Bann Estuary Waders 2019

As usual we've struggled to match up the ideal tides that fall over a couple of days every two weeks after sunset, with some ideal weather and availability of a suitable team (some of the older guys play bowls 😅) but we did succeed twice.
The first of these visits was on the 7th of August with myself, John, Abbie, Rich K and John S. The catch was steady over the few hours of darkness in the three nets and produced a new species for us - Greenshank.
In the end we managed to catch 3 Greenshank, 18 Dunlin and 14 Redshank plus a BTO control.

Greenshank

In 2018 there were only 18 Greenshank caught across the UK and Ireland and between 1952-2018 there were just 53 trapped across Ireland, 12 in Northern Ireland since 1977, so a very good catch indeed. Interestingly there were 7/8 present and we did try a range of their own calls but they only came into the mixed tape to roost.

Knot

The next session was two weeks later on the 21st of August, again with help from Abbie & Rich supported by Ken. We reduced the number of nets down to a single 12mx12m V net set and had to work with higher water levels in the shallow pools.
The catch wasn't quite as large as two weeks previous but we did get slightly more diversity with four species. We added a new species for the Bann Estuary with a Knot which are normally scarce here but there were up to 46 present over a few weeks this August.

Black-tailed Godwit

The final catch was 15 Redshank, 8 Dunlin, 2 Black-tailed Godwits and the single Knot. Before the waders I set a single net along a thin strip of phragmites reeds and managed to catch 10 Swallows with a number of others attracted in as we took the net down.

Barn Swallow

The controlled Redshank was originally ringed in Kent in the south-east of England on the 30th of August in 2018. Going by the wing length of the bird we presumed it to be Icelandic and it may well have been on route to the south-east of England or further south for the winter once again.

We're now approaching the end of October so it is unlikely we will do much more wader ringing in the estuary but we may get out along the Causeway Coast.

New Recoveries including a first movement for NI!

We've had a three more of our birds recovered outside of Northern Ireland and received details of a colour ringed bird in the Bann Estuary.

The details of the star bird came through last night from the BTO and it was a very pleasant surprise. One of our juvenile Stonechats which we ringed on the 13th of July, fresh out of the nest at Portstewart Strand was controlled at the Calf of Man Bird Observatory on the Isle of Man on the 23rd of March this year. A minimum distance of  176km and 253 days in between. It is very likely that the distance was much further and that this bird actually spent the winter further south and was captured at the Calf on its way back north - hopefully to the Bann Estuary once more. This is at least our 9th exchange with the observatory having had two of our Goldfinches trapped there and exchanged 6+ Storm Petrels. 

On checking the other Northern Irish recoveries for Stonechat into/out of the country, it turns out that this is the first! For the Republic of Ireland there have only been two but they were impressive movements to Spain from the south coast one in 1960's and the other in early 1970's. 

Next up was another of our Sedge Warblers from Blackers Rock, Lough Neagh, ringed as a juvenile on the 22nd of July 2018. It was a fast mover being trapped 15 days later at Sant-Philbert-de-Grand-Lieu, Loire-Atlantique, France, 897km away, on its way south to sub-Saharan Africa. The movement might have been even quicker as the bird hasn't necessarily left Lough Neagh straight after ringing and could have spent another week along the lough shore. 

The third recovery was a Siskin which has moved up to Cromdale in the Highlands of Scotland. The bird was ringed in Kens garden on the 12th of April 2018 before been recaptured 311k away on the 19th of March this year. This is the third Siskin control/recovery in Kens garden in 2018 following another Scottish bird and the Cape Clear bird. 

The colour ringed bird was a Black-tailed Godwit which has appeared with hundreds of others in the Bann Estuary in recent weeks. The bird seemed familiar at the time and it turns out I have seen it twice before. The bird was ringed as an adult male in northern Iceland and has been sighted eight times since including England, Republic of Ireland and back in Iceland. 

End of summer update

Yet again I have been slacking with the blog updates following a holiday in Hungary & Slovakia and I'm currently in the process of moving in to my new house. I'll hopefully get sorted in the next week or two and be back in action.
I received some great news from the BTO midweek to say that my application was successful and I have now been granted my A permit and I am also now registered as a ringing trainer!

