New French Sedge Warbler

A bit of a late arrival after 15+ months but a very welcome recovery all the same. As I mentioned in a previous post, we were amazed that none of our Lough Neagh warblers were recovered on the way south in 2017 but it turns out there was at least one.
The aforementioned bird was a juvenile Sedge Warbler which we ringed on the 16th of July 2017 which was retrapped 27 days later near Genêts, in NW France at a minimum distance of 745km.
This recovery highlights how early some of our young Sedge Warblers head south and helps build the picture of the movements of these birds from Lough Neagh - hopefully plenty more to come.

Sedge Warbler - Lough Neagh to Genêts, France

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

Last Gasp Belgian Blackcap

Apologies for the lack of updates of late but things have been pretty quiet on the ringing front with the weather turning back to the norm with plenty of rain, strong northerly winds and cold and as I write the first flurries of snow are falling.  We haven't been totally idle and have squeezed in the final two visits to Portstewart Strand for the season and Ken has continued the winter ringing in his garden.

The penultimate visit to Portstewart Strand on the 9th of November was a very slow one and we were packed up and away by 10.  At the stage of packing up we were sitting on only 2 new birds with a Blackbird, Wren plus 5 retraps.  At the last gasp we got a nice final reward with a 1st year male Blackcap bearing a Belgian ring.  It had originally been ringed near Grembergen in northern Belgium on the 18th of September at a distance of around 532 miles.  Only our second foreign control for the site following last years Sedge Warbler, also from Belgium. 

Blackcap control from Belgium

The movements of Blackcaps are interesting ones and I would suggest it is fair to say that this bird is one of the increasing number of Blackcaps that migrate into Ireland for the winter.  These birds are believed to come from central Europe, particularly in Southern Germany in Württemberg-Baden and Bavaria and there are a number recoveries to back up this theory.  One such bird ringed in Northern Ireland in January was subsequently recovered in its breeding grounds in the Black Forest in southern Germany.  These birds pass through the European lowlands to winter in the UK and Ireland, with further recoveries of birds that have passed through Belgium, The Netherlands and England which have spent the winter in Ireland.  Check out the link below for a previous post on Sylvia Warblers in Ireland and some mapped recoveries.   

http://causewaycoastrg.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/irish-bird-ringing-data-tree-grass-and.html

The final visit of the season at Portstewart Strand wasn't much busier with 1 new bird each for Blackbird, Goldcrest, Robin, 8 retraps and a bit of boost by 13 new Linnets.  The only thing of real interest was a female type Common Scoter which is the 121st species for the year for the Bann Estuary. 

Linnet

We packed up the site for winter and don't intend to be back until March 2017.  I'll update on the season total for the site in the coming weeks.
The NI Environment Agency have been in touch recently to inform me that they will be undertaking widespread habitat management at the site over the winter which will involve the removal of some large areas of the non-native invasive Sea Buckthorn.  It looks as though we are going to lose a few of our net rides and will be working in a very different site next year but it is sound conservation on their part and we will make it work!  

Ken has been busy in making some alterations to his garden ringing site and made a few net rides and generally just chopping and changing things.  The birds continue to visit his garden on masse to some of the c20 feeders on offer!
Ken hosted a couple of trainees on the 28th and 31st and produced some good catches of 44 birds and 67 birds respectively.  There were a few nice species in the mix with Treecreeper, Sparrowhawk and Woodpigeon. 

Sparrowhawk       (DJ)

Kens Garden Ringing Totals - 28th + 31st                                
Blackbird               5
Blue Tit                 18
Bullfinch                1
Coal Tit                 23
Chaffinch              20
Dunnock                 3
Goldcrest                1
Goldfinch                4
Great Tit                19           
Robin                     10
Sparrowhawk         1
Treecreeper            1
Woodpigeon           1
Wren                      4

Total                     111                      



At the moment we don't really have any proper plans for the winter but one site we plan to visit is our Castlerock Golf Club site which is again absolutely laden with millions of Sea Buckthorn berries.  The initial reccy showed there to be quite a number of Bullfinch, Chaffinch and Greenfinch plus a mix of other birds including Blackbird and Fieldfare.  Once we get the net rides opened up we will hopefully get some good catches! 

