The
Western Palaearctic, part of the Palaearctic ecozone, one of eight zones that
divide this planet’s surface. The Western Palaearctic encompasses Europe, North
Africa, the northern and central parts of the Arabian Peninsula and a small part
of Asia to the Ural Mountains. Here many birds are resident, sticking year
round in the same place or undertaking short distance movements in search of
food or to escape inclement weather. Some undertake migrations of reasonable
distances, in Britain our winter landscape often becomes dominated with
thrushes like redwings and fieldfares that head over from Scandinavia. Even
common birds we think of as being here year round, blackbirds and starlings for
example are bolstered by continental counterparts.
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| The Western Palaearctic - Wikipedia |
Then
there are birds that migrate long distances, not just heading for the
Mediterranean but continuing down into Africa, crossing one of the largest and
hottest deserts in the world to reach central Africa and beyond. It is truly
incredible to think that such tiny, seemingly delicate birds such as the willow
warbler, chiffchaff, whitethroat and barn swallow are making such treacherous
journeys.
There
are other birds also, that you may not automatically think of as migrants, waders
including turnstone, sanderling, bar-tailed godwits, whimbrels, common
sandpipers… all birds we associate perhaps with winter in Britain but all birds
that have populations that will also migrate further to Africa. Not to mention the
terns and other seabirds which breed around our coast and then migrate and
winter off the coast of Africa.
Many
of the migrant birds that call the Western Palaearctic home for at least some
of the year are declining. The reasons are numerous and complex, an interaction
of events and habits both on their breeding grounds, winter grounds and
anywhere in between. We are now realising we need to find out where these birds
are going and what is happening to them when they leave our temperate shores.
Where
do these birds go exactly to winter? Do they return to the same places year
after year? Which routes do they take when they migrate? Do different
populations go to different places or the same? Do they move around when on
their wintering grounds? What kind of threats do they face while there?
Just
one of the ways these questions are being answered is by ringing in Africa, and
this is one of the key objectives of the Kartong Bird Observatory in The
Gambia.
So
while out there our team targeted as much habitat for Western Palaearctic birds,
including reed beds and scrub, as well as attempts for terns and waders. The
effort of slogging through knee deep water, cutting rides through reed beds,
getting scratched by Acacia trees quickly paid off; 280 Western P’s as we
affectionately called them were caught and processed. Some had already been
ringed before; including a reed warbler with a Spanish ring on it.
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| Intrepid ways of getting nets into reed beds - using a boat! |
From
species we know from home like sedge and reed warblers to whitethroats, to
those that maybe more unusual in Britain but are common throughout the
Mediterranean including Bonnelli’s and Melodious warblers. Waders like common
and wood sandpipers, and snipe, lots and lots of snipe.
But
certainly the stars of the Western P show were the blue-cheeked bee-eaters.
When you think of Western P’s you don’t automatically think of these, but they
do in fact breed along the north coast of Africa and parts of the Middle East,
before migrating south to central and southern Africa.
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| The usual view of blue-cheeked bee-eaters |
In
The Gambia we watch them from the middle of the morning to mid-afternoon,
swooping and circling in large flocks. We see them sit on the branches of trees
before taking off with a flick of the wings, soaring again through a brilliant
blue sky. In the past we watched with wonder, these are not the type of bird to
blunder into most nets as they keep to the skies and tops of trees. They the
emblem of the Kartong Bird Observatory, and it was an emotional day when in
2011 we caught the very first one. Since then the odd one has been caught on
the odd occasion.
That
was until one hot day in January 2014. As the morning progressed a huge flock
of 400 bee-eaters began circling overhead, dipping down to take insects off the
glittering surface. And here we spotted an opportunity. Until now the birds had
not responded to a tape playing their calls, but with so many birds calling to
each other, and the presence of food this time it just might work. So with two
nets open and a tape playing between we sat back to watch and wait. Minutes
later the crackled message came back over the radio at base. Bee-eaters in the
net, not one or two, but loads. It had worked!
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| Collecting blue-cheeked bee-eaters from the net |
And
so like a well-oiled machine, the team worked together to remove birds from the
net, ferry them back to base and to ring and process them. In total 70 birds
were caught giving us an opportunity to get some good data on moult and aging
with some many birds to compare. And with the technique for catching them
seemingly sussed who knows how many more we may catch in future and what we may
learn….
For now lets stick with piccies of Western P's from The Gambia 2014:
Photo Gallery by QuickGallery.com
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