© Christophe Hochard / RTL
The Schlammwiss nature reserve, Luxembourg's main bird-ringing site and largest reed bed, hosts year-round monitoring, migration stopovers and wintering birds, offering vital scientific insights into species' movements through ringing, tracking, and educational activities.
At the Schlammwiss nature reserve, bird ringing takes place throughout the year. From 15 March to 15 November it is carried out daily, and afterwards every Saturday. A dedicated team from natur&ëmwelt oversees the work, and the reserve also hosts guided tours and educational visits: around eighty of them this year.
Many species also overwinter here, making the site a year-round hub for bird activity. The association natur&ëmwelt carries out continuous monitoring to track the birds that depend on the reserve.
According to Jim Schmitz, who runs the bird-ringing station for natur&ëmwelt, recoveries of ringed birds have shown that many winter robins, for example, come from places such as northern Moscow or Scandinavia. To illustrate where they spend the colder months, he explained that birds ringed in the Schlammwiss have later been found as far away as Portugal.
Around eighty robins stay in the Syrdall nature reserve over winter. From mid-November until late February or early March, these birds remain close to the reed beds to make it through the cold months. Each individual bird is ringed, allowing researchers to collect data on migration patterns. Others are fitted with tiny transmitters to gather even more precise information.
Schmitz explained that the reserve is home to various types of birds: resident species such as crows and woodpeckers that do not migrate at all, winter visitors such as pipits and northern robins that stay here for the cold season, and water rails that remain in Luxembourg, though some travel as far as Portugal. Fewer birds stay over winter, he added, but each species provides valuable data.
Thanks to shared ringing data, researchers have discovered that the marsh warbler winters in South Africa and moults in Sudan on the way back. Its return journey covers 10,000km in just six weeks.
