Cleaning ladies and bouncing balls

This week was all about Great Tits, strangely enough. On Wednesday morning we went out to ‘help’ with catching and ringing the birds. To catch the birds in daylight our field technician Piet uses mist nets. Piet is an amazing man that knows a lot about the Great Tits and has been working with them at Westerheide for decades. Mist nets are nets that are composed of such thin strings that the birds can’t see them and so they fly right into it. Although they end up in the most strange positions (if you do yoga you can make yourself an image), but they are not harmed by it. Of course a lot of different species end up in these nets. In the three times I have seen them being used these last two weeks we had the pleasure of meeting: Greater Spotted Woodpecker, Marsh Tit, Finch, Long-tailed Tit, Blue Tit and European Greenfinch. Oh and we caught some Great Tits too!

The Great Tits that had not been caught before we took to the NIOO for the ‘Exploration Test’ the next morning. In this test we release the bird in a novel room with five artificial ‘trees’ for 2 to 10 minutes. In total 6 birds needed to be tested and I had to learn how to do it. Together with Piet we sit in front of a window (we can see them, they can’t see us) and score the amounts of hops and flights they make. The differences between the birds are remarkable! Ranging from one little lady directly taking place on one of the trees and cleaning herself the next 5 minutes to another bird acting like he had just swallowed a bouncing ball: Tree 1, Tree 2, Wall 2, Ceiling, Door, Floor, Tree 5, Ceiling, Window, Tree 4, Wall 3, Tree 1, Cage Entrance, Tree 3 within 2 minutes (and that is leaving out the hops and jumps to other braches!). At the end of one of the test we have to get in to catch the bird, but before that we have to know where it is. However, when it sits on the floor right in front of the door we can’t see it. So Piet and me both stood up to see if we could find one of the birds and then it suddenly (in the exact same moment) flew in front of the window. Ok, reading it back it does not sound very scary, but in that moment, I can assure you, it was quite scary! No, really! Those little black-yellow birds, sure know how to surprise you. Of course, we also had a little fly-away: our little cleaning lady. The lesson learned: never trust the quiet ones! We could catch her in the hallway with a net and a ladder. The smart little lady was sitting really quiet in one of the corners of the ceiling. If we had not seen her fly over there, I wouldn’t have been surprised if we wouldn’t have found her for hours. That is the nice thing of working really close with your study species, you just learn to respect them so much more!

In the afternoon I also had to learn how to get blood samples. Well if you think the birds are small, try looking at the veins! But as Piet nicely put it: “The second bird went very well”. No worries, that afternoon all birds were released back in good health in the forest where they came from.

One more thing (as I am already over 550 words again): www.beleefdelente.nl!!! This amazing site created by Vogelbescherming Nederland, will go live again from March 1 onwards. With webcams you can spy on the breeding ecology of 11 Dutch birds. Of course the Great Tit will also be there. Peter de Vries, a colleague of mine at the NIOO, will keep a journal for the Great Tits on the website and I will be the Great Tit Classroom Expert for the Junior version of the site: www.beleefdelentejunior.nl. This means that once a week I will be chatting with kids from primary schools so they can ask all kinds of questions to me about the Great Tits and I can overload them with fun facts about why Great Tits (together with Barnacle Geese of course) are the most awesome birds. It is so very rewarding that I can contribute a little bit to the understanding, respect and protection of our Dutch breeding birds. Yes, I am an idealist. Sue me!