Sunday 17th of April

This morning we were out bright an early for the next session at Portstewart Strand.  John and I were joined by a new trainee ringer from County Donegal who managed to arrive shortly after 6am after departing the house at 04.15 - good to see some commitment!  The weather was settled to start with good cloud cover but it broke up through the morning leaving fairly sunny conditions.  The wind picked up to 20+ mph from the west late morning and ended the session (including one net full of sticks and brambles which took 15 minutes to clear).    
Steve was out ringing by himself in a site near Omagh out in the west. 

Lesser Redpoll

The male Willow Warblers are now back in force at PSS with 25+ singing males scattered throughout the scrub.  Four birds were captured including two more returning birds originally ringed in April last year. The only other notable change in birds were a single Swallow, an increase in Lesser Redpolls and Black-tailed Godwits plus the absence of Black-headed Gulls.
A total of 24 birds were processed, ten of those new, the best bird was a new male Reed Bunting.
Steve caught nine new birds with three Siskin, five Goldfinch and one Willow Warbler. 


Combined ringing totals 17/04/2016
                                  New       Retraps          

Blackbird                                    3      

Chaffinch                    1               2

Dunnock                     1               3                                                    

Goldfinch                    5                                                                      

Lesser Redpoll           4               1

Linnet                                          1               

Reed Bunting             1                          

Robin                          1               2         

Siskin                          3

Willow Warbler           3              2                      

Total                          19              14          

Reed Bunting

On Saturday morning I made a quick visit to the Bird Hide in the Bann Estuary and picked up a new colour ringed Black-tailed Godwit, as seen below and also the first few Whimbrel of the year with ten birds.

Colour ringed Black-tailed Godwit