So...... we have been semi-busy in the past 6 weeks with some more Storm Petrel ringing, general passerines, a trip to Copeland Bird Observatory, waders and we have been back down to Lough Neagh.


Lough Neagh, Take Two

Back on the 13th of August, John, Steve and I met with Godfrey and returned to the west shore of Lough Neagh where we had the very productive catch of 102 birds on the 16th of July.  We had another brilliant session with a slightly lower catch of 93 new birds but it did consist of a greater diversity and a fantastic 17 Reed Warblers taking us to 30 for the year. As an extra to the two nets we used the last time, we placed a net across the channel that separates the island from the mainland which is much closer to the wet woodland and it produced the majority of the Blackcap, Chiffchaff and Willow Warbler.
You'd like to think one or two of these 150+ acros will produce a recovery on the way south or during a later migration.

Reed Warbler

Lough Neagh                            
                                       New       

Blackcap                        17                                           
Blue Tit                           2                                              
Chiffchaff                        2            
Reed Warbler                17
Sedge Warbler               38
Sparrowhawk                  1
Willow Warbler              8                                        
Wren                                1               

Totals                              93                  

Sparrowhawk

We plan to return next year from mid to late summer and, with the right team, work the site to its full potential - 250-300 birds in a morning? A few trainees would be handy to carry the gear as the 1 mile walk through soaking reeds and swarms of flies is tough going :P



Mist-netting Waders

On August 25th John and I had a bash at mist-nesting some roosting waders with a decent forecast and a workable tide. With just the two of us on hand we stuck with just two 12m nets in a V over the main pool playing the 'Killer Redshank' tape. Ideally we could have had high tide two hours later and a bit of cloud cover but it wasn't bad.
There were plenty of birds about through the evening including 3 Greenshank, 2 Whimbrel and 100's of Curlew & Black-tailed Godwit and c30 Redshank. Early on there were 20 Teal in the pool but they were flushed by a Peregrine which I only noticed when 2 Teal landed right in front of me, which I thought was weird, when the Peregrine whizzed by and tried to nab them.

Black-tailed Godwit 

With the nets open we waited for darkness, catching one Redshank early on. The roosting birds began to move about around an hour after sundown and we ended the night with 16 birds of four species.

Curlew

Grangemore Waders
Species                       Ringed

Black-tailed Godwit      2
Curlew                           2
Dunlin                            2
Redshank                      10

Total                              16

Dunlin

We had hoped to have a few more attempts through September, as well as some Swallow roost catches but as mentioned I've not had the time but there are still a few weeks left yet to make it happen! 


Storm Petrels

On the Storm Petrel front we made our last two attempts of the season (six in total), again with a few visitors, this time from Northumberland.  We added another 5 new Storm Petrels and one control, taking us to a year total of 44 new, 1 retrap and 3 controls, which is our lowest since we started studying the species. We have yet to submit the details of the last control as yet but hope to sort that over the next month.

Storm Petrel

We had a little more luck with Redshank adding another 7 birds.

 Next stop Tiree in a due north path

Portstewart Strand

We have had three visits to Portstewart Strand on the 20th & 27th August and the 17th September and the combined ringing totals are below. There have been a few odds and sods around the estuary and my species total as of 19th Sep is now up to 115 including a roosting Long-eared Owl, Curlew Sandpiper, Sooty Shearwater, Great Skua and finally my first Collared Dove after 4/5 years of waiting! I've also been missed plenty in the estuary in the past month with Osprey, Sabines Gull (which would both be NI ticks for me), Little Stint, Arctic Skua and Ruff sighted by others. 

The Blue and Great Tits all appeared on the 17th September with 4 of the Chaffinches showing the changing of the guard. The final Willow Warbler of the year was caught on the 27th of August, one day earlier than the final bird of 2016. The Starling was caught in an evening catch.

Starling

 Portstewart Strand/Grangemore                            
                                       New       Retrap    

Blackcap                         11
Blue Tit                            3              1                 
Bullfinch                          2              1
Chaffinch                         5                                                       
Dunnock                          5              2
Goldcrest                         7              4
Goldfinch                        1
Great Tit                         5                        
Lesser Redpoll                2                                   
Linnet                              6          
Meadow Pipit                                  1  
Reed Bunting                  3
Robin                               5               1
Starling                           1                          
Willow Warbler             1                                        
Wren                               5             

Totals                              62              10                

We are approaching peak season at Portstewart Strand and John has 3 weeks of holidays coming up so we will be hoping for plenty more ringing in the coming weeks. We have also not had a suitable team where we can use all the nets so it will be nice to have some of the lesser-spotted trainees in tow.



