November survey in Mont Avic

Dondena area in Mont Avic Natural Park

 And we are back to the mountains!

My colleague and I had a two days fieldwork in Mont Avic Natural Park: our goal was to find a suitable site for placing traps and to give it a try in catching some Apine Choughs.

Since it had snowed we knew that they were frequenting lower altitudes and therefore we thought to place both mistnets and clapnets around 1600 masl; unfortunately snow melting had left lots of grasslands patches free from snow and therefore we found the choughs around 2000 masl, foraging on grasslands and shrubs (especially on Juniper). We used the first day trying to understand how to be successfull with the captures and making some attempts with the clapnets but even if they foraged in the area where our traps were present, they seemed not to be attracted by the baits (raisin, bread and apple like always). 

So the first day ended  without captures and samples, but with frozen feet. 

On the second day we placed our four clapnets and two mistnets: as concerns the former, we placed them in the same area choughs frequented the day before while as regards the latter, we decided to position them on a ridge where Juniperus plants grow and we had seen them eating berries.

During that fieldwork day we had 5 captures: 4 young individuals and 1 adult had been trapped in the clapnets. As demonstrated by the pictures below it's easy to identify juveniles since they have black ending part of the beak and legs and moreover they show a pink beak internal part, while in adults it's black.

So we ended the second day with captures and samples...and frozen feet.

A young individual being ringed: the beak shows a darker part on the top and legs are blackish

The young individual is recognizable thanks to the dark beak tip