Woodchat Shrike, 4 Northern Wheatear, 7 Redstart, 3 Black Redstart and a single Robin. There was also a single Isabelline Wheatear on the ‘narrows’ on the Porto Kagio road.

Visible Passage: very limited with the exception of Linnet, of the 35 counted most appeared to be north bound migrants. There was also a single Swallow at Kokinoghia that also headed north.

Raptors: no migrants seen, with just a single local Peregrine and two Short-toed Eagles recorded.

Bird Ringing: Weather allowing ringing will start on 31st March

Weather: Wind mostly northeast however the weather maps show strong south easterlies to the south of us. Mostly overcast with poor to moderate visibility.

Subalpine Warbler at Koureli

Woodchat Shrike near Beehive Pass

Black Redstart at Paliros

Redstart at Paliros

Cape Tenaro in 2019 - Summary

·      Our season this year lasted from 1^st to the 15^th April 2019 (though coverage was restricted at the beginning and end of this period).

·     A Merlin on the 5^th and 6^th April was the only addition to the headland bird list

·     The two most notable oddities were a White Stork on 9^th and 10^th April (only our second spring record) and a Blue-cheeked Bee-eater on 14^th 

·     There were good numbers of migrant Hoopoe throughout our stay – the peak count of 25 on 6^th was a record for the headland.

·     Blackcap and Willow Warbler both passed through in good numbers.

·     There were noteworthy numbers of Nightingales throughout our stay – the highest count of 89 on 11^th April was also a new record count for the headland.

·     There was an early arrival of Collared Flycatchers with 44 being seen on 3^rd April.

·     The ‘vismig’ highlight was a count of 470 Spanish Sparrows on 9^th April – mostly moving rapidly north in large flocks.

·     Violet Limmadore was an addition to the headland orchid list.   

Raptor Migration in 2019 - a summary

There was a remarkarbly poor showing of migrant raptors this year, with just 6 species recorded. The only redeeeming feature was a Merlin - a new species for the headland.

Note: Short-toed Eagle, Common Buzzard and Peregrine have been excluded from this table as all records were thought to relate to locally resident birds

Species	Number Seen
Marsh Harrier	22
Montagu’s Harrier	9
Pallid Harrier	1
Sparrowhawk	6
Kestrel	13
Merlin	1
Total	52

 

Bird Ringing Summary for 2019

2019   Ringing Report for Cape Tenaro

2019 saw the third spring visit to Cape Tenaro for the bird ringing team. 

As in the previous two years we chose as our ringing site a valley side and bottom just south-west of Paliros where abandoned olive groves provided shelter and a corridor of movement for migrant birds after their arrival on the Cape.   On the penultimate day we experimented with a single 6m net positioned over a permanent drinking pool in a steep sided gulley below the village of Koureli

On the day of arrival (2^nd April) 6 nets were erected by late afternoon and the first 2 birds caught and ringed. By 07.30 on 3^rd April, 8 nets were in operation and the session finished with 40 new birds being ringed.  From the 4^th April onwards the full complement of 9 nets totalling 93m was in operation.

Turtle Dove	1
Hoopoe	2
Wryneck	8
Swallow	1
Tree Pipit	1
Robin	10
Nightingale	55
Redstart	3
Stonechat	1
Blackbird	1
Savi’s Warbler	4
Great Reed warbler	7
Sedge Warbler	9
Reed warbler	1
Subalpine Warbler	69
Sardinian Warbler	3
Whitethroat	32
Garden Warbler	4
Blackcap	42
Wood Warbler	20
Chiffchaff	12
Willow Warbler	11
Spotted Flycatcher	1
Pied Flycatcher	53
Collared Flycatcher	24
Semi-collared Flycatcher	1
Golden Oriole	4
Woodchat Shrike	5
Spanish Sparrow	4
Corn Bunting	3
Species                30	392

11 full sessions of ringing were completed with two days being lost to bad weather.  The average was about 35 birds per full session which compares very favourably with the previous years’ averages of 26 and 25 ringed per day.

It was interesting to see the different species composition of an earlier visit compared to the previous two years and also some marked daily differences, for example 3 Pied and 11 Collared Flycatcher caught on the 3^rd April, followed by none caught the following day.

We reviewed the siting of our study area and concluded that it is the optimum site that can be operated by one ringer, whilst still having the potential to expand if we were to have a larger team involved with the ringing programme in future years.

The big advantage is that it is away from any habitation and is neither troubled by people nor domestic animals.  Its position in relation to migrants making landfall on Cape Tenaro and then moving generally north into the landscape also seems to be beneficial.

The targeting of the drinking pool near to Koureli could also prove to be an attractive option for the normally inactive afternoon/evening periods.

Body mass for some migrant species caught & ringed at Cape Tenaro 2^nd- 15^thApril 2019

Species	Species	No. measured	Weight range (g)	Mean weight (g)
Nightingale	LUSMEG	53	16.8 – 24.8	20.7
Sedge Warbler	ACRSCH	9	9.7 – 14.6	11.0
Great Reed Warbler	ACRARU	7	26.8 – 33.8	30.1
Subalpine Warbler	SYLCAN	66	9.1 – 13.4	10.9
Whitethroat	SYLCOM	31	12.4 – 20.0	14.6
Garden Warbler	SYLBOR	4	14.1 – 19.5	17.0
Blackcap	SYLATR	41	15.7 – 23.3	19.0
Wood Warbler	PHYSIB	20	7.2 – 9.6	8.4
Collared Flycatcher	FICALB	21	10.0 – 15.1	11.6
Pied Flycatcher	FICHYP	46	9.7 – 13.9	11.8

Last Day Summary

Words to follow