By Lizzie Grayshon, Wetlands Research Assistant
Recently I got the chance to visit the Strait of Gibraltar Bird Observatory, GONHS. As a bird ringer it was a chance for me to gain more experience in a different place and see some new species of birds. It was a great week, with a brilliant start as I was handed a night jar on the evening I arrived!
Also the view from the observatory wasn’t too bad! Here you can see Morocco on the left and Spain on the right.
We caught a variety of different species that were migrating through including black redstart, Sardinian warbler (see photograph) and serin. We also saw the occasional rush of robins, a bird which we don’t always think of as migratory.
All these birds were coming down from areas across Europe to winter in Africa. They stop over in Gibraltar before crossing the Strait of Gibraltar to Morocco and some long distance migrants, for example, the reed warbler will carry on down to Tropical Africa.
Whilst I was there I was fortunate enough to visit the Raptor Rehabilitation Unit which is located nearby. This is particularly active during the spring when large numbers of raptors are moving through, these are sometimes injured by other territorial resident raptors or by yellow legged gulls.
The birds are reared back to health and then released back into the wild. Here they have also been involved in the reintroduction programme for the Barbary partridge. A project from what I was informed is doing very well with high levels of survival in the first year of the project.
All birds from the rehabilitation unit are ringed before release to enable individuals to be identified if caught in the future. The Barbary partridges are also colour ringed to allow for movement observations between groups.
Here is a link to the website if anyone would like to find more information about the work that is going on out there.
Support our Waders For Real Project
Lizzie is heavily involved in our Waders For Real Project, please support her and the team as they attempt to reverse the decline in breeding wader numbers in the Avon Valley.