Thursday 17 July 2014

Week one in Romania...

As Tony mentioned, myself and Silvia are currently in Romania trapping and ringing birds as part of an on going project to prove how benificial the traditional farm methods are for the wildlife.  A couple of the main differences in how the land in managed in this protected part of Transylvania, are that no pesticides are used and the hay can only be harvested after the 1st July (most of this is still done by hand too). Just from these two simple things, it's amazing how much more wildlife there is out here.

Anyway, in the 6 mornings that we mist netted we managed to trap nearly 250 birds. Highlights included 37 Marsh Warblers, 2 Barred Warblers, 1 Wryneck and 12 Red-backed Shrikes.




As if that wasn't enough, on our last night we headed out to a site where we'd heard Long-eared Owl chicks. With some stealthy walking, we managed to creep up on this one and catch him by hand. There were at least 3 others, but unfortunately a long way out of our reach. We were also rewarded with some great views of the adults too.


Hopefully the next 4 villages will be just as rewarding.




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