Early Spring

We kicked off the spring ringing along the Lower Bann on the 6th of April at Portstewart Strand with a focus on the gorse scrub and a couple of short nets in the remaining Sea Buckthorn/Elder scrub.

Stonechat

The catch wasn't a big one with 13 new birds and 7 retraps with the best bird being a retrap Bullfinch from May 2015.

                            New     Retrap
Blackbird               1
Bullfinch                              1
Chaffinch               1            1
Dunnock                              1
Linnet                    5
Meadow Pipit        4
Reed Bunting                       1
Stonechat               1            1
Wren                      1            2

Total                     13            7
   

Reed Bunting

The following weekend the weather was very windy yet again so I decided to dust off the spring traps and visit Ballintoy Harbour and see if I could retrap some of my Rock Pipits. I had passed by in recent weeks and only noticed 1-2 ringed birds amongst the 50+ present, although this number was declining.

Ballintoy Harbour is a great spot with lots of small rocky islands, bays, basalt cliffs just behind and usually has big piles of seaweed on the shore which are great for shoreline birds. The site is also used as a film location for Game of Thrones as Pyke, on the Iron Islands.

Wheatear

I arrived early doors but didn't have much luck in the first 45 minutes with just four Rock Pipits knocking around the spot I had chosen and a Pied Wagtail that constantly walked back and forth over the traps. A Wheatear then swooped in and was caught within 2 minutes.
It didn't take long then to add a second bird with a Rock Pipit taking a fancy to a meal worm. I left shortly after with my fingers frozen in the biting north wind and the first lot of tourists arriving.

Rock Pipit

We've also been back out on a couple of spots on the local rivers with a trainee from the Belfast & Down Ringing Group, who happens to live locally, to target some of the river species. We had a bit of luck with the capture of a Kingfisher and a couple of retrap Dippers

Kingfisher (JC)

Dipper (JC)

I came across this drake Mallard which had been knocked down on a nearby road during our time on the river. Unfortunate but he was a proper stunner.

Mallard (RD)

With my two heronries in the Bann Estuary now classified as extinct it leaves me with just the one to check for the UK wide BTO survey, which is located near the Donnybrewer Levels close to City of Derry Airport. The colony has moved from a mature Scots Pine plantation (following 95% harvesting) into the adjoining Sitka Spruce plantation which is probably 22-23 years old (I remember the mature forest being just a field which makes me feel old at the age of 30).
Some more trees have blown down beside where the herons nest so a few nests may have been lost as I could only locate 9 nests this year. I also found three dead young chicks which is more than usual - it has been a very windy early breeding season. I would estimate I found at least 29 egg shells under the nests (2,3,3,3,4,4,5,3,2) but I presume that not all shells will be removed from nest or make it to the forest floor.

Dead Grey Heron chick

Grey Heron eggs

The heron colony is in a very dense conifer plantation which is very hard to move through and see up to the tree tops - a good strong stick for whacking branches and spider webs is essential!

The dense conifer plantation is full of Woodpigeons and I noticed a number of hatched eggs under their flimsy stick nests but also came across the unhatched egg.

Woodpigeon egg

River Tripple Crown

With the persistent weekend winds keeping the nets down at the Bann Estuary I decided to try a little river ringing. In recent years we have kept much of the river ringing for training purposes plus the continuation of Ken's study of the Irish Dipper.

I headed over to the River Rhee on Saturday the 23rd of March which is our regular hotspot for Dipper, Grey Wagtail and Kingfisher where we have caught a number of the years.

Dipper

I had an instant capture of a retrap Dipper which I had originally ringed on the 26th of March 2016 before another bird bounced out of the net twice- I  keep the bottom shelf quite tight to ensure the bag of the net doesn't droop into the water with the weight of a bird but at the same not too high to allow the birds to fly under easily.

Kingfishers (female top - male bottom)

Next up was a pair of Kingfishers in the net, again one slipped out but the male came back down and was captured on the second pass.

Grey Wagtail

A always find Grey Wagtails the most difficult to capture and today was no different as they always notice the net - flying over, around, walking under it and evading capture. I got lucky with one towards the end of the session but it's partner wouldn't join it.

