Winter Scrub Ringing & Patch Birding

We have made two more visits to Castlerock Golf Club in the Bann Estuary since the last visit on the 7th of January. The Fieldfare numbers increased massively during the cold weather with 800+ birds there, joined by 150+ Redwing and a number of Blackbirds and Song Thrushes.

Redwing

The conditions were a little restrictive on the first visit and produced just six new birds and two retraps and no Fieldfare caught.
On the second visit the numbers had dropped significantly to perhaps 150 Fieldfares with the Sea Buckthorn berries having been depleted to only a few hundred from what were once millions.
Yet again the Fieldfares eluded us and we had to make do with 12 new birds including a Redwing and winter Blackcap.

Blackcap

 Castlerock Ringing Totals - 04/02 & 04/03/2018
         
                      New    Retrap

Blackbird               4              1

Blackcap               1

Bullfinch                2              1      

Dunnock                2
Goldcrest               1              2
Greenfinch             1           

Redwing                 1
Robin                      1

Song Thrush          5             1
Wren                      

Totals                    18            5      

 

 

 

 

 

On my last update about my Patch Birding in the Bann Estuary on the 11th of January I was sitting on 58 species for the year. As of this morning I have flipped that number and hit 85 before the arrival of the summer migrants.
I've added two new species to my full patch list with a nice drake Goosander and a few sightings of Glaucous Gull.

Goosdander

 



Glaucous Gull

Iceland Gulls have been regular with at least four different individuals including a nice 3rd winter/adult bird and two present on a number of visits. Other nice records locally have included Purple Sandpiper, a winter Blackcap and a pair of Shoveler  A Greenshank yesterday followed up with a Great Crested Grebe today and a Collared Dove which can be hard to get on the patch, took me to 7 ahead of this stage last year.


A bit of birding in the hills this afternoon produced my first Red Grouse of the year plus a pair of Hen Harrier which are always fantastic to see, taking my Northern Irish year total to 114 species (+ Barnacle Goose in the south).

 

Turn of the year - 2017/2018

It has become a reoccurring theme that on recent posts I begin with an apology for the lack of updates and again I'm a week shy of two months without a post, so....sorry!

We have been pretty idle on the North Coast and haven't done any ringing since our last visit to Portstewart Strand on the 27th of October through issues of weather, free time and the others cooped up indoors with a three week bug.

John and I finally got back into action on the Sunday the 7th with a the first visit to Castlerock since last February. The Sea Buckthorn scrub and the millions of berries have been absolutely bubbling with birds since the end of autumn and we had been itching to make our first visit. It was a cold start at 07.30 - -3°C, crystal clear skies, still and a hard frost which we thought we would be perfect to entice the ground feeding winter thrushes from further afield. Throughout the winter I had only noticed around a dozen Fieldfares amongst the scrub daily but we called the weather correct and many more appeared with c75 plus c50 Redwings, which aren't regular.

Redwing

We did try our various tapes to try and lure them into the nets but were absolutely unsuccessful and only caught two Redwings which were caught before the tapes - even the infamous 'Latvian love song' failed. We are restricted with the placement of our nets to the bottom of the hollow and generally the thrushes stick to the bushes on the safer higher slopes so we need to think up a new plan to catch them. There were also decent numbers of Blackbirds and Song Thrushes but only caught two of the former.

Our nets are all along the bottom centre of the scrub but thrushes prefer areas to the left

The thrushes aren't the only interest at the site but also the finches. These days Castlerock is about the only site where we encounter Greenfinches and another 6 caught today was nice. As with recent winters there is a healthy population of Bullfinches with probably 15-20+ and another three were trapped. Chaffinch numbers were a quarter of what they normally are with perhaps a dozen about. We finished with a nice mixed catch of 24 new birds of 9 species.

Greenfinch

Castlerock Ringing Totals - 07/01/2018
                  
                                New     

Blue Tit                  4

Bullfinch                3     
Chaffinch               2            
Goldcrest               1
Greenfinch             6           

Redwing                 2
Robin                     3

Song Thrush          2
Wren                       1

Totals                    24      

The second Copeland Bird Observatory winter training session took place back on the 17th of December with seven in attendance all together. The forecast had been looking pretty ropey but the rain stopped just before arrival and started as we slipped onto the motorway home so it worked out great. 

It was much quieter this time out with the wild bird seed field being less productive with only six each of Chaffinch and Linnet compared to the last visits 22 and 29! Like this period last year the Blackbirds descended on the apple trees but we didn't match the catch of  21 new birds but 12 in one session is still great. Another winter Blackcap is nice catch and going by reports across Ireland this year they are increasing rapidly or simply visiting feeders more!  

Blackbird

Antrim Ringing Totals - 17/12/2017
                  
                             New       Retraps

Blackbird              12              1

Blackcap                1
Blue Tit                  3              2
Chaffinch               4              2
Coal Tit                  6              3
Dunnock                2              
Goldcrest                                1
Great Tit                 2               6
Lesser Redpoll      1
Linnet                    5              1
Long-tailed Tit      3              2
Robin                     1              2
Wren                                      1

Totals                   40             21         

Earlier this week I had nipped across to the local retail park and noticed a large number of Pied Wagtails sprawled across the car park so I decided to watch them for a while. I've seen them here before when visiting the Supermarket across the park but never in such numbers and wasn't sure where they roost. I arrived at the right time as I was able to watch them go in to roost and estimated there to be around 250 birds. 

