December 1998 
9 
the nimbus clouds, which secaed endless, unfolded one 
after the other as we approached the Budapest Ferihegy 
Airport. My dreams had finally come true I was in 
Europe! 
Ocsa Landscape Reserve lies Northeast erf the capital 
Budapest The Reserve is predominantly a wetland 
representing a restoration/ reclamation work of an old 
peat-mine, dominated l jy Sedges of the genus Cares 
and Reeds ( Phragmites australis). Forests of varied 
species composition, characteristic of Eastern Europe 
surround these expanses of wetlands. Notable species 
include the Willow (Salix spp) common in wet places. 
Elderberry ( Sambuccus spp) and Poplar ( Populus spp) 
among other species. 
VOLUNTEERS TEAM 
The Old World Song Bird team II consisted of five 
volunteers, teachers by profession from Great Britain: 
Lynn. Neil, lan, Hughes and Hazel, an MSc. Research 
student from a Zoology Institute in Germany; two 
Kenyans, Willis, a Tour Guide, and myself and a number 
of Hungarian Volunteers. We also had visitors from 
Florence in Italy and UK who stayed for a short time at 
the station. 
THE PROJECT 
Migration has long been a mystery for many a scientist, 
and although a lot of research has been carried out in 
this field, some of the fly ways still lack a comprehensive 
database The Eastern fly way covering eastern /southern 
Europe and Eastern Africa falls into this category 
The Ocsa Bird Ringing Station has been running 
for the last 14 years and is one of the oldest in Europe. 
Its objective is to developing a comprehensive database 
for migratory birds, which could in future be used for 
monitoring purposes In Kenya (East Africa) ringing is 
done at Ngulia in Tsavo west National Reserve 
Project Design 
Mist nets were set up to cover at least seven different 
habitats representing the different stages of wetland 
succession: wet reeds, forest wood, dry reeds, dams, 
and disturbed habitats (close to farms and human 
habitats), all covering about 2400m of net line. 
Mist Net Control 
“Control Time" had almost become our anthem. Birds 
came before everything else and we'd all gather at the 
bird processing station, starling at 6;00a.m. and ending 
at 9 00 p.m. Control bags bearing different colours for 
easy identification were distributed to the team leaders 
of the different groups. Groups’ composition and 
leadership kept changing in every control lime (I had 
time to chat and laugh with a different person in every 
control time). At least two to four volunteers would 
visit each of the control sites. It took me two days to 
learn how to extract birds from the nets and in each day 
I had a new thing to learn from the Hungarian ringers 
and other volunteers. It was all fun in serious business. 
In the cooler mornings, controls would be done at 
intervals of one hour and as the temperatures rose in 
the course of the day, controls would be done at intervals 
of half an hour Birds would comfortably stay longer in 
the nets in the cooler mornings than in the heat of the 
day. We also did cleaning up of mist nets especially on 
the windy days. 
Bird Processing . 
This was mainly done by the Principal Investigator (PI) 
and other licensed Hungarian Ringers. Hungarian 
volunteers also did data documentation. The Principal 
Investigator would occasionally demonstrate the banding 
process, species identification, fixing of the ring, aging 
procedure, sex determination, moult stage, and fat score 
among other biometrics. Fat and muscle score needed 
a lot of experience and expertise, especially because it 
goes with a lot of subjectivity and personal judgement. 
This was overcome by having only the PI and two other 
licensed and experienced ringers processing the birds 
to avoid wide variations and to ensure consistency 
Young birds, birds suspected to belong to one family, 
and those caught at night would be returned to the site 
where they were trapped, or released away from the 
light respectively, to avoid confusing them. 
Capture Results 
Results of the second week had not been compiled by 
the time the fellowship period was ending However in 
the first week about 60 species were caught and 
processed, out of which 347 individuals were new 
catches and 203 were recaptures At rot ephuliix 
sarpa irons and Sylvia aliricttpilla dominated the 
catches. Other species included Nightingale. Nuthatch. 
Water Rail. Jays, and we were also lucky one of the 
mornings with a bird of prey, the Common Buzzard 
The highlight of the week w-as a FYndulmc Tit ringed in 
Slovenia, Yugoslavia, and recaptured on the 7th of 
August 1998. It was thought to be a resident, which 
had probably migrated to breed in Yugoslavia 
Insects Abundance & Diversity Study 
Besides acting as a breeding site for migratory birds, 
Ocsa Landscape is an important refueling station The 
importance of a refueling station is dependent on the 
diversity and abundance of food resource. During my 
fellowship period. 1 participated in this study as an 
assistant to Marc (from Germany) who was doing the 
study. The study was designed to try and establish the 
abundance and diversity of insects at different control 
sites using the sticky plates method and to find out if 
there is any correlation between these two parameters 
and bird catches per site We were a'so testing the 
effectiveness of different sizes of sticky plates (20X20 
cm, I0X 10 cm & 5X5 cm). 
Over a period of years such data could be useful as 
a monitoring tool for migratory species especially 