Wood Anemone

May/June Ringing Update

Sand Martin season is back upon us and the first visit to Grangemore has kicked things off in style.  Pre-holiday I had noticed a number of new burrows on the main sand bank, a new colony of around 15 pairs on the golf course at Portstewart Strand across the river where they were excavating sand and 3/4 pairs had recolonized the sand banks at the Barmouth, so numbers in the estuary were looking up.
On arrival last Wednesday there were over 70 birds perched along the fences above the bank with many juveniles amongst them and a further 50 flying around the site.  David and I quickly got the nets up in front of the burrows and immediately caught a dozen birds flying out.  The conditions were actually very breezy but the bank was perfectly sheltered on the outer bend of the smaller Articlave River.

Over the next hour or so we caught an impressive total of 135 new birds and 12 retraps.  Given the quantity of birds we were not recording biometrics and simply ringing, ageing, sexing and release.  The totals were 61 males, 48 females, 35 juveniles and three were unsexed adults.  This total is greater than the three visits last year combined so it could be a very big year.  I did count the number of likely active burrows but I don't have a notion what that was now - maybe c85-100!  The retraps were mostly from the colony from the previous year but one was one of the birds that has moved from our other colony 12.6km away which we caught here last July.  Another was the single bird I had caught in the reedbed close by a few weeks ago.  The first visit to Macfin is due very soon and any trainees are welcome to come along (c150 pair colony).

Juvenile Sand Martin

Following the visit to the Sand Martin colony we still had a few hours to spare before lunch so we decided to do some river ringing, which was a first for David.  We opted for one of the better spots where we regularly catch both Dippers and Kingfishers and the odd Grey Wagtail.

With the 6m net up across the river it wasn't long before a female Kingfisher came up river at full speed but unfortunately managed to flip out of the net within 5 seconds.  We had to wait another 10-15 minutes before some Dippers appeared down river and one duly flew in the net but the other thought better of it.  The male Kingfisher was being very vocal just up river for 10 minutes before it to dropped into the net. 
A decent morning and some great experience for David handling 2 new species and 149 birds!

Kingfisher

Back on the 19th of May I spent a morning checking the 75 nest boxes in the wood in the Glens of Antrim (after a quick look a few weeks previous) and things have improved after the initial year of the scheme in 2016.  This year there were 17 active nests with 9 Blue Tit, 7 Great Tit and a single Coal Tit nest.  The nests were at very different stages with some of the Blue Tits on eggs and the early Coal Tits had already fledged some young.  I didn't ring all the chicks as some were too large and ready to burst or too small.

Healthy Blue Tit brood ready to fly the nest

When I entered the wood I had picked up the distant utterings of a Wood Warbler so I spent 10 minutes following the trail and tracked down the smart displaying male.  This was a first for me and a very uncommon bird in Northern Ireland with no breeding records for the past few years, only 2-3 sightings in that period and probably the only pair in Northern Ireland (a female was located a few weeks later).

The Great Spotted Woodpecker is continuing its charge across Ireland and reached the Glens of Antrim last year.  The study wood is ideal habitat with large old trees and some dead standing trees and has had a female for over a year.  There were quite a few vocal calls (chiuck chiuck (kind of)) but I didn't have a chance to track them down.  I had given another birder the heads up about the Wood Warblers and he managed to find a GSW nest with two chicks, so brilliant news for the wood!  I did pay a visit on my return from holidays but the chicks appear to have fledged.  I'm not sure how the male has been so evasive as I'm not aware of any sightings.  When there, I also checked half the boxes and all occupied nests fledged their young bar one which still contained a brood of Blue Tits which were suitable for ringing.  


Last year a pair of Tree Sparrows took up residence in a nestbox at Grangemore but unfortunately failed at the egg stage.  This year things had improved and we had two active nests, one with three eggs and another with two.  I had left the follow up visit for a little longer than I hoped and found that the nest with 3 eggs had fledged and the other nest had a well developed chick and a cold egg.  There are around a dozen boxes scattered around the abandoned small farm so hopefully the box uptake will continue to improve.  I have checked to see if they will attempt a second brood but seemingly not.


We have made two visits to Portstewart Strand in the past 6 weeks and although things have been relatively quiet the first wave of juveniles are flitting between the bushes.  I hope to visit again this coming weekend as we will be kept off site for the following two weeks as Portstewart Golf Club are hosting the 2017 Irish Open which is going to be massive with tens of thousands of spectators!  Himalayan Balsam has started to take root at the site so I spent half an hour trying to remove all the plants before they seed.  I pulled 529 plants, some a few inches high and am hoping that I got the lot but the river will continue to deposit more seeds given that it drains almost two thirds of Northern Ireland.