Copeland Bird Observatory

On the 1st of September I headed over the Copeland Bird Observatory with a team of 11 others on a special trip to ring Manx Shearwater chicks during the peak emergence. I was planning on staying through to Sunday but the terrible forecast meant that we had to be taken off the island on Saturday afternoon.
In the down time waiting for darkness I had a shot at ringing some waders and was successful in catching one Redshank. Very little wader ringing has taken place at CBO in the last few decades and wader numbers are still very low on the island at this time of year but if I get another weekend visit this autumn I'll make a bigger effort. When the sun went down we headed out across the island in three teams of 4 and caught 173 new Manx Shewarwaters and dozens of retraps. I headed for bed at 1am so I could be up for 6am to open the mist nets to catch some migrant passerines. Some of the others lasted until around 4.30am.

Manx Shearwater youngster (DS)

I didn't actually record the number of birds caught in the nets in the morning but we did get 30+ birds made up mostly of Goldcrests, Robins and Swallows plus 4 Chiffchaff, Wren, a Blackcap and some of the resident retraps. We also found a late Woodpigeon nest with two chicks which were ringed.


There have been a few more birds processed with two mornings at the river site with a catch of 30+ birds made up mostly of Warblers, particularly Chiffchaff, of which we catch very few of.  I also had an attempt of catching the Jays in my parents garden but ended up catching the same Magpie three times and the rats have now eaten my big of peanuts yet again! 

Magpie



Waders and Swallows - Take 2

After the success of last Wednesdays wader and Swallow roost catches we went for a repeat performance on Monday evening (http://causewaycoastrg.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/wader-bonaza-and-roosting-hirundines.html).  The prospects were a little better with high tide peaking roughly an hour after full darkness and we were a little closer to peak Swallow time in the estuary.  We had a team of five this time around with John, Ken, Siobhan, Steve and myself and the nets opened for around 7.30pm.  The evening was a scorcher with full sunshine and temperatures hitting 25°C at 7pm and although it clouded over a little, it was still a muggy 20°C on departure after 11pm.   

Snipe

The Swallow tapes worked immediately and attracted in c25 birds within a few minutes and over the next half an hour birds continued to trickle in and swarm overhead totalling around 1000 birds.  The commotion stirred up the resident Water Rails with 4/5 calling all around the reedbeds.  With the lower tide we were able to set two separate 18m nets slightly further in amongst the reeds. 
As with the last attempt, a number of waders and Teal etc. were flushed out of the pools when setting up the nets with the majority not returning.  We opted for the same set up but with an extra 18m three shelf net in the other pool without a tape.  The drier weather of late had dried out the pools a little, but as I write, it is raining cats and dogs, so I don't think it will be an issue on our next visit. 
There were a few other bits and pieces around the estuary with a Grey Seal, Otter and a couple of pipistrelle bats.

Sunset over the estuary

Given the number of Swallows that we had attracted in and the number that had dropped into the nets early we had to switch off the tapes.  The big flock circled overhead while we processed the other birds and eventually settled into the reebed just before dark.  Half had dropped in a bit earlier but a bird of prey (which we didn't get a proper look at) had flushed them back up. 
We caught a total of 73 Swallows, 4 Sand Martins and a single Sedge Warbler.

Last couple of Swallows being processed

For the waders, we again had to wait for complete darkness before the birds appeared and hit the nets.  We had an initial good catch but only a few birds in subsequent rounds.  The catch was quite different from the previous with some larger species in Bar-tailed Godwit, Black-tailed Godwit and Curlew and only a single Dunlin. 