Where they roost looks quite difficult to set nets and there is a 30 foot vertical drop over the hedge so it will take a little bit of ingenuity but we are going to give it a go if we get a chance. Given the sheer numbers, some must be travelling quite a distance so it will be interesting to see if we can produce any results.

72 Pied Wagtails after the main portion had entered the roost

With the turn of the years starts a new season of the Patchwork Challenge. Last year I finished with a total of 130 species which was seven species up on 2016 and gave a score of 164 points. In my Coastal Irish League I finished fifth on points but had the second most species recorded. In the comparative score league I finished third. My CBO patch didn't get as much attention as I had hoped with only 5/6 visits but I achieved an encouraging 81 species and a score of 101 and finished fourth in the comparative league.

I've kicked off the 2018 list and recorded 58 species so far including two which I didn't get until October last year, Great Northern Diver and Redwing. I've set myself a high-bar but with equal effort and a bit of luck I could better it!

Phone/Binocular record shot of one of two Great Northern Divers on the 7th 

April into May

The weather was pretty dismal over the weekend and despite having four days off, I only managed one shortened visit to Portstewart Strand.
On Sunday morning I led a Dawn Chorus walk with work on the east coast in Cregagh Wood, Cushendun and despite the heavy rain and breezy conditions, 20 people made an appearance at 5am!  The weather conditions dampened the birds performance and we didn't connect with the Great Spotted Woodpecker I had heard there on Thursday afternoon (only my second in Ireland).   The walk finished off around 7am and I headed for home in improving conditions.  At around 8am I made the decision to head down to the dunes at Portstewart Strand and chuck a few nets up. 

Over the long weekend I managed a bit of birding around the estuary, in between the showers, and managed to get the patch list for the year up to 100 species.  On Friday I picked up Fulmar and Grasshopper Warbler, Saturday I got a new species for me - a Spotted Redshank (in summer plumage) plus Knot, House Martin, Sedge Warbler and on Sunday, while ringing, I heard a number of Blackcaps plus a calling male Cuckoo.  I am nine species a head of this time last year and very hopeful of topping the 112 species I managed last year. 
I also picked another two colour ringed Black-tailed Godwits and will post the details once I receive them.

Blackcap

By the time I had opened the limited nets it was around 9am and I wasn't overly expecting a great catch.  The wind really picked up around 11am, so I closed up.  There were certainly lots of birds around but I only managed five new birds and a retrap.  The quality of birds was decent with the first two Blackcaps of the year at the site, plus two new Willow Warbler, a Goldfinch and a retrap Willow Warbler from last April. 


Over the weekend I also spent a bit of time trying to catch up with a possible Belted Kingfisher reported from the previous Friday, which took six days for the news to be released.  The bird had been reported in the local area in between the patch and my house, so I was very keen to catch up with it.  I made 3/4 visits and even kayaked a few miles along the river but could produce nothing more than three Common Kingfishers.  The bird hasn't been relocated after the initial possible sighting. 

9th of April

Three of us were out on Saturday morning at three different sites.  Steve was ringing in the west near Gortin, John at the University River Site and myself at Portstewart Strand.
Up on the north coast, it was a very cold start at -1°C, with the net guys frozen solid, frozen puddles and really cold metal mist nets poles, which can be almost painful to work with!  The skies remained clear all morning with glorious sunshine and blue skies, with the temperature rising 9°C by 10am.  The conditions were a little kinder for mist netting in Gortin with a little bit of cloud cover.

Willow Warbler

It was apparent that the first wave of Willow Warblers arrived through the week with 8+ singing males around 'East Ride' at Portstewart Strand and a few at the River Site.  John caught two new birds and I managed only a single returning bird, originally ringed on the 13th of April last year.

As you can see from the totals it was a very quiet morning for all three of us with 29 birds combined - 10 from PSS, 11 at Gortin and 8 at the Uni.  There was very little movement around the nets with the birds busy singing and staking out territories.


Combined ringing totals 09/04/2016

                                  New       Retraps          

Blackbird                                    4      

Chaffinch                   3

Coal Tit                       4        

Dunnock                     1               2                                                    

Goldfinch                   1                                                                      

Great Tit                     2               1                                       

Robin                          4         

Willow Warbler          2              1         

Wren                           3               1              

Total                          20                9          

 

Chaffinch

 

Over the weekend I added three patch ticks for the year at the Bann Estuary, raising the total up to 89 species.  The new ticks included the Willow Warblers at Portstewart Strand, 12 Sand Martins at the colony across the river at Grangemore, plus a single Swallow. 

 

Check out the link below for updates on the Patchwork Challenge across Ireland:

http://patchworkchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/coastal-ireland-minileague-february-2016.html

 

On another note, the blog has now passed the 5000 views mark and still climbing!