529 Himalayan Balsam plants

Portstewart Strand 26/05-17/06/2017                           
                                New       Retrap    

Blackbird                 1            
Dunnock                  4                2
Chaffinch                 1                                         
Linnet                      11              
Meadow Pipit           1              
Robin                       2
Song Thrush            2
Stonechat                 1                        
Willow Warbler        3              
Wren                        2               1

Totals                      28             3                    

Juvenile Robin

When I was away John paid a visit to the River site at the University and caught around 20 birds which included five adult Blackcaps and half a dozen juvenile Blackbirds.  He has also been hunting out bird of prey nest sites but again the Long-eared Owls have beaten us to it with a few juveniles perched amongst the trees.

Long-eared Owl chicks   (copyright of John Clarke)

Late April - 1st May 2017

Again we have been pretty busy at the weekends and not had a great deal of time to get out ringing but I have managed two visits to Portstewart Strand and ticked off a few other bits and pieces.






The majority of the local breeding birds are back on territory in the Bann Estuary with the Grasshopper Warblers and Sedge Warblers joining the mix and now only Whitethroat are missing (although they are few and far between anyway).  There has been pretty decent late passage of Wheatears following the lack of birds in early spring and this peaked on Monday when there were 13+ Greenland Wheatears present.  I didn't have any traps but luckily this fine looking male found its way into the exact same spot in the furthest net as the single Wheatear did last year!

Greenland Wheatear

Many of the year round residents i.e. Bullfinch, Robin and Wren are well into their breeding cycle, perhaps incubating and have been pretty inconspicuous and not been appearing in the nets.  Blackcap, Willow Warbler and Reed Bunting have been the main species caught with a combined total of 12 ringed plus another returning Willow Warbler originally ringed in 2015.  

Blackcap

Chaffinch

Reed Bunting pair

Each year we normally visit a few of the local Dipper nests and ring the chicks, generally in the c20 boxes Ken has put up.  I took the opportunity to visit a few of the natural nests and was late on a couple with the chicks having fledged already but I did find two with ringable broods - 4 and 3.   

Dipper chicks

Dipper nest

A few weeks back I headed out to Copeland Bird Observatory for a work party day to fix up some of the traps and to set up the tern decoys and boxes.  There were a few birds moving through and the ringers on the island (for the week) had a decent catch of Willow Warblers and a few Wheatears and kindly let me ring a Stock Dove.  Stock Doves are very scarce in Northern Ireland and The Copeland Islands are probably only one of a handful of places you can find them.

Stock Dove

While the weather has been nice but windy I grabbed the opportunity to visit Grangemore and sort out some new net rides amongst the reeds and make some 'bridges' to cross the main drain that bisects the site.  I'm hoping the effort will greatly increase the number of Sedge Warblers we ring this year. with the added bonus of a few extra Grasshopper Warbler and Reed Bunting.
  

Last Sunday I led a Dawn Chorus walk through a woodland in the Glens of Antrim for work and we had a decent turn out and were treated to a sighting of a female Great Spotted Woodpecker, which are still very rare in NI.  The woodland would be perfect for a breeding pair or two so watch this space over the next few years.  We have 75 next boxes throughout the woodland so I took a chance to check 15 boxes and found occupied nests with eggs of Blue Tit, Coal Tit and Great Tit, ringing the sitting females.  We will do the proper look around in 2/3 weeks time and ring the chicks.   



We are hosting a public bird walk and ringing demonstration at Portstewart Strand from 9am on Saturday morning (tomorrow), so if anyone is interested you are welcome to come along. 



Slow start to the year

Apologies for the lack of updates but things have been rather quiet up north.  Snow, rain and a bit of wind have limited our activities but we haven't been totally idle.


Castlerock has still been the focus of our attentions although we have only visited twice in the past three weeks.  The first visit was back on the 28th of December and the second on the 4th of January.  The flocks of birds are still present feeding on the seemingly endless Sea Buckthorn berries with the exception of the Chaffinches which appear to have moved on.

