Sandwich Tern Colour Ringing Donegal 2020

In June 2019 we began our Sandwich Tern colour ringing project with the first cohort of 30 ringed. In the first autumn (2019) we got six recoveries of five birds:
Three travelled the Ayrshire coast of Scotland (one bird was recorded at two sites)
One travelled to Rhos Point, Conwy, Wales
One travelled to County Wexford

 

As Sandwich Terns do not reach sexual maturity until 3-4 years old, we don't expect to see the first returning birds back until 2022 but it will be interesting if any non-breeding birds return sooner.

 

Sandwich Tern 569 ringed on 15th June 2020

The plan for this year (2020) was to really focus on colour ringing only and not place any focus on metal ringing birds. To avoid excess disturbance on the islet which supports a few thousand breeding birds (Sandwich Tern, Black-headed Gull, Common Tern, Mute Swan, Tufted Duck, Mallard) we are limited to an hours visit to land and depart. Unfortunately, as everywhere, the Covid-19 pandemic scuppered plans with tight lockdown restrictions meaning travel to Donegal and bird ringing was not permissible until June. The visit took place on June 15th but with social distancing measures in place, only two people were present, myself and Martin the NPWS Ranger. With very low water levels in the lagoon we had a new mode of transport with two paddleboards which worked really well. 39 well developed chicks were ringed 531-570 which now means we have 69 Sandwich Terns bearing colour rings.

 

We are very keen for your sightings so if you see any of our birds, please send the sightings to Richard.Donaghey89(at)gmail.com

 

All the colour ringed Sandwich Terns are marked at the Inch Island Wildfowl Reserve on a small islet in the centre of the man-made lagoon. The site is owned and managed by the National Parks and Wildlife Service who enable access to the islet and we are thankful for their purchase of the BTO metal rings and colour rings.

Donegal Sandwich Terns June 2019

Continuing our long term monitoring of breeding Sandwich Terns in Donegal, which began back in 1986 (before I was born), we returned to Inch Island Wildfowl Reserve in Donegal for two visits this summer.

The first visit took place on the 4th of June with a team of Ken Perry, James McDowell, Gary Platt and myself with Lee and Martin from the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS). 

Keep your eyes peeled for these Blue darvic rings with 3 numbers in white

Our plan was to finally kick off our Sandwich Tern colour ringing programme after last years delay but being so early in the season we weren't too optimistic. We managed to metal ring 193 Sandwich Terns and also added colour rings to the eight largest chicks we could find. We limit ourselves to a maximum of one hour on the breeding islet to minimise disturbance so time is a very limiting factor. There were still plenty of very small chicks that we did not ring and also lots of eggs.

Gary Platt accompanied us on the trip and his main focus was on the breeding Black-headed Gulls. Gary runs colour ringing schemes on both Black-headed Gulls and Common Gulls in the north of Ireland and is one the most dedicated ring readers in Ireland. Gary managed to colour ring 28 new Black-headed Gull chicks. He also sighted two colour ringed Black-headed Gulls from 2017 but without his gear he was unable to read the rings - great to see them back though. 

Gary is also using blue darvic rings with white ringing on this current cohort but a four digit code starting with the number 2 with three letters after.

Katherine and I colour ringing a Sandwich Tern

The second visit took place on the 19th if June, this time Ken, Gary and I were joined by John Clarke, Katherine Booth Jones and Abbie Maiden as well as Lee, Martin & Ger from the NPWS. 

The heavens opened up on our way out across the lagoon in the small boat but thankfully it just stopped as we arrived on the islet. The rain started again just as we were leaving, so we got very lucky indeed.

Ken, John and the ladies focused on metal ringing Sandwich Terns and added another 68, taking us to a year total of 257 for the year.

This is a decent total compared to visits in the past 10 years

2018 -100

2017 -  139

2016 - 357

2015 - 189

2014 - 270

2013 - 251

2012 - 410

2011 - 94

2010 - 387

My focus was on colour ringing the largest Sandwich Tern chicks from the previous visit and I was able to add a further 22 chicks, giving us a total of 30 colour ringed Sandwich Terns - roll on the recoveries. We are particularly keen for recoveries in Ireland, as, if you check out the Tern & Gull tab above, we have more from 5/6 countries in Arica than we do in Ireland. 

