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, the bird ringing station "Schlammwiss" caught about 621 birds of 25 species. This number is subdivided in 233 E, 128 W and 260 K. One bird foreign origin has been caught.

The total amount of birds for the month is higher than the average amount of birds caught in february at the station. The graphic below shows the average amount of birds for each month during the years 2001-2014.

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

1.	PARCAE	Blue tit	173
2.	PARMAJ	Great tit	145
3.	ANTSPI	Waterpipit	61
4.	TURMER	Blackbird	42
5.	EMBCIT	Yellowhammer	28

Interesting birds captured:

1 Anas crecca
3 Gallinago gallinago
9 Dendrocopos major
2 Dendrocopos medius
1 Garrulus glandarius

Summary

Distribution of the age:

Code	Amount	Definiton
C	6	older than four years
B	10	at least three years old
9	25	born three years ago
8	6	older than two years
7	31	born two years ago
6	56	older than one year
5	241	born last year
4	238	age unkown, but not born this year
3	/	born this year
2	3	age unknown
1	/	nestling

Foreign birds which we controlled this month:

Sepcies	Country
STUVUL	Belgium

The team of the bird ringing station Schlammwiss are mostly volunteers who did an excellent work this month!

We say thank you for everyone who was helping this month!

In summary we spent around 48 hours during 10 days working at the station.

We also welcome the visitors on our station:

All our sightings of this month are saved in ornitho.lu

Interesting observation

Species	Quantity	Max
Alopochen aegyptiaca	2
Anas crecca	6	4
Anthus spinoletta	395	115
Ardea cinerea	1
Buteo buteo	6
Carduelis chloris	20
Carduelis spinus	18	18
Cadmerodius albus	11	5
Corvus corone	2
Emberiza schoeniclus	25
Erithacus rubecula	2
Falco tinnunculus	5
Fulica atra	16	8
Gallinago gallinago	4	2
Grus grus	250	80
Pica pica	75	55
Picus viridis	3
Rallus aquaticus	6	4
Tachybaptus ruficollis	19	6
Turdus viscivorus	2