Black-tailed Godwit (left) & Bar-tailed Godwit

Grangemore Ringing Totals 05/09/2016

                                        New               

Bar-tailed Godwit              2

Black-tailed Godwit           3

Curlew                               1

Dunlin                                1

Redshank                         18

Snipe                                 1

Sand Martin                       4

Sedge Warbler                   1

Swallow                             73

                           

Total                                 104             

Curlew

We are planning on heading to Portstewart Strand on Saturday morning with another attempt at Waders/Swallows at the start of next week if we can match up the weather and tides!  The stormy blast from the south this evening is probably good news for the guys on the south coast and the islands of the east and west but it might just produce a little bit for us - fingers crossed!
 
There are a few nice birds around the north coast at the minute including a couple of Little Stint and two Little Gulls at Magilligan Point pictured below. 

Little Stint

Little Gulls

PSS Ringing + Blawit and BHG Recoveries

John, Dineka and I were out again on Sunday morning in what were forecast to be perfect conditions.  We were on site for around 06.15 and set the usual nets minus the yet to be cleared West Ride.  Unfortunately the forecast proved wrong and we were hit with a prolonged spell of misty rain.  We waited it out for over an hour as the forecast maintained there would be no rain and took down a few of the furthest nets.
There were a few new birds about in the bushes with a couple of calling Willow Warbler, Song Thrush, Goldcrest and Blackbird.  Other birds around included the first arrival of Snipe with c25 feeding on the open mudflats, a single Great Crested Grebe and a flock c30 Swallows.  Blackcaps were again conspicuous in their absence with no birds heard or seen for a few weeks now.  At this time of year we would expect to catch 4/5 birds per session so it may hint at a poor breeding year.  Any Blackcaps we catch from now to December are quite possibly migrants from elsewhere.  The few Willow Warblers we heard today are likely to be the last of the year.       

Whitethroat

Despite the rain stopping play we managed to catch a nice mixed bag of birds, if not numbers and it was clear that there were some birds moving with the capture of our second Whitethroat for the year and site (they don't breed at PSS), plus a juvenile Stonechat and Sedge Warbler.  We also managed a new ringing tick for the site in the form of a Pied Wagtail.  There are usually a few pairs around the estuary although they don't often venture near the nets.  We also get autumn movements of White Wagtails but they tend to stick to the mudflats.  The feeders failed to attract many birds but they are still being heavily used so I'll put that one down to the weather. 

Portstewart Strand 14/08/2016                                     
                                       New     Retraps
     
Bullfinch                          1
Dunnock                          1
Goldfinch                         5           
Lesser Redpoll                                 2
Meadow Pipit                   1
Pied Wagtail                     1
Reed Bunting                   1
Robin                                1                        

Sedge Warbler                  1
Song Thrush                      2
Stonechat                          1
Whitethroat                       1
Wren                                 1

Total                                17             2        

Pied Wagtail

Gary from the Northern Ireland Black-headed Gull survey has been out ring reading on the North Coast and has picked up the first mover from the Black-headed Gull chicks ringed at Inch this year.  Surprisingly it was one of the 39 birds ringed on the 8th of June without a colour ring that he spotted at the East Strand, Portrush (in our broader local patch); 34 miles from Inch.
With 122 birds now bearing colour rings we are expecting a number of recoveries and it will hopefully paint a better picture of the winter movements of these birds.  Whilst out, Gary also picked up the returning BHG from Finland at Christie Park, Coleraine plus a partial ring read on a Sandwich Tern - DK6678#  Ring a bell to anyone?

Black-headed Gull movement

The ringing details of the latest colour-ringed Black-tailed Godwit have arrived and it is the second bird we have picked up from Charente Maritime, Moëze (A) on the west coast of France, roughly 30km south of La Rochelle. 
It was ringed on the 7th of March 2009 as a 2+ year female and sighted on the Bann Estuary 2613 days later at a distance of 686 miles.  The bird was re-sighted three times around the Moëze area  - 24/08/2010, 08/03/3012 and 07/12/2012.  It was also sighted in Conyer, Kent (B) in England on the 14th of October 2011 and located exactly a month later on the north coast of France near Pontorson (C), 214 miles away.     

Colour-ringed Black-tailed Godwit Movement

Details of the last bird from Moëze are available from the post on the 12th of May 2015 -
http://causewaycoastrg.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/french-and-icelandic-black-tailed.html


We plan to have our first go at catching roosting Swallows this Thursday so hopefully there are birds about.  Once we finish up with the Swallows we plan to head to Rinnagree for another Storm Petrel session.