The Common Terns breed in much smaller numbers and are always a few weeks later so just 14 were ringed. A further 4 large Black-headed Gull chicks were metal ringed for training.

Gary was again focused on colour ringing Black-headed Gulls and discovered two of the marked birds from the 4th had perished so the colour rings were reused. 26 more chicks were colour ringed giving a total of 52. You can check out Gary's blog on the link below

http://birdingatantrimmarina.blogspot.com/

One of the returning birds from 2017 (Gary Platt)

We have identified some habitat works to be carried out on the islet post breeding season to boost the breeding population. Originally the islet was open shingle and sand but overtime the vegetation has increased. The Terns prefer to nest on the bare ground and are being forced off the high of the island towards the lower edges and a number of nests have been lost in the last few years to higher waters. This is often the reason the Common Terns do not do too well here.

A big thank you as always to the NPWS for making supplying the boat, rings and maintaining the breeding islet. 

Sandwich Terns 2018

The Inch Island (Donegal) Sandwich Tern season has been and gone already and it hasn't quite gone to plan. Signs were looking good following the important habitat work carried out by Ken, Richard B with Lee and Martin from NPWS to clear some of the dense vegetation and fill gaps in gabions. The result was a count of 266 breeding pairs of Sandwich Terns with a total of 404 eggs on the 8th of May. Half the colony was noted to have relocated to the lower shore and away from the raised part of the islet where they normally breed, which was a bit of concern with the possibility of high tides flooding the nests.
Difficult weather and the tides resulted in some chops and changes and cancellations with our planned visits and we ended up with just a single ringing visit. 2018 was to the be the first year of a colour ringing project and we had everything purchased and in place but a miscommunication meant that the colour rings were left behind for the ringing visit.

The ringing visit took place on the 21st June with myself, John, Ken, Gary, Lee and Martin present. On landing on the island it was clear that the storm the week previous had a big impact with lots of dead chicks and dried eggs along the shore, the Black-headed Gulls were particularly affected. It was evident that a number of the Sandwich Terns had fledged with small gatherings at either end of the islet with perhaps 50+ fledged already. We located and ringed a total of 92 chicks in and around the nest sites and managed to catch a further 8 of the semi-fledged birds. There looked to be some more recent nests in a new area and with any luck these eggs will have hatched in the fantastic weather - perhaps too nice!

The Common Terns usually lay a few weeks later than the Sandwich Terns with perhaps 20-25 nests located. All but a couple of nests with 1/2 day old chicks were with eggs and none will be ringed this year. A handful of large Black-headed Gulls were ringed.

Given the reduced catch, only 45 minutes on the islet and the number of large chicks it would have been the perfect opportunity to begin colour ringing. It is a bit of a set back but there is always next year... Metal rings, as they always have done, do still produce recoveries including this bird below which was very slow in coming through but had its ring read in Germany July 2016.

The bird was ringed as a chick on Croaghan Islet in Mulroy Bay, Donegal on the 4th of June 2007 and recovered at Nordfriesisches Wattenmeer Nature Reserve on the 01st July 2016. The nature reserve lies within the Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea National Park on North Sea coast of Germnay, a distance of 1039km from Donegal. This bird will have easily travelled 50,000+ kilometres in it's life time. 

Nordfriesisches Wattenmeer Nature Reserve

Cannon Netting Barnacle Geese

John and I set off at 5am in the morning to north Donegal at Trawbreaga Bay to join a large group of ringers and helpers in the hopes of catch some of the wintering Barnacle Geese. The aim was to colour ring a number of Barnacle Geese as part of a larger study of the Greenland breeding population. The species has also colonised southern Iceland and increasing in numbers. Thousands of Barnacle Geese winter in North-western and western Ireland including Sligo and in this area of Donegal. Exeter University lead on many of the studies of geese in the UK and Ireland and were on hand with others from all over Ireland including Kerry, Wexford and other spots. Kendrew of the RSPB NI will be handling and processing all subsequent resightings of the colour ringed birds.