 

Recovery streak - Portuguese Sand Martin & 2nd BTO Sedge Warbler

On Saturday morning, a mear 4 hours after getting home from Storm Petrel ringing, I was down at Grangemore for visit three at the Sand Martin colony.  I was joined by David S from Copeland Bird Observatory, who had come up from Belfast direction.  The conditions were dry, cloudy and a little breezy.  The main focus was on ringing Sand Martins but we also put up a couple of nets in the small reed bed and marsh.  The wind direction was ideal for the Sand Martins as the bank was well sheltered from the south but the other nets were a little more affected.

Grasshopper Warbler

The site is currently coming down with birds with large flocks if marauding Linnets & Goldfinches plus plenty of Meadow Pipits, Reed Bunting, Skylark and Stonechat.  Again there were two reeling Grasshopper Warblers from the off but Sedge Warblers were much less conspicuous.  I also managed a total patch tick in the form of a juvenile Moorhen which we flushed from an area of reeds.  I was sure they breed in the estuary as the habitat is perfect but I've somehow never encountered one in the past 4/5 years... until now!   

I had the two 12m nets up in front of the Sand Martin colony pretty quickly and immediately caught a number of birds as they exited their burrows.  We caught quite well in the first few rounds and opted to the close the nets when we started to catch a couple of same day retraps.  In total we caught 54 new birds, 11 retraps and also 3 controls.  The best of the bunch was a Portuguese Sand Martin bearing a CEMPA SEA LISBOA ring and equals only my third foreign passerine recovery/control.  We also managed a couple of local controls from Macfin which is 12.6 kilometres away (14.1km following the river) and the interactions between the two colonies was the main reason we started ringing here.  Now we have a basis of ringed birds in both colonies it will be interesting to see the future exchanges between them.  The majority of the catch seemed to be adult females and very few juveniles, so I presume that brood two are well on the way and it may be worth a final visit at the end of the month to catch a few of the juveniles.
The other nets weren't overly productive but we did catch the first Grasshopper Warbler of the year plus 2 Stonechat, 1 Meadow Pipit, 1 new Sedge Warbler and another British/Irish Control Sedge Warbler.     

Movement between the Sand Martin colonies

Grangemore 16/07/2016

                                        New     Retraps     Controls
Grasshopper Warbler        1
Meadow Pipit                   1
Sand Martin                     54           11              3
Sedge Warbler                  1                              1
Stonechat                          2

Total                                59            11              4

On Friday night John, Geoff and I headed down to Rinnagree Point for our second attempt at catching Storm Petrels for the season.  It was much darker and milder this time around but a stiff westerly was just about workable.  We had the net open and tape on for 23.00 with the first birds appearing 15 minutes later.  The windier conditions seem to suit the birds and there was a constant stream of birds with 4/5 birds at a time and probably a few hundred birds over the two hours.  The wind was a real hinderance as the birds approached from the outside of the billowing net and the vast majority of birds bounced/turned.
We still had a decent catch and managed 21 new birds and one retrap.  If the wind had been a little lighter the catch could have been much greater, although perhaps not as many birds would have been attracted in.


The number of birds visiting the feeders in Kens garden are beginning to build as we approach the end of the breeding season so Ken held the first ringing session of the autumn season.  He was accompanied by Tyrone who is now approaching his application for his C permit.  The weather was a little hit and miss but the sheltered garden and the proximity of the nets to the house meant that the nets could be closed quickly during a short shower.
For mid July the catch was pretty decent with the finches already starting to gather in decent numbers.  House Sparrows were a species usually absent from the garden in the past 5/10 years but they seem to have taken up residence since the winter.  I'm not suggesting population increase/spread but they have certainly homed in on the plentiful food source! 


Kens Garden 12/07/2016                                                                      
   
                               Captures         
Blue Tit                        4
Chaffinch                    11

Coal Tit                       5

Dunnock                      2

Goldfinch                    7

Great Tit                     3 

House Sparrow           1        

Robin                           4

Wren                            1               

                   

Total                            38                          

I hope to get the data sent off to the BTO later this week and it shouldn't be too long before we receive the information on the three controls! (with the exception of the Portuguese Sand Martin).
We plan to get visit three at the Macfin Sand Martin colony at some point this week, maybe our first evening attempt and probably Portstewart Strand on Sunday morning.

Sedge Warbler