Last Sunday morning I headed down to Portstewart Strand, to prep the site for the coming autumn season.  We had done a bit of 'whacking' a month ago or so, but there had been plenty more growth in this period, so the net rides were in need of a little TLC.  I brought a strimmer plus a blade head, so I was able to blitz the net rides into good condition and hopefully they won't need any further work until next summer.  I didn't finish the western net rides but hope to do those soon.

Lesser Redpoll

I also took the opportunity to set up a feeding station around the 'East Ride' net run.  We first used feeders at the site this spring from April-May and they worked well to attract Goldfinch and Linnets but they should be more prolific through the autumn.... if we can keep them topped up.  I have scrapped feeding in the garden and will focus solely on Portstewart Strand - the cost of running two feeding stations, the chance of oddities at PSS, plus the hundreds of tits in the garden make the decision an easy one.  I had a couple of nets open while on site catching only a handful of birds - included in the totals below.   

'East Ride'

Yesterday morning (Saturday) presented the first opportunity to ring at the site with John, Dineka and myself present.  We arrived on site at 06.30 in calm, sunny conditions and set up the Gorse Nets, East Ride, the first 24m of WR plus a new 12m net by the feeders.  It was clear to see that the feeding station is having the desired effect with near empty feeders and plenty of droppings.

The new feeding station

The catch was decent but we were very dependant on the feeders which caught the majority of the 15 Goldfinches and 6 Lesser Redpolls plus the 2 Chaffinch, Reed Bunting and Great Tit.  All but one of the Goldfinches and Lesser Redpolls were juveniles.  There were still a couple of singing Willow Warblers about but only one juvenile was caught plus a complete absence of Blackcaps.  The feeding station should only get better over the next few months and hopefully attract a few more species.   
The clouds started to gather around 10am, so we packed up and it was a wise choice as the heavens opened just as we were finishing off. 


Portstewart Strand 06/08/2016 (+ 3(3) from 31/07/2016)                                      
                                       New     Retraps

Blue Tit                                            1     
Bullfinch                          4
Chaffinch                         2
Dunnock                          1
Goldcrest                         1
Goldfinch                        14             1
Great Tit                           1
Lesser Redpoll                 5              1
Linnet                               1
Meadow Pipit                   1
Reed Bunting                   1
Robin                                3             2            
Willow Warbler                  1
Wren                                 2

Total                                37             5        

Goldfinch

News has come in about one of the colour-ringed Black-tailed Godwits sighted in the Bann Estuary back at the start of May.  As suspected the bird was indeed Portuguese having been ringed at Alhos Vedros (South Tank), Tagus Estuary, Setúbal, Portugal on the 12th of November 2008 as an adult female.  The bird was subsequently recorded 18 times over the next five winters between October and mid-March in and around the Tagus estuary.  She was also recorded on the way north last Spring on the 17th of April at Bovenkerkerpolder, Amstelveen, Noord Holland, Netherlands.
The other CR Black-tailed Godwit has been confirmed as a French bird but exact details have not been received as yet.

Black-tailed Godwit recovery

 

John, Jeff and Dineka were out again on Monday night catching Storm Petrels at Rinnagree Point.  The conditions were ideal but it was quite yet again with 9 new birds and a single British controlled bird.  The birds disappeared before 1am with the net taken down half an hour later.  Overall numbers caught are down but the first few weeks of August can still produce catches of over 50 birds, so we plan to get 3/4 more attempts in before the month is out. 

Storm Petrel

Steve was out ringing in his garden last Sunday and caught a nice mixed bag of species.  As of this week he is now a married man so the shackles are on!

Steve's Garden 31/07/2016                                      
                                       New     Retraps
Coal Tit                                           1
Chaffinch                          1
Dunnock                           1
Great Tit                            2
Greenfinch                        1   
House Sparrow                 5    
Robin                                1
Willow Warbler                 1    
Wren                                 1     

Total                                13            1          

Greenfinch

 



Dodgy phone scoped Common Sandpiper

Some of the 115+ Sandwich Terns roosting in the estuary with at least 7 bearing rings



Portstewart Strand - Sunday 5th June

The fantastic weather continues in Northern Ireland (nearly two weeks with a one day blip!) with today being the hottest day at 26°C.  John and I headed down to Portstewart Strand hoping that the first fledged birds would be out given the good conditions of late.  We arrived on site just before 7am and limited the number of nets and did not use East Ride.  Conditions were calm, warm, with partial cloud initially, changing to full sunshine by 10. 