Barnacle Goose

 

The site had been baited and watched for a week prior and up to 1200 Barnacle Geese have been visiting the fields and walking in and around the dummy nets. That morning we sat in wait as the Geese started arriving for a morning feed having roosted on one of the small offshore islands. They were appearing in groups of 5-50 before the main flock appeared with almost 500 birds taking us to 900+ in the field. We were restricted to 200 metal and colour rings and that was the rough aim with the large team of 27 people in place to deal with them. Around 200 birds had been captured by the net but a portion managed to slip out before the team arrived to extract the birds.

 

 Releasing the first processed birds

 

 

At the end of play, still in the morning, round 155 birds were processed with 5/6 birds having been caught previously. All birds were colour ringed with biometrics and feather samples taken. It was a great experience with much learned and we were very impressed by the efficient catch, process and release of such a number of large birds. 

Donegal Petrels 24/07/2015 & New Storm Petrel Recoveries

On Friday (24th July) I headed over to Malin Beg/Glencolumbkille, on the western tip of Donegal to ring some Petrels.  The trip was organised by members of the Belfast & Down Ringing Group and The Irish Midlands Ringing Group, who were staying for three nights.  The area is really beautiful with a rugged coastline, old forts, deep glens, hidden coves and non-intensive farming.  The bird species are much reduced in this exposed and relatively treeless landscape, but what it lacks, it makes up for in style with breeding Chough, Twite (presumably) and waders.  On the Island of Rathlin O'Birne, just off the coast of Malin beg, there is a breeding population of Storm Petrels and most likely breeding Leach's Petrels too. 

Rathlin O'Birne Island at sundown

The weather throughout Friday and Saturday was fantastic with lots of sunshine; which can be hard to come by on the west coast of Ireland.  The guys had set up the nets earlier in the day, so we opened up shortly after 11pm.  The skies were clear, so it took a while to darken and the birds to arrive.  As well as the 10 ringers present, a few locals and some Austrian tourists had stopped by to check out the weird goings on and see these fabled birds.  After 11.30 the first few birds started to arrive, turning to a constant flow after midnight.  We continued ringing until around 3.30am, when the birds started to slow off, as the sky lightened.  Shooting stars were a feature throughout the night in some of the darkest skies I've seen.     

The view from the ringing site

   The northerly wind was a little stronger than we would have liked and meant the net pockets were billowing towards the direction the birds were coming, so lots of birds bounced out.  The catch was still very good with c265 new Storm Petrels, one controlled Storm Petrel, one Leach's Petrel and a Rock Pipit caught early on.  There was also a couple more Leach's Petrels flying around and some that escaped the nets. 
The forecast for Saturday was pretty poor, with only the first hour or so being suitable.  I received a text this morning to say that this was the case and they only managed a catch of 28 birds before the rain came and the winds got stronger.  The forecast tonight looks even worse.

The Napoleonic Watch/Signal Tower above the ringing site 

Rinnagree Storm Petrel Recoveries

As I mentioned in a previous post, we managed to catch two controls (birds ringed elsewhere) on the 15th of July.  The improved BTO response system means that we have received the information already!  The new system once in place should mean instantaneous information and as I understand it, search capabilities for ringers. 

The first bird was originally ringed on the Isle of May, Fife, Scotland on the 31st of July 2014.  This is our second exchange with the observatory and it is a minimum distance of 884 km as the Storm Petrel flies, 349 days apart. 

The second bird was originally ringed at Marske-by-the-Sea, Redcar & Cleveland in North-east England.  This is the first Storm Petrel we have caught from England and as the Storm Petrel flies, is the furthest away location, at a minimum of 1077 km. The bird was ringed on the 6th of August 2014, so 343 days apart.   

The star denotes our ringing location

Check out Belfast & Down Ringing Group on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/BogMeadowsCes?fref=ts

and The Irish Midlands Ringing Group on their blog and Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/IrishMidlandsRinging?fref=ts
https://irishmidlandsringing.wordpress.com/