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