Biotope 'Schlammwiss'

The nature reserve 'Schlammwiss' is located in the community of Schuttrange between Mensdorf, Münsbach and Uebersyren. The birdringing station is located in the Syrvalley with the estuary for Syr, Munsbaach and Aalbaach. The river Syr flows from northeast to southwest through the nature reserve and affects the reserve by periodic flooding. 

For resarches, an area of 30ha gets used. The reserve has a lenght of 1km and a width of 30m-120m. The main area is covered with 20 ha of reeds and wetlands. Furthermore an orchard, some ponds and a forest are available for research.

The main part of research consits in the studies on phenologic behaviour and the monitoring of the breeding populations.Over the year we catch around 20.000 birds of 100 species. As method we use mist nets varying in sizes. Furthermore we use rail traps, which allow us a constant monitoring of the species depending on wet reedbeds.

The nets are controlled in periodic time intervals, once the bird taken out of the net, they will get a ring and the responsible ringer will take a number of measurements. As a very small country we work in cooperation with the bird ringing central in Belgium ( Museum of Natural Sciences) , this means that we are provided with Belgium rings.

The reserve is an important migratory stopover for a great amount of birds,which use the wetlands to refill their reserves. Our great situation in the center of Europe allows us to control a big amount of birds which were ringed in a foreign country, if you want to have a look on the maps and countries check on from abroad