Late December at Castlerock 2019

I've just noticed I didn't post this one - here it 10 months later

With a dodgy forecast mid-morning on the 7th and nobody else keen to head out, I opted to go for a shorter early morning session to try and catch some more Snipe and the Jack Snipe that keep have eluded me thus far. I set up a six net 'V' in the corner of the marsh before first light and waited for the Snipe to return from their nocturnal foraging in the fields. While I was there I stuck up a wader net along the shore hoping that some of the Sanderling might bundle in under darkness.  

Kingfisher

The wader net was a waste of time with a big falling tide, the net was soon well away from the waters edge and didn't come close to catching anything. I did come close to catching a few Snipe on the shore with my torch but without a landing net, it was tough - one bird I had managed to get down on one knee beside it but it flew off when my hand was within 30cm.

Sparrowhawk

The catch of Snipe was poor with just a single bird and a Reed Bunting. When walking through the marsh it was clear that there certainly weren't any great numbers around with just 6/7. I've counted up to 69 Common Snipe and 5 Jack Snipe in this marsh so hopefully numbers will climb as the winter goes on.

Snipe

The weather held up and was actually quite nice all morning so I left the nets a little longer to see if anything else was around. On approach to the net I noticed a dart of blue and a bird of prey in pursuit on the inside of the 'V'. The Kingfisher veered left and was caught while the female Sparrowhawk continued to where she bounced out of one net and into the other at the tip of the 'V'. I was able to run and catch her before she slipped out of this one too. Not your regular duo to be caught in a net!

The Snipe marsh

The feeding station amongst the scrub at Castlerock has really been bringing in the birds with counts of over 100 birds present on different occasions with flocks of up to 55+ Greenfinch, dozens of Goldfinches, dozens of Linnets and a few other visitors. Chaffinch numbers still remain very low with just two or three individuals and the Fieldfare are still absent with just two present on the last visit.

The feeding station

On the 15th with yet another dodgy forecast, I waited until the rain finished around 8am before I headed over to the site. The weather was then very sunny and bright but still chilly. The catch was very slow with only a handful of birds in the 3 nets over the first couple of hours. The bright sun then moved around the horizon and the nets were finally shaded and birds began to enter the nets around the feeders. I was short on time so had to pack up but the birds were very active and a big catch was on the cards if I had kept the nets open. In the end I caught 29 new birds and 2 retraps, including 22 Greenfinch.

Castlerock Golf Club -  7th December - 15th December 2019

                         New      Retrap

Blackbird           1

Blue Tit             

Bullfinch            2        

Chaffinch          1

Dunnock           

Goldfinch          3             1

Greenfinch       22

Kingfisher         1

Linnet               

Reed Bunting    1

Robin                 

Snipe                 1     

Song Thrush      

Sparrowhawk    1

Wren                                1

Total                                         

The Greenfinch numbers are very pleasing and the catch of 22 on the 15th marks our largest ever single day catch. By the looks of it on social media, the Greenfinch has had a bumper year across the UK after decades of decline - fingers crossed.

Greenfinch

Late December 2018

Following on from the work done on the visit on the 16th (just below in this post) we were able to set up the two new 18 metre net rides along with the usual three. The new nets worked with the one in the top patch of scrub catching a Fieldfare, Starling, 2 Blackbirds and best of all a Mistle Thrush. Mistle Thrushes are very difficult to catch and we've only caught 2 fledged birds in the past 5/6 years.

John and I were joined by Ken and his trainee James, who was able to add three new species which is always a good day. One of the three Fieldfares caught was released unringed but it happens!
We are really noticing the drop off in Chaffinch numbers, or should I say, the number that we are catching - perhaps the ones present are all ringed!

Mistle Thrush

Castlerock Golf Club - Saturday 24th December 2018
                      New      Retrap
Blackbird        3            
Bullfinch         1             1             
Fieldfare          2
Goldfinch         1
Greenfinch      6
Mistle Thrush  1
Robin                             3
Song Thrush   1
Starling           1
Wren               1

Total              17              4                

Starling

16th December 2018

This morning the focus was more so on preparing the new net rides and together we have cut two new 18 metre net rides and a 6m dog leg off once of these. We are eyeing up another 12m ride also but we will see how these new ones work and see if we can increase the catch of the Fieldfare!

