Bann Estuary 2016 Totals

As the regular readers will be aware, the focus of our ringing (and birding) activities are focused on the Bann Estuary spread across three main sites.  The majority of the effort is focused on Portstewart Strand through spring, summer and autumn, Castlerock over the winter period and Grangemore for Sand Martins, waders and marsh/reedbed birds.  2016 was the first year that we really extended our activities beyond Portstewart Strand and this is represented in the greater number of species caught this year, although we failed to pick up any rare/scarce passerines.
  The total number of new birds was boosted by the number of hirundines but it was a pretty poor breeding season at Portstewart Strand with 243 less new birds caught at the site. Some species had a very poor year including, Blackcaps - down 235%, Bullfinches - down 366%, Lesser Redpoll - down 453% (no local breeders this year), Reed Bunting - down 225% and Willow Warbler down - 421%.    Some species faired a little better, including Blue Tit, Goldcrest and Stonechat, although the Blue Tit increase is associated with the addition of feeders and the migrating number of Goldcrests was higher.  Not including the waders, there were a few new species captured for the site including House Sparrow, Kingfisher, Wheatear and Whitethroat.  The biggest surprise of the year was the Curlew Sandpiper which was caught amongst our first roost catch.


Controls/recoveries were pretty thin on the ground but the best of the bunch were a Portuguese Sand Martin, a Belgian Blackcap and Sedge Warblers from Dorset and Devon.      

 Hopefully the local breeders can recover for next year!


I have posted the totals from the Bann Estuary below with the Portstewart Strand totals in brackets.  I will follow up with the full group totals in the coming weeks once all data has been updated/submitted.

Curlew Sandpiper and Dunlin

Species	New	Retrap	Control	Total
Bar-tailed Godwit	2			2
Blackbird	34 (27)	16 (15)		50 (42)
Blackcap	16 (14)		1 (1)	17 (15)
Black-headed Gull	1			1
Black-tailed Godwit	3			3
Blue Tit	50 (27)	13 (10)		63 (37)
Bullfinch	19 (9)	7 (6)		26 (15)
Chaffinch	40 (22)	3 (3)		43 (25)
Chiffchaff	3 (3)			3 (3)
Coal Tit	1 (1)			1 (1)
Curlew	1			1
Curlew Sandpiper	1			1
Dunlin	22			22
Dunnock	23 (19)	31 (31)		54 (50)
Fieldfare	3			3
Goldcrest	24 (23)	10 (10)		34 (33)
Goldfinch	84 (83)	14 (14)		98 (97)
Grasshopper Warbler	2 (1)			2 (1)
Great Tit	10 (10)	10 (10)		20 (20)
Greenfinch	17			17
House Sparrow	1			1
Kingfisher	1			1
Lesser Redpoll	14 (13)	5 (5)		19 (18)
Linnet	45 (43)	3 (3)		48 (46)
Meadow Pipit	70 (68)	3 (3)		73 (71)
Pied Wagtail	1 (1)			1 (1)
Redshank	25 (2)			25 (2)
Redwing	8 (8)			8 (8)
Reed Bunting	15 (8)	1 (1)		16 (9)
Robin	40 (32)	32 (28)		72 (60)
Ruff	2			2
Sand Martin	101	13	3	117
Sedge Warbler	22 (3)	3 (1)	2	27 (4)
Skylark	4 (4)			4 (4)
Snipe	1			1
Song Thrush	26 (18)	4 (4)		30 (22)
Sparrowhawk	1 (1)			1 (1)
Starling	1 (1)			1 (1)
Stonechat	16 (12)	1 (1)		17 (13)
Swallow	89			89
Wheatear	1 (1)			1 (1)
Whitethroat	3 (3)			3 (3)
Willow Warbler	15 (14)	5 (5)		20 (19)
Wren	26 (22)	15 (14)		41 (36)
Total	884 (493)	189 (164)	6 (1)	1079(658)
		44 Species (30)