Monday 29 August 2011

Waders on Kopački rit and BHGs accross the Europe

On Thursday Vedran, Davor, Sven, Višnja and I went to Kopački Rit Nature Park to catch some waders.

There is place at Kopacko Lake that can hold up to 1500 Spotted Redshanks. As it's flooding area it is highly dependent on Dunav water level. We were keeping an eye on the it and decided that Thursday is the day.
We got there at around 1 pm and started to fill the boat with our stuff.

Five of us were in one boat and equipment in another.



There was slight possibility that we couldn't get into the lake with boats, but in the end we managed somehow..In next few hours we put the nets(almost 200 meters) and camp up an were waiting for the night.



Before we put the nets we checked the area and saw around 200 waders , mostly Spotted Redshanks..We decided to raise nets at 8pm and first visit was at around 21:30.. It was not much.. :( just five birds :(  3 Greenshanks,1 Spotted Redshank and 1 Curlew Sandpiper).. Second visit was 3 birds ; Greenshank, Snipe and wood Sandpiper.. 





After that we decided to go home next day.. All in all it was very nice but not that successful trip...
Few more photos of the area:
fogy morning

our camp

Kopacko Lake

roosting Cormorants








My problem is that I'm starting to think that there are no good places in Croatia to catch waders.. We were thinking of taking cannon nets but we gave up that in the end and it was good idea because there were no dry places where waders were resting... Only thing we have left are flocks in winter and on spring migration.. Hope to try that next winter..

In last few weeks I got some recoveries of our BHGs, mostly from Poland, Germany, Hungary and Neatherlands. I got most western recovery of one of our BHGs from Vilvoorde (Vlaams-Brabant/Belgium) from Maurice Segers. It seems that they are still in the north.. I can't wait to try my new net this winter  :)



There are still few more days for registration for the IGM in Zagreb and all of you  who are thinking of coming, please send me notification so that I can do the calculation of the fee and other things.. Second announcement will be in some two weeks..