We had the three usual nets open and caught a few birds and again another single Fieldfare, caught in the same net. I did have another in the nets but it flipped out on approach. We will probably use 19x19mm 4 shelf nets in these new rides which are better for catching larger birds as the finer mesh 15x15mm 5 shelf nets have cost us at least 3 Fieldfares so far this season (but do catch the smaller passerines better).

Fieldfare

Castlerock Golf Club - Saturday 16th December 2018
                      New      Retrap
Blue Tit           3             1
Bullfinch         3             3             
Fieldfare          1
Greenfinch                    1
Linnet             1
Robin              1
Song Thrush   1
Wren               1

Total              11              5                

A Merlin made an appearance mid morning and made a kill over the river which appeared to be a Fieldfare. The bird was certainly very heavy as the bird made a sharpish landing on the rocks before slipping into the Marram Grass.

The local Otter family also gave us a bit of a show with three feeding right along the rock armour and it looks as though they had been running about the shoreline before I arrived.

One of three Otters present

Otter tracks

Castlerock Golf Club - Early December

The numbers of Fieldfare are starting to build at Castlerock, from 6 on the last visit, up to c50 on the 1st of December and upwards of 70 the following week. As our main target species at the site, our track record of catching them here isn't the best, with just a few each year when we have had up to 600 spending weeks feeding here. As mentioned in the last Castlerock post, we do plan to cut some new net rides which cover some of the higher bushes away from the hollow but progress has been slow as we have been distracted by open nets and catching a few birds on a couple of visits.

The first of these visits was on the Saturday 1st of December where I just about avoided the showers inland and opened three nets, with John appearing mid-morning. We acquired some new Fieldfare recorded calls from an online forum and put them to work but unfortunately they didn't attract anything... but we did get one Fieldfare from the net with no call playing.

Fieldfare

The catch was a pretty small one but we did spend a bit of time cutting these identified new rides with about 10 metres cut through the dense brambles and scrub plus we tidied up another old net ride.

As always, Greenfinches are a pleasure to catch and this site remains really the only site where we see Greenfinch now, let alone catch them. 

Castlerock Golf Club - Saturday 1st December 2018
                      New      
Blue Tit           1
Bullfinch         2              
Chaffinch        4
Dunnock         1
Fieldfare          1
Greenfinch      5
Robin              1

Total              15           

Greenfinch

On Sunday the 9th it was solo session for myself with the aim of continuing the progress on these new net rides. The weather wasn't too bad so I set two 18m and one 12m nets in the old rides which seemed to be sheltered from the NW wind that was whipping into the river.
The birds trickled through at 2 or 3 a net round so kept me distracted and I only managed to cut another six metres of new ride.

Blackcap

We have caught a few wintering Blackcaps at Castlerock over recent winters so I stuck on Blackcap song and managed to attract this lady. They are very inconspicuous amongst the dense scrub and would go unnoticed without the nets. 

The retrappped Bullfinch was a 2015 bird and the Blackbirds were both from the winter of 2016/17. 

Castlerock Golf Club - Sunday 9th December 2018
                      New        Retrap
Blackbird                          2
Blackcap         1
Blue Tit           1
Bullfinch         2                1
Chaffinch        6
Greenfinch      5
Robin               1
Song Thrush   1

Total                17             3       

I've been still working away at the patch birding for the Patch Work Challenge and on Sunday I hit the 130 species mark once again and matched my total for 2017 with a nice Merlin zipping by and landing on a bush before being flushed by the local hoodie mob (Hooded Crows). I've eased my foot off the pedal in the past 5/6 weeks with very little on offer but I'm still waiting on Gadwall, Jack Snipe and Moorhen so there are likely options available to beat last year. I have tried three full spins of the local Snipe spots this autumn finding 70+ Common Snipe but still no Jacks - I missed Jack Snipe last winter entirely when normally I'd expect to see 5/6 some days. 

Dramatic sunrise 

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 

Portstewart Strand 28/09/2017

With a short weather window and a bit of availability John, Ken, David and I were back down at Portstewart Strand this morning to see what was moving through.

