Cranes and geese

På senare år har antalet häckande grågäss samt rastande sädgäss och tranor ökat kraftigt i Kvismaren. Den första arten som nådde stora antal var de rastande sädgässen i början av 1980-talet. De sädgäss som rastar i Kvismaren är huvudsakligen skogssädgäss och befinner sig i området under september och november. Därefter flyger de till övervintringslokalerna i Skåne och Danmark och återvänder sedan till någon av de stora rastplatserna i februari–mars innan de flyttar vidare till Finland och Ryssland.

Black-headed gull

At the beginning of the 1990's attention was drawn to the fact that the Black-headed Gull population declined in all of Sweden, a national project was initiated to investigate the causes and Kvismare Bird Observatory participated in a study in Rysjön’s colony. The production of juveniles was measured, nestling weight at different ages and predation was studied. It was found that too few young birds survived and these results were applied to more places around Sweden.

Bird Ringing

Bird ringing is the most time consuming activity at the bird observatory, starting after midsummer and continuing for the remainder of the season until the end of September. When the weather is favourable, ringing takes place every morning from sunrise to noon.

The ringing is standardised which means that the same number of mist nets are used at the same sites year after year. Through this standardisation it is possible to compare different years and analyse changes in the bird populations.