Linnet

The estuary itself was very quiet with the only waders noted being 3 Lapwing.  The Shelducks have had a better year than last, with at least three groups of chicks (9, 7 , 7), although that is from c64 adult birds! 
The nets in the open caught the majority of the birds including a new species for the year in Starling.  The only Starling ringed last year was caught in the same net around the same time.  There are 100's of Starlings marauding around the site currently and we were almost inundated with about 50 but thankfully they passed over the top of the net and just the single bird got caught (a second bounced).

  The cleared area of scrub is recolonising quickly!

The ringing was fairly slow but we did encounter the first youngsters of Meadow Pipit and Robin plus an extremely young Dunnock which was released unringed. 


River Site 05/06/2016                                 

                                   New       Retraps          
            

Dunnock                                       2              

Linnet                         2

Meadow Pipit             2

Robin                          2                                

Sedge Warbler                             1     

Starling                       1

Willow Warbler           1                 

Wren                           1                2

                   

Total                            9                5             

We also took the opportunity to check up on a few of the nest boxes and single Blackbird nest I have been watching over the past week or so.  I was looking forward to the Tree Sparrow nest but unfortunately the five eggs are cold.  I watched the box for a while and there are still a pair of Tree Sparrows around but not interacting with the box.  The Blue Tit nests are all doing well and we ringed  9 chicks in one nestbox, which is just across the river from PSS.  The four Blackbird chicks in my garden are doing well and were also ringed, plus a second brood of House Sparrows with two chicks.

Blackbird

House Sparrow

As I mentioned in the last post, we have had a bit of recovery news.  The first bird was a Meadow Pipit that we had ringed as a bird of the year on the 13th of September 2015 at Portstewart Strand.  It was recovered 242 days later as a road casualty, 8km along the coast in Portrush.  The location details are not clear as the member of the public had simply given the name of the town, but I'd presume it was breeding locally in one of the local dune systems. 

The second bird was a colour ringed adult female Black-tailed Godwit which had originally been ringed at Kaldaðarnes, Árnessýsla, S Iceland on the 17th of June 2014.  The bird is quite the traveller and has been observed a number of times over the past two years. 

OY-WWflag 17.06.14 Kaldaðarnes, Árnessýsla, S Iceland

OY-WWflag 29.07.14 Frampton Marsh, the Wash estuary, Lincolnshire, E England

OY-WWflag 05.08.14 Frampton Marsh, the Wash estuary, Lincolnshire, E England

OY-WWflag 28.08.14 Frampton Marsh, the Wash estuary, Lincolnshire, E England

OY-WWflag 10.11.14 Welney, Ouse Washes, Norfolk, E England

OY-WWflag 11.01.15 Welney, Ouse Washes, Norfolk, E England

OY-WWflag 14.01.15 Welney, Ouse Washes, Norfolk, E England

OY-WWflag 26.04.15 Arnarhóll, Flói, Árnessýsla, S Iceland

OY-WWflag 13.07.15 Frampton Marsh, the Wash estuary, Lincolnshire, E England

OY-WWflag 29.08.15 Freiston Shore (RSPB reserve), The Wash, Lincolnshire, E England

OY-WWflag 31.10.15 Freiston Shore (RSPB reserve), The Wash, Lincolnshire, E England

OY-WWflag 03.12.15 Welney, Ouse Washes, Norfolk, E England

OY-WWflag 20.12.15 Welney, Ouse Washes, Norfolk, E England

OY-WWflag 30.12.15 Welney, Ouse Washes, Norfolk, E England

OY-WWflag 17.03.16 Fen Drayton Lakes RSPB, Ouse Washes, Cambridgeshire, E England

OY-WWflag 02.04.16 Portstewart, Bann Estuary, Northern Ireland

The bird has since been recorded back in Iceland on the 24th of May 2016.  I wonder if it cut across mainland Britain somehow or passed along the south coast of England?

Black-tailed Godwit movement

Poplar Hawk-moth

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