Fieldfare

The quantity of birds trapped still isn't huge but there have been some nice captures with another wintering Blackcap, a Fieldfare and 9 new Bullfinches! 

Bullfinch

Castlerock Golf Club 28/12/2016+04/01/2017  
                                New      Retrap
Blackbird                  1              1          
Blackcap                  1
Bullfinch                   9              2
Dunnock                                   1
Fieldfare                   1
Greenfinch              11
Song Thrush            1          
Wren                         1              1 
Total                         25            5            

Blackcap

On Sunday the 8th John, Dean and I visited a few of the local streams to catch some of the local river species.  I always find river ringing quite entertaining and it didn't take long before out first couple of Dippers appeared.  They were quite crafty and both managed to slip under the net but were caught on their return pass downstream with a third bird, which was a retrap, five minutes later.  We moved on to our next spot only around 1 mile upstream and caught another new dipper with it's partner bouncing from the nets.  We hadn't seen any of the other river species so we moved to a new stream where it connects to the River Bann.  This spot has been good for Kingfishers in the past and again we did see a Kingfisher continually return to sit at the mouth of the stream but it did venture the extra ten metres to the net.  We added another two Dippers giving us a total of five new birds and the retrap, first caught in December 2015. 

Dippers

One of the 20+ Dipper boxes dotted around the streams surrounding Coleraine

Steve had his last ringing session of 2016 down home at his Drumlegh site also on the 28th of December.  Blue Tits dominated the catch with 8 new birds and the best of the bunch was a smart male Goldcrest. 

 Goldcrest

Castlerock Golf Club 28/12/2016  
                                New      Retrap
Blue Tit                     8              1                          
Chaffinch                  5              
Coal Tit                     1      
Goldcrest                  1      
Goldfinch                  1
Great Tit                    4   

Total                         20            1            


With the turn of the year the Patchwork Challenge starts up once again and so begins the challenge to better the previous year.  I did this in 2016 with a total of 123 species, up 10 species on the previous year.  I failed to pick up any rarities but Black Tern, Garganey and Spotted Redshank were patch ticks and are nice records for Northern Ireland.  This year I'm up to 60 species so far and hoping for a good spring.  I will also be taking on Copeland Bird Observatory as a second patch and hope to better my total of 77 species in 2016. 



We still need to finish off the final group totals for the year and I should hopefully have those by the weekend.  We also have news of an Oystercatcher than has wound up in Dublin Bay and I will post the details next time out.  

River ringing, Portstewart Strand and Colour ringed Greylag

This morning we spent a couple of hours ringing on some of the small local rivers, hoping to catch some of the riparian species.  John and I were joined by two new potential ringers  - Dineka and Nicholas, who were keen to see what it is all about.  We had opted for some river ringing because of the blustery forecast, managing to find a few sheltered locations.

Dipper

We spent around half an hour at three locations, catching a single Dipper at each.  The first spot was in the University campus, with a couple of Dippers present.  The bird trapped was a retrap from last year.  Location two was on the River Rhee and had two Dippers and two Grey Wagtails present.  Both Grey Wagtails went into the net straight away, but one bounced (twice) and the second had been lightly caught and flipped out before extraction.  The Dipper captured was a new bird , while its partner slipped under the net.  The third site was roughly one kilometre down stream and had a single Dipper and Grey Wagtail present, with the former being trapped.    

Site 2 which usually produces Dipper and Kingfisher

On Good Friday I took the day off work and headed down to Portstewart Strand for a short session.  The weather did as forecast and got a little breezy around 9am, meaning I had to take down all but the two most sheltered nets.  There was little change in the birds from the 17th and nothing new for the year but I did have my first sighting of one of the Otters since November.  The down time wasn't so bad as I was able to work on driftwood bird perches close to the network of nets through the Gorse.  Hopefully it will produce a Wheatear in the coming weeks or perhaps a Merlin in the autumn.  Another plus was that the National Trust arrived down mid morning and took away the heap of rubbish I had collected throughout the month.     

Linnet

I caught a total of 11 birds through the morning, three of which were retraps.  The single net in front of the feeders caught 9 of those with six Goldfinches, two Linnets and a Dunnock.  A pair of Goldcrests were trapped at the other net.

