Alpine Bird Research

The Choughbusters are working in Mont Avic Natural Park these days The weather situation is not so good and today we also had some rain in the field, but the snow is melting quickly (as shown by the pictures below) and we need to catch three more individuals for the radio-tags.  Enrico and I could observe several Alpine Choughs (flocks up to 12 individuals) feeding on grasslands but they feed especially near the snow-patches even now that there are fewer and fewer areas covered in snow. We decided to use the same method as the one we used in Cervinia (i.e. clap-nets with bread and raisins as bait) but here they are wary and avoid our nets trying to get around the trap with short hops. Even though they seem very interested in bread, they look at the nets carefully and they rarely go near them. Their gregarious spirit is manifest: they very seldom fly alone while there are usually couples or groups with some individuals flying and exploiting a patch together and when a member fl

                                           The area we used to place nets was free from snow As concern the catches, the project is moving ahead. The first days of fieldwork in Cervinia showed a completely different snow situation compared to the one we saw in Mont Avic (as shown in the picture above): Enrico and I were in the surrounding areas to the town, around 2000 masl and there were no snow at all. But fortunately as soon as we arrived, we saw small flocks of Alpine Choughs flying around over the cliffs and then landing on pastures and feeding. Therefore we placed the clap-net and the nylon nooses in the area just at the bottom of the cliffs on a flat grassland with a few bushes and we used big pieces of bread to catch their attention and raisins as baits.  They immediately seemed attracted by our baits and started flying over the zone. Unfortunately there were some other species interested in the food we left in the nets and in particular the zone was often freq

After months of waiting the time had come: the first day of fieldwork in Val Troncea with my supervisor Dan Chamberlain. We arrived in Val Troncea around 08.00h in the morning and made our way up to the study area. While climbing up the mountain, we could already hear some Western Bonelli's Warbler, Garden Warbler, Rock Buntings, Whinchats and Tree Pipits singing at lower elevations. Also some Long-tailed Tits have been jumping through the trees and we could spot some signs of the Black Woodpecker – a rare species in this area. When we finally arrived at the study site, we were surprised by the huge amounts of snow which were still in the area. All Rhododendron and Juniper shrubs have been covered by a thick layer of snow. Nevertheless, birds were singing! Besides Ring Ouzels, Linnets and Lesser Whitethroats, we could also map our first singing Dunnocks. In total, we counted seven singing individuals and some of them were found in the old territories of last year.

The project starts with the catches: the aim is to put some radio-tags in order to study their movements through telemetry, to ring them, to obtain some biological samples (faeces, feathers and blood) and to have an overall view of their body conditions. The first survey in Mont Avic Natural Park was realized near Ajassa stream, close by Dondena refuge, on the northern slope where there were just some patches of ground free from snow (as shown by the picture). The area was still partially covered with snow There were three of us since my colleague Enrico and I worked with the director of the park and we reached the point of survey around 10 am. As soon as we arrived we saw some Alpine Choughs flying over the area, landing and eating on snow (where we could find small diptera) and on the surrounding ground patches, therefore we decided to place some clap -nets and different nylon nooses, using raisins as bait, on a patch that we could easily monitor from distance.  We