The aforementioned first arrival of thrushes came right on cue with upwards of 10 Blackbirds and 6+ Song Thrush amongst the scrub which were very audible just before first light. As such I stuck on a thrush mix tape and caught six Blackbirds and a single Song Thrush.

Coal Tit

The recent species are continuing to move through including the Tits with the addition of the first Coal Tits of the autumn with three ringed. Skylarks and Reed Bunting were also notable with many more around. Greenfinch is a very uncommon species in the direct site (not so in the wider estuary) and we caught only our second for the ringing site. 

Portstewart Strand 28/09/2017
                             New         Retrap
Blackbird               5
Blackcap                3
Blue Tit                  1
Bullfinch                1
Chaffinch               1
Coal Tit                  3
Dunnock                4
Goldcrest               3
Great Tit                 1                1
Greenfinch             1
Meadow Pipit         9
Reed Bunting         1
Robin                      1                3
Song Thrush          1
Wren                       6

Totals                    41                4

Meadow Pipit

A total of 53 species were sighted through the morning including a hunting Peregrine and two Long-eared Owls flying around before first light which dropped into roost at 06.35 and 06.41. 

The weekend trip to Copeland Bird Observatory has been given the green light although the forecast is a little wet and windy through Saturday night and Sunday so any ringing will be limited to Saturday morning! 

Slow start to the year

Apologies for the lack of updates but things have been rather quiet up north.  Snow, rain and a bit of wind have limited our activities but we haven't been totally idle.


Castlerock has still been the focus of our attentions although we have only visited twice in the past three weeks.  The first visit was back on the 28th of December and the second on the 4th of January.  The flocks of birds are still present feeding on the seemingly endless Sea Buckthorn berries with the exception of the Chaffinches which appear to have moved on.

Fieldfare

The quantity of birds trapped still isn't huge but there have been some nice captures with another wintering Blackcap, a Fieldfare and 9 new Bullfinches! 

Bullfinch

Castlerock Golf Club 28/12/2016+04/01/2017  
                                New      Retrap
Blackbird                  1              1          
Blackcap                  1
Bullfinch                   9              2
Dunnock                                   1
Fieldfare                   1
Greenfinch              11
Song Thrush            1          
Wren                         1              1 
Total                         25            5            

Blackcap

On Sunday the 8th John, Dean and I visited a few of the local streams to catch some of the local river species.  I always find river ringing quite entertaining and it didn't take long before out first couple of Dippers appeared.  They were quite crafty and both managed to slip under the net but were caught on their return pass downstream with a third bird, which was a retrap, five minutes later.  We moved on to our next spot only around 1 mile upstream and caught another new dipper with it's partner bouncing from the nets.  We hadn't seen any of the other river species so we moved to a new stream where it connects to the River Bann.  This spot has been good for Kingfishers in the past and again we did see a Kingfisher continually return to sit at the mouth of the stream but it did venture the extra ten metres to the net.  We added another two Dippers giving us a total of five new birds and the retrap, first caught in December 2015. 

Dippers

One of the 20+ Dipper boxes dotted around the streams surrounding Coleraine

Steve had his last ringing session of 2016 down home at his Drumlegh site also on the 28th of December.  Blue Tits dominated the catch with 8 new birds and the best of the bunch was a smart male Goldcrest. 

 Goldcrest

Castlerock Golf Club 28/12/2016  
                                New      Retrap
Blue Tit                     8              1                          
Chaffinch                  5              
Coal Tit                     1      
Goldcrest                  1      
Goldfinch                  1
Great Tit                    4   

Total                         20            1            


With the turn of the year the Patchwork Challenge starts up once again and so begins the challenge to better the previous year.  I did this in 2016 with a total of 123 species, up 10 species on the previous year.  I failed to pick up any rarities but Black Tern, Garganey and Spotted Redshank were patch ticks and are nice records for Northern Ireland.  This year I'm up to 60 species so far and hoping for a good spring.  I will also be taking on Copeland Bird Observatory as a second patch and hope to better my total of 77 species in 2016. 



We still need to finish off the final group totals for the year and I should hopefully have those by the weekend.  We also have news of an Oystercatcher than has wound up in Dublin Bay and I will post the details next time out.