CRAKES ON PASSAGE IN BRAZO DEL ESTE, SEVILLA, SW SPAIN

From late February but specially in March an April crakes occur in this natural park close to Sevilla city and just in the area of Doñana. A very transformed area into rice paddies and other crops but still with natural wetlands inside the farmlands. In the eastern margin of the river Guadalquivir. In fact, it´s the only place in many kilometers with natural habitats in the left margin of the old delta.

three views of Brazo del Este, Sevilla, SW Spain

Trapping sessions for ringing are been carrying out by the author. The first results encourage to keep on the investigation about these species although large patience is needed.

Spotted crake 11 March 2016

Spotted crake 1 April 2016

Kind regards from Sevilla. J. David

La migración de polluelas en la zona del Brazo del Este, espacio natural al sur de Sevilla, única zona con habitats naturales en muchos kilómetros de la margen izquierda del río Gudalquivir, es especialmente visible en Marzo y Abril. Se están llevando a cabo jornadas de trampeo por parte del autor que arrojan los primeros resultados. Se muestran dos fotos de la primeras polluelas pintojas capturadas para anillamiento. Saludos desde Sevilla. J. David.

ZAPORNIA PUSILLA (BAILLON´S CRAKE) RINGED IN BRAZO DE ESTE, SEVILA, SW SPAIN

On 2nd August I catch and ring this juvenie Bailon´s crake




It had an advanced plumage after postjuvenile mout.In fact, it was still moulting. This is the back pattern















Here you have a Google image of the place

This was the inly crake trapped that day. I´ll be trying in some weeks.

Regards to my colegue Nina Seifert.

Kind Regards.

J. David

Se muestran 2 fotos de a polluela chica que anillé el pasado 2 de agosto en el Brazo del Este, Sevilla (Marismas del Guadalquivir). Tenéis una imagen de Google del lugar. Se trata de un ejemplar juvenil con plumaje avanzado, con muda postjuvenil aún en curso. 

Saudos.

J. David

NEW SCIENTIFIC NAME FOR BAILLON´S CRAKE

 Porzana pusilla is now Zaponia pusilla if we follow the recommendation in

del Hoyo, J.; Collar, N. J.; Christie, D. A.; Elliott, A.; Fishpool, L. D. C. 2014. HBW and BirdLife International Illustrated Checklist of the Birds of the World. Lynx Edicions BirdLife International.

Although you can find Porzana pusilla in many pages in the internet, specially those before 2014, a lot of others have chage to Zapornia. So, I´l use this name from now.

I´m not taxonomist, so I can´t say wich one is more correct. I think the authors above must have good reasons.

Anyway, I´ll keep Porzana in the old articles in order to help anyone searching for crakes in the internet.

Regards

J. David

Long time after the last publication in this blog. Many problems....but I´m still here. Thank you to be still there. Mis disculpas a los que no leen en inglés. Prometo escribir en español en cuanto pueda.

Rice fields have became one of the most important habitat for rallids in Spain and, probably, in hole Europe.
All rallids of "walking morphology", those adapted to walk on floating plants, mud or shallow water, find in rice paddies cover and sources of food.
In the marshes of Guadalquivir (SW Spain), including Doñana area, I´ve found  4 species breeding in rice fields and one more on passade. The breeders are Purple gallinule (Porphyrio porphyrio), Moorhen (Gallinula chloropus), Water rail (Rallus aquaticus) and Baillon´s crake (Porzana pusilla). On passage, Spotted crake (Porzana porzana) is found every year.

adult Baillon´s crake with chicks in a rice field in Sevilla, SW Spain (photo Miguel Ángel Rojas)

Probably all other rallids recorded in Iberian Peninsula can be found in rice paddies at any moment of the year. However, the intensification of the technics of growing rice and the use of several chemical products could play an important role in the use of this habitat and breeding success for these and all the other species (herons, egrets, greebs, passerines).

Nevertheless, the huge size of the area of rice cultivation in Spain (and so in Italy and many other countries) offer many possibilities. Only in Sevilla area, some 36000 ha are occupied. But the densities can be very low and fluctiating. This is what I´m investigating at the momeny. I´d like to use this space to share with you every new I could find. I hpoe you will be there....... Regards

J. David Muñoz

EL CERNÍCALO VULGAR (Falco tinnunculus) DEPREDA SOBRE LA POLLUELA CHICA. KESTREL FEEDS ON BAILLON´S CRAKE

En Doñana existe algún Cernícalo vulgar (Falco tinnunculus) que vive en la marisma gracias a viejas construcciones y que se ha especializado en la caza de aves, siendo la Polluela chica (Porzana pusilla) una de sus principales presas. Hemos encontrado restos en dormideros de cernícalo que pueden verse en la foto.

There´s any Kestrel (Falco tinunculus) living at Doñana marshes thanks to old buildings specilized in hunting small birds. Baillon´s crake (Porzana pusilla) is one of the main preys. You can see in the picture some of the remains found.

En esta imagen pueden verse los restos dejados por el cernícalo, donde se aprecian numerosas plumas de polluela chica y de lavandera boyera (Motacilla flava). Fotos de Martin Schuck.

You can see in this picture many feathers left by the kestrel of Baillón´s crake and of Motacilla flava. Pictures from Martin Schuck.

PROYECTO PORZANA PUSILLA IN DOÑANA

Desde Abril, un equipo hispano-alemán intenta arrojar luces sobre esta especie en la marisma del parque nacional Doñana. A pesar de las muchas dificultades, hemos logrado algunos resultados interesantes, de los que les muestro algunos ejemplos. Las fotgrafías se las debemos, principalmente, a mi colega Martin Schuck, buen conocedor de la especie, así como algunas grabaciones de voces.

Since April, a spanish-german team tries to shed light about Baillon´s crake in the marsh of Doñana national park. Despite many difficulties, we have got some interesting results. I show some examples. The pictures and voice records are from my colegue Marting Schuck, becoming a specialist in the species.

                                 algunas de las polluelas chicas (Porzana pusilla) adultas anilladas                                        several adult Baillon´s crakes (Porzana pusilla) ringed

Lejos de poder hacer estimas poblacionales totales, sí podemos constatar que hay poblaciones relativamente densas en el interior de la marisma, así como zonas en las que parece no existir la especie. Al tiempo de escribir estas líneas, hay algunos machos cantando, lo que nos hace sospechar que estamos ante la segunda puesta de algunas parejas. No obstante, los niveles de agua puede que no sean suficientes para que tengan éxito.

Although we can´t make stimations of total population, we can ensure there´re some relatively dense populations and zones with aparenttely no crakes at all. At the current time of these lines, several singing males make us to suspect there must be a second clutch for those pairs. However, the water levels could not be enough for theses clutches to success.

También hallamos "falsos nidos" (nidos que no se llegan a terminar ni utilizar), como el de la imagen.

We found "false nests" (nests that are not finished neither used), like this one in the picture.

Más en breve.......

LA DISPERSIÓN DE JÓVENES DE POLLUELA CHICA EN EL BRAZO DEL ESTE / DISPERSION OF YOUNG BAILLON´S CRAKES IN BRAZO DEL ESTE (SEVILLA, SPAIN)

estas fotos corresponden a distintas polluelas chicas jóvenes del año observadas en el Brazo del Este en Junio de 2009