Prepare the feeders

The weather has been cold for the past few days and this reminds me to prepare my bird feeders. For the last two years here in Sofia I haven't seen even one single bird feeder. This is because the people here are not used to spare time for activities like feeding birds. The attention is on the problem with the dogs and cats. I don't think that this is not important ,but people should have 10 minutes every day to put some seeds on the window or something like that. I think that the main problem is the lack of talking about this at the schools. If someone has learned in young age the importance of taking care for those who need help ,he will find it normal when he is older. For me this is the key to draw the attention on our bird friends.

So prepare you feeders and lets try to help as much as we can !

The new Swallow nest

The Barn Swallows in Veshtica have made a new nest near the house. I think that the nest is well protected from cats. There are only two eggs in it. I hope that soon  I will be able to ring the little swallows.

Again turtle (video)

It looks like that these days the turtles in Veshtica are very active. Around all the ringing and the interesting birds , I saw one very big and shy turtle. Here is the video. It's not very dynamic ,but I think that the turtle is very scared.

Lanius Collurio and many Blackcaps again

Today I continue with the ringing. The first bird for the day was a big surprise for me because it was a Red-Backed shrike(Lanius Collurio).It was a big and healthy male shrike. My brother took some pictures ,but we didn't make a video.

The totals for the day are:13birds.
-Blackcap-6
-Red-Backed shrike-1
-Tree sparrow-3
-House sparrow-1
-Great tit-1
-Song thrush-1

The last two day were wonderful for me and I'm very happy ,because I finaly ringed some birds. Total for the two days 25 bird from 7 species.

Blackcap domination !

On 21.07.2012(Saturday) I got up at 5:00AM. I took my brothers bike and I began the 12km journey from Belogradchik to Veshtica. The first thing that I saw was the sun...

At 6:30AM I managed to set up the mist nets and the ringing started. For the whole ringing session I ringed 12 birds:

-1-Blackbird
-1-Song Thrush
-1-Great tit
-1-Tree sparrow
-7-Blackcaps
-1-Olive-tree Warbler(Hippolais olivetorum)(young)- I will make separate post about this bird with pictures and video.


Very interesting for me was the fact that whole of the seven Blackcaps were females. Maybe they are migrating before or after the males, but I didn't even see any male  Blackcaps. Most of the other ringed birds were young. Here are some pictures from today :

Song Thrush

Female Blackcap

Female Blackcap

Young Blackbird

Young Blackbird

Tomorrow I will try to make some ringing,photos and videos .

Is it save to share bird trap information ?

I have a question ....Do you think that it is save to post information about bird traps. I have many schemes about traps ,but I haven't posted them because I thought that bad people can see them and use those traps for killing birds or selling them ...

Please tell me your opinion. I want to share the information with other bird ringers ,but I'm not sure how to secure the information.

So help me with some advice please !

The hottest day for the year

Today was the hottest for the year. In Veshtica is was 41 degrees celsius...This isn't normal. But for tomorrow the forecast is for 31 degrees celsius , so it will become more normal. Maybe soon I'll be able ot make some ringing ,but for now I won't try becasue It will be too dangerous for the birds.