Report of the month - February - Naturschutz Ieweschtesyrdall Schlammwiss Birdringingstation

History: The nature reserve "Schlammwiss" was founded in 1982 by the foundation"Hellef fir Natur" (HFN). Afterwards the group "Letzeburger Natur- a Vullenschutzliga" (LNVL) founded the station "Schlammwiss". The station is leaded by the "centrale ornithologique Luxembourg" (COL), a part of the asbl. Natur & Emwelt. Due to the fact that Luxembourg doesn't have its own bird ringing central, we work in cooperation with Royal Belgian Instutitute of Natural Sciences. Therefore, we use rings from the Belgian Museum of Natural Sciences.

Location: The bird ringing station "Schlammwiss" is located in Luxembourg, between the communities Schuttrange & Munsbach. The nature reserve is part of the 375ha big Syrvalley and is an extremely important Natura 2000 zone. The reserve is periodicly flooded due to the Syr river, which is an important generator of biodiversity.

Research area: Around 30ha are used for researche, on a length of 1km and a width of 30-120m. The main area is covered by reeds and wetlands (20ha). Furthermore, the resarch area is subdivided and caracterized by an orchard, a forest, several ponds distributed throughout the reedbed and a purification plant (SIAS). The main techniques employed are mist nets and rail traps in order to realize population estimates (i.e. breeding population, migration, overwintering population) and survival estimates by Capture-Mark-Recapture. There are several projects running in the nature reserve and visitation are possible.

Summary of the ringing activity this month

In February, our members who are mostly volunteers, have spent about 479 hours working at at the birdringing station "Schlammwiss". This results in 382 hours ringing activities and 97 working hours at the station this month.

Thanks a lot for your help!

With this effort it was possible to capture 544 birds of 32 species (see the table left) this month at our station.

This number is subdivided in 245 E, 150 K and 149 W. The total amount of individuals (E+K) is 395. This is higher (+264) than the mean number of birds caught at the station from 2001-2020 and higher (+221) than the number of last year.

None bird foreign origin has been caught.

E: first capture of this individual

W: recapture of an individual which was already captured this year

K: individuals which were ringed one or more years ago or individuals with a foreign country or station

TOP 5

		species	n
1.	PARCAE	Blue Tit	66
2.	EMBCIT	Yellowhammer	65
3.	ANTSPIN	Water Pipit	43
4.	PARMAJ	Great Tit	40
5.	PASDOM	House Sparrow	36

Interesting birds captured:

	species	n
1.	Accipiter nisus	2
2.	Alauda arvensis	3
3.	Anthus pratensis	1
4.	Athene noctua	1
5.	Carduelis spinus	3
6.	Garrulus glandarius	1
7.	Rallus aquaticus	1

The first graphic below shows the current situation of birds captured this year in comparison of the median number of birds captured from 2001-2020. In addition, we include a new bar chart with an more accurate time calculation. The bar chart is divided in the normal ringing activities, special ringing activities (e.g.: ringing Barn Owls, control of nest boxes,..) and time we spent at the bird ringing station for further work (e.g.: replacing of nets, clearing net lines, visits,...).

In older calculations, only a time calculation was done on the basis of the ringing data. This time calculation was retained for graphs 2 and 3 so that the results can be compared with recent years.

The number of birds captured this year and working time this year (old calculation) in comparison of the mean number of birds caught in the years 2001-2020 and the mean working time from 2018-2020 is shown in the second graph below left.

In the second graph below right you can find a comparison of this year with the last three years.

In the graph on the left you can see the course of the ringed species compared to the days with open nets of each month. Furthermore, the mean value of species and the open nets days from 2018-2020 are displayed. The distribution of birds ringed and working time per day are illustrated in the graph on the left. The number of birds ringed is separated in E, W and K.

First spring arrivals captured:

Species	Latin Name	Date (2021)	Date (2020)	Date (2019)	Late or early
Water Rail	Rallus aquaticus	23.1	23.2	31.3	+31
Blackcap	Sylvia atricapilla	13.2	17.2	31.3	+4
Chiffchaff	Phylloscopus collybita	20.2	2.3	10.3	+10

Stonechat	Saxicola torquata		3.3	17.3
White Spotted Bluethroat	Luscinia svecia cyanecula		16.3	25.3
Firecrest	Regulus ignicapilla		16.3	9.4
Goldcrest	Regulus regulus		23.3	/
Black Redstart	Phoenicurus ochruros		24.3	/
Willow Warbler	Phylloscopus trochilus		30.3	1.4
Spotted Crake	Porzana porzana		31.3	/
Barn Swallow	Hirundo rustica		5.4	/
Savi's Warbler	Locustella luscinioides		6.4	10.5
Aquatic Warbler	Acrocephalus paludicola		19.4	/
Whitethroat	Sylvia communis		19.4	8.4
Reed Warbler	Acrocephalus scirpaceus		21.4	1.5
Lesser Whitethroat	Sylvia curruca		21.4	14.4
Grasshopper Warbler	Locustella naevia		21.4	/
Sedge Warbler	Acrocephalus schoenobaenus		27.4	7.4
Garden Warbler	Syvlia borin		28.4	22.4
Wryneck	Jynx torquilla		28.4	/
Great Reed Warbler	Acrocephalus arundinaceus		18.5	22.4
Red Backed Shrike	Lanius collurio		17.5	10.5
Marsh Warbler	Acrocephalus palustris		10.5	13.5

The distribution of the age is shown in the pie chart below. You can find the exact amount in the table right. Birds with the age code 1 or 3 are considered as juvenile and birds with an age code of 4 or higher are registered as adults. Note that the age of birds with the code 6 or higher is (in the most cases) only possible to tell by recaptured birds (K). The age of birds with the code 2 is unknown.

Code	Amount	Definiton
C	2	older than four years
B	3	born four years ago
A	5	older than three years
9	5	born three years ago
8	9	older than two years
7	22	born two years ago
6	40	older than one year
5	175	born last year
4	134	age unknown, but not born this year
3	/	born this year
2	/	age unknown
1	/	nestling

Foreign birds that we controlled this year:

The weather information are offered by Meteolux.lu

Thank you!

All our sightings are registered by ornitho.lu

Thanks to everyone who was observing at our station and put the data online!

Photos of this month

Some photographers sent us their photos which we included into our report.

All other photos are provided by Jim Schmitz.

Thank you for the photos!

Did you take any photos at the station, a visit or of any birds with a ring that could be from our station and want to publish those in the next report of the month?

Contact us!