Back To The Fut... reality

The weather finally broke at the start of the week and we are back to the typical Irish weather of wind and rain.  I'm not sure I recall such a prolonged, settled spell here in Northern Ireland for many years.   The forecast this morning was for dry weather but with winds rising to 18mph.  We decided to give it a go, although we weren't overly hopeful.  In terms of nets, we stuck to the more sheltered spots in the scrub, so were reduced on our usual coverage.

Redwings

At first light there appeared to be plenty of thrushes in the scrub, including 100+ Redwing.  Linnet numbers have also risen with larger flocks roving about.  Other sightings included 1 Kestrel, 1 Sparrowhawk, 27 Whooper Swan, 6 Light-bellied Brent Geese and c45 Greenfinch feeding on rose hips, away from the ringing site.  Things died off after 8am as the winds picked up and this was also the case in the ringing.
The nets caught a lot today, but not as hoped (but expected), with a ratio of ten leaves for every one bird!  We totalled nine new birds with four Redwing, one Blackcap, one Blackbird, one Goldfinch, one Great Tit and one Wren.  We didn't catch any birds after 08.30, so packed up early and headed for home. 

I've finally managed to get some time to update the ringing records and I have attached a copy of the ringing totals for Portstewart Strand below.  Thus far it has been a fairly pleasing season, with a good spread of species.  We will probably wrap it up at the site at the end of November, so hopefully we can add a few more new species in that time.  We wouldn't say no to another rarity!

	Species	New	Retrap	Control	Total
1	Blackbird	38	12		50
2	Blackcap	32	2		34
3	Blue Tit	8	4		12
4	Bullfinch	31	25		56
5	Chaffinch	13	3		16
6	Chiffchaff	3			3
7	Dunnock	40	45		85
8	Coal Tit	5	3		8
9	Goldcrest	9	8		17
10	Goldfinch	51	1		52
11	Grasshopper Warbler	1			1
12	Great Tit	7	3		10
13	Lesser Redpoll	59	1		60
14	Linnet	28	2		30
15	Meadow Pipit	127	4		131
16	Redwing	10			10
17	Reed Bunting	15	2		17
18	Robin	35	13		48
19	Sand Martin	3			3
20	Sedge Warbler	3	2	1	6
21	Skylark	4			4
22	Song Thrush	24	4		28
23	Sparrowhawk	2			2
24	Starling	1			1
25	Stonechat	9	3		12
26	Willow Warbler	59	12		71
27	Woodpigeon	1			1
28	Wren	29	30		59
29	Yellow-browed Warbler	1			1
	Total	648	179	1	828



We have received word back from the BTO on the movements of a Storm Petrel and Black-headed Gull.  The Storm Petrel was a bird ringed by us on the 27th of August 2014 and it was re-caught by another ringed 332 days later.  The bird was trapped on Papa Westray, Orkney at a straight line distance of  518 km.  I have updated the totals and maps in the tabs above.

Storm Petrel movement



For details on the Black-headed Gull check out the Northern Ireland Black-headed Gull Survey blog -  http://bhgullsni.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/black-headed-gull-el72723.html
 

Black-headed Gull movement