Nelson is a good friend of ours from Sontule who came to my classes. Apart from being an enthusiastic student and a hard-working farmer he also studies birds in the Miraflor national park and keeps records of the species that he spots. Part of that work is trapping in nets to record the passing of migratory birds.
We got up nice and early and once the cows were milked and we had a bit of food in us we set off with Nelson, his two daughters and Rachel's cousin Johnny, getting a good 6am introduction to the Nicaraguan countryside on only his second morning in the country. We had already prepared two nets the night before and only had to open them out and we set up another one 50m away. Then we lay in wait a few rows of coffee bushes away.
The first couple of times we checked, the nets were empty and we were beginning to wonder if there were any birds at all. But soon they started to turn up. It was very fiddly getting the birds untangled without hurting them so we left that bit to Nelson. Once out they were popped in a sack.
Back at our little den it was time to search through the books to identify what had got itself stuck in the nets.
Some birds were calmer than others.
Everyone had a go at identifying, a task that proved very tricky at times when faced with a page of ten small green hummingbirds with just a fleck of white or a dark beak to separate them.
We trapped nine birds altogether, including four different kinds of hummingbird. It was a lovely morning, very interesting, and in great company.
Nelson is a good friend of ours from Sontule who came to my classes. Apart from being an enthusiastic student and a hard-working farmer he also studies birds in the Miraflor national park and keeps records of the species that he spots. Part of that work is trapping in nets to record the passing of migratory birds.
We got up nice and early and once the cows were milked and we had a bit of food in us we set off with Nelson, his two daughters and Rachel's cousin Johnny, getting a good 6am introduction to the Nicaraguan countryside on only his second morning in the country. We had already prepared two nets the night before and only had to open them out and we set up another one 50m away. Then we lay in wait a few rows of coffee bushes away.
The first couple of times we checked, the nets were empty and we were beginning to wonder if there were any birds at all. But soon they started to turn up. It was very fiddly getting the birds untangled without hurting them so we left that bit to Nelson. Once out they were popped in a sack.
Back at our little den it was time to search through the books to identify what had got itself stuck in the nets.
Some birds were calmer than others.
Everyone had a go at identifying, a task that proved very tricky at times when faced with a page of ten small green hummingbirds with just a fleck of white or a dark beak to separate them.
We trapped nine birds altogether, including four different kinds of hummingbird. It was a lovely morning, very interesting, and in great company.
1 comment:
Nice picture!!
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