Ngulia Bird Ringing 1999

Graeme Backhurst & David Pearson

The 1999 season was notable for 32 days of continuous cover, from mid-November to mid-December. This spanned not only the December full moon but the November full moon as well. The season's ringing total was the second highest ever: 23,820 birds, with four days over 2,000 and another six days over 1,000. Even during the full moon period there were catches in the hundreds when the weather was right.

The first heavy rain of the season at Ngulia occurred on 18 November. Thereafter, the weather was showery, and conditions were rarely extreme; mist was never thick and overall there was not a great deal of rain.

Tapes of migrant song were played throughout. The effect seemed to be to increase the catch on misty nights, and to attract many birds down when the mist was not down to ground level. On clear nights or nights with only high cloud, virtually no birds were attracted at all

The catches on 4, 3 and 11 December (respectively 2,779, 2,675 and 2,553 migrants) were the 2nd, 3rd and 4th highest catches ever, exceeded only by the 3,131 of 20 November 1995. In spite of such high numbers, yearly records were broken for only two species - Barn Swallow and Marsh Warbler. Daily records were also broken for these species and for Willow Warbler. Many species were, in fact, caught in way below average numbers. We suspect that this shift in species patterns was due to the effect of the tapes.

Three unusual Palearctic species for Ngulia were ringed this year, all in December; the second ever Eurasian Swift on 9th, the ninth Common Redstart, at night on 11th and the eighth Icterine Warbler during the morning of 11th

Swallow ringing was a major additional daytime activity this season. In the past, Barn Swallows have often fed low in many hundreds just in front of the lodge. This year, large gatherings depended mainly on the use of tapes, which brought in birds almost as soon as they were switched on, around 08:00-09:00, and kept them feeding all morning and sometimes through the afternoon as well. Netting in front of the lodge brought in the impressive total of 3,570 Barn Swallows in just 12 days. Including some Common House Martin song in one tape enabled us to catch three individuals of this elusive species.

The six birds controlled with foreign rings were outstanding. They included a Barn Swallow from Kazakhstan (bearing an Italian ring) and Marsh Warblers from Slovenia, the Netherlands, Belgium (two) and Hungary. The two Belgian Marsh Warblers, both controlled on 4 December, had been ringed in the same place, by the same ringer, in two different years! The Slovenian bird was ringed at the same place (Vrhnika) as an Ngulia-ringed Marsh Warbler had been controlled in 1995. The Hungarian Marsh was only our second interchange with this country.

Almost all passerine migrants that have been ringed at Ngulia must have passed through Ethiopia. It is therefore amazing that, until now, we have never had a single recovery from there. However, we recently received details of our first Ethiopian recovery: a Sprosser to the south-west of the country. From well-known timings of the migration schedule, we have long believed that migrants coming to Ngulia must have spent several months somewhere in Ethiopia en route. This recovery is the first indication of one of the areas 'our' birds utilise.

It was an interesting season for Afrotropical birds. Although we ringed just 408 (the lowest since 1993), no fewer than eight species were new for the ringing list, including Peregrine Falcon, Striped Pipit, Pale Prinia and Reichenow's Weaver. Numbers of some frequently caught species were very low: only 17 Harlequin Quails, just seven Plain and two Donaldson-Smith's Nightjars and only one Chestnut Weaver. There were no Grey-headed Kingfishers and no Black Cuckoo-shrikes.

The 1999 ringing has already produced two recoveries: a young Sprosser ringed on 22 November was retrapped in mid-June while breeding at Frankfurt/Oder, in eastern Germany but on the Polish border; it was sexed as a female with five young. The other bird, an adult Marsh Warbler, ringed on 11 December, was found dead on the front of a car near Stuttgart, south-western Germany on 15 July. In addition, details of another very interesting recovery have been reported. An adult Sprosser ringed on 23 November 1990 was killed and eaten at a place In Lake Malawi situated inside northern Mozambique. It is the only Sprosser recovery we have had to South of Ngulia and, at over nine years, our oldest recovery of any species.

For their assistance in various ways, we thank the manager and staff at Ngulia Safari Lodge, Kenya Wildlife Service, British Airways Assisting conservation, the Earthwatch Institute and the Wetlands Trust; as well as all 39 members of the team who made the season the success it was.

The above article is copyright, and reproduced by kind permission of, Kenya Birds magazine - a joint publication of the Department of Ornithology, National Museums of Kenya and .