Once again Silvia and I find ourselves in the heart of Transylvania for 8 weeks surveying the bird life as part of a 5 year pilot project into how beneficial the traditional farming methods are to all the wildlife out here. While Silvia is carrying out point count surveys in the surrounding of each of the 8 villages we are surveying, I am misting netting at 1 sometimes 2 sites in each village to closer monitor individual birds and to get a better idea of population sizes of certain species. Netting always seems to turn up the odd species that tend to hide away in the thickets and avoid being detected during the point count.
With so many awesome species out here it's difficult to choose which photos to post, so below are a small selection of some of the birds that have stood out for me.
Wryneck
Quail
Red-backed Shrike
Lesser Grey Shrike
Scops Owl
As nice as it is to catch all of these species, we're also catching lots of species that were once common all over the UK. Species such as Tree Sparrow, Woodlark, Green and Lesser Spotted Woodpecker are still very common here, and hopefully with the work we're doing here with Operation Wallacea and Fundatia Adept they will continue to be common throughout the region.
Lesser Spotted Woodpecker
Green Woodpecker
We are half through the project and so far we've caught just short of 500 birds of 34 species. At the end of the 8 weeks I will post a complete list of the totals. Some of the totals are already standing out. I've ringed more Tree Sparrows in just 4 weeks here than the Mid Wales Ringers have collectively ringed since we started the blog in 2011!!
Great work you are doing out there mate. Anything that can be done to stop their farmland bird species going the same way as ours is vitally important. Weather looks a bit better than here too!!
ReplyDeleteSuperb! Been a few years since I was there so it's great to know there is still lots of traditionally farmed areas. And what birds too - shows us what we could have! Thanks, Tim
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