   

Goldfinch

Finally, the first summer migrants have made it to the North Coast of Northern Ireland, when I recorded my first two Sand Martins by the house on Friday the 25th.  The numbers climbed to 4 on Saturday and c15 today.  They will hang about over the river for the next few weeks, then disappear to the breeding sites a few miles away and I probably won't see any here for another year! 
The forecast looks decent for Easter Monday and Tuesday and we hope to get out on both mornings.  With any luck the first Wheatears will appear and perhaps a Chiffchaff or two, which only appear at the site on passage.



I have spotted up a few ringed/colour ringed birds at the Myroe Levels in recent weeks but unfortunately I wasn't able to clinch the details on the two Whooper Swans (although most likely Icelandic).  I did get the full details of a Greylag Goose with a neck collar, which was in the company of 18 Greenland White-fronted Geese and 27 other Greylags.
 

Dodgy record shot taken on my phone through the telescope - Greylags plus one White-front

The bird had originally been ringed at Lough Eye, in the Moray Basin in Scotland back in November 2005.  The bird is of the Icelandic breeding population has wintered in the north of Ireland and Scotland in most years since ringing - the birds sighting history is listed below.

L.Eye	06/11/2005
Batchen, Miltonduff, Elgin	14/11/2005
Toome, lough Beg	05/03/2006
Toome, lough Beg	09/03/2006
Toome, lough Beg	29/03/2006
Inch Is, Co Donegal	11/11/2007
Inch Is, Co Donegal	19/01/2008
Inch Levels, Lough Swilly, Donegal	21/11/2010
Inch Levels, Lough Swilly, Donegal	22/11/2010
Inch Levels, Lough Swilly, Donegal	23/11/2010
Shiskine, Isle of Arran	30/12/2010
Loch Askog, Isle of Bute	19/12/2011
Loch Quien, Isle of Bute	16/04/2012
Inch Lough	12/01/2013
Inch Levels, Lough Swilly, Donegal	28/11/2014
Inch Levels, Lough Swilly, Donegal	21/01/2015
Inch Levels, Lough Swilly, Donegal	30/01/2016
Myroe Levels, Co.Derry	12/03/2016

Springwell Forest 27/05/2015 + Dippers

Todays visit to Springwell Forest was to attempt to catch the 3 Cuckoos spotted by John and Ken earlier in the week.  The three of us were on site for 7am and set a couple of nets along a track through low scrub, with a decoy Cuckoo and tape lure (with endorsement).  The weather was overcast and a little breezy.

                        Sedge Warbler               © JC

On arrival we were greeted to the sound of lots of Warblers with Grasshopper, Sedge and Willow Warbler plus some Whitethroat amongst the regenerating conifer plantations full of Willows.  Whilst waiting for a Cuckoo to show up, we put up 2 low nets at the edge of scrub.  This proved worthwhile with a nice Grasshopper Warbler and Sedge Warbler, although we didn't catch any of the smart male Whitethroats singing above the nets.   

                     Grasshopper Warbler               © JC

 

There were also plenty of other birds about with a flock of 12 Crossbill, 1 Kestrel, 1 Buzzard, 2 Stonechat, 4 Jay, 1 Spotted Flycatcher, 3 Grey Wagtail, Lesser Redpoll, Siskin and a Dipper.  The Dipper seemed strange at the time, flying across forestry scrub but we later found a nest with 4 chicks (which we ringed) under a culvert on a small stream. 

 



                       Dipper pullus                 © JC

Two male Cuckoos appeared and spent a while flying around the nets and calling back to the tape but unfortunately, as with previous attempts, we didn't manage to get any birds in the nets.  The nets were a little exposed to the wind but we may have another attempt soon. 

Cuckoo



   Ringing Totals 27/05/2015

                                        New        Pullus

Dipper                                                4

Grasshopper Warbler       1

Robin                                1

Sedge Warbler                  1

Song Thrush                     1

Willow Warbler                 2

Wren                                1                                                        

Total                                7               4              

 

 

Earlier in the breeding season Ken had been busy studying the growth rates of Dipper chicks between lowland and upland areas.  This involved locating nests (also with 17 nest boxes) and visiting daily to time the laying of the eggs and hatching.  Once the study nests had been selected the chicks were weighed everyday until fledging.  We will share the results in due course. 

 

 

 

 

The photos above are the copyright of Ken Perry