May/June Ringing Update

Sand Martin season is back upon us and the first visit to Grangemore has kicked things off in style.  Pre-holiday I had noticed a number of new burrows on the main sand bank, a new colony of around 15 pairs on the golf course at Portstewart Strand across the river where they were excavating sand and 3/4 pairs had recolonized the sand banks at the Barmouth, so numbers in the estuary were looking up.
On arrival last Wednesday there were over 70 birds perched along the fences above the bank with many juveniles amongst them and a further 50 flying around the site.  David and I quickly got the nets up in front of the burrows and immediately caught a dozen birds flying out.  The conditions were actually very breezy but the bank was perfectly sheltered on the outer bend of the smaller Articlave River.

Over the next hour or so we caught an impressive total of 135 new birds and 12 retraps.  Given the quantity of birds we were not recording biometrics and simply ringing, ageing, sexing and release.  The totals were 61 males, 48 females, 35 juveniles and three were unsexed adults.  This total is greater than the three visits last year combined so it could be a very big year.  I did count the number of likely active burrows but I don't have a notion what that was now - maybe c85-100!  The retraps were mostly from the colony from the previous year but one was one of the birds that has moved from our other colony 12.6km away which we caught here last July.  Another was the single bird I had caught in the reedbed close by a few weeks ago.  The first visit to Macfin is due very soon and any trainees are welcome to come along (c150 pair colony).

Juvenile Sand Martin

Following the visit to the Sand Martin colony we still had a few hours to spare before lunch so we decided to do some river ringing, which was a first for David.  We opted for one of the better spots where we regularly catch both Dippers and Kingfishers and the odd Grey Wagtail.

With the 6m net up across the river it wasn't long before a female Kingfisher came up river at full speed but unfortunately managed to flip out of the net within 5 seconds.  We had to wait another 10-15 minutes before some Dippers appeared down river and one duly flew in the net but the other thought better of it.  The male Kingfisher was being very vocal just up river for 10 minutes before it to dropped into the net. 
A decent morning and some great experience for David handling 2 new species and 149 birds!

Kingfisher

Back on the 19th of May I spent a morning checking the 75 nest boxes in the wood in the Glens of Antrim (after a quick look a few weeks previous) and things have improved after the initial year of the scheme in 2016.  This year there were 17 active nests with 9 Blue Tit, 7 Great Tit and a single Coal Tit nest.  The nests were at very different stages with some of the Blue Tits on eggs and the early Coal Tits had already fledged some young.  I didn't ring all the chicks as some were too large and ready to burst or too small.

Healthy Blue Tit brood ready to fly the nest

When I entered the wood I had picked up the distant utterings of a Wood Warbler so I spent 10 minutes following the trail and tracked down the smart displaying male.  This was a first for me and a very uncommon bird in Northern Ireland with no breeding records for the past few years, only 2-3 sightings in that period and probably the only pair in Northern Ireland (a female was located a few weeks later).

The Great Spotted Woodpecker is continuing its charge across Ireland and reached the Glens of Antrim last year.  The study wood is ideal habitat with large old trees and some dead standing trees and has had a female for over a year.  There were quite a few vocal calls (chiuck chiuck (kind of)) but I didn't have a chance to track them down.  I had given another birder the heads up about the Wood Warblers and he managed to find a GSW nest with two chicks, so brilliant news for the wood!  I did pay a visit on my return from holidays but the chicks appear to have fledged.  I'm not sure how the male has been so evasive as I'm not aware of any sightings.  When there, I also checked half the boxes and all occupied nests fledged their young bar one which still contained a brood of Blue Tits which were suitable for ringing.  


Last year a pair of Tree Sparrows took up residence in a nestbox at Grangemore but unfortunately failed at the egg stage.  This year things had improved and we had two active nests, one with three eggs and another with two.  I had left the follow up visit for a little longer than I hoped and found that the nest with 3 eggs had fledged and the other nest had a well developed chick and a cold egg.  There are around a dozen boxes scattered around the abandoned small farm so hopefully the box uptake will continue to improve.  I have checked to see if they will attempt a second brood but seemingly not.


We have made two visits to Portstewart Strand in the past 6 weeks and although things have been relatively quiet the first wave of juveniles are flitting between the bushes.  I hope to visit again this coming weekend as we will be kept off site for the following two weeks as Portstewart Golf Club are hosting the 2017 Irish Open which is going to be massive with tens of thousands of spectators!  Himalayan Balsam has started to take root at the site so I spent half an hour trying to remove all the plants before they seed.  I pulled 529 plants, some a few inches high and am hoping that I got the lot but the river will continue to deposit more seeds given that it drains almost two thirds of Northern Ireland.

529 Himalayan Balsam plants

Portstewart Strand 26/05-17/06/2017                           
                                New       Retrap    

Blackbird                 1            
Dunnock                  4                2
Chaffinch                 1                                         
Linnet                      11              
Meadow Pipit           1              
Robin                       2
Song Thrush            2
Stonechat                 1                        
Willow Warbler        3              
Wren                        2               1

Totals                      28             3                    

Juvenile Robin

When I was away John paid a visit to the River site at the University and caught around 20 birds which included five adult Blackcaps and half a dozen juvenile Blackbirds.  He has also been hunting out bird of prey nest sites but again the Long-eared Owls have beaten us to it with a few juveniles perched amongst the trees.

Long-eared Owl chicks   (copyright of John Clarke)

Summer Season - Terns, Gulls and Nest Boxes

John hosted two trainees at the University River Site on Bank Holiday Monday.  The conditions started off overcast but the cloud soon burnt off leaving a hot sunny morning.  They had a decent session, catching the first fledged birds of the year in the form of two Robins.  Two Sedge Warblers were also a nice catch as they don't breed that often at the site and we usually only manage half a dozen each year in total.

Sedge Warbler

River Site 30/05/2016                                 

                                   New       Retraps          

Blackbird                    1                                                                                 

Bullfinch                     2                1               

Dunnock                     1                1              

Lesser Redpoll           1

Robin                          2                1                

Sedge Warbler           2     

Song Thrush                                 1

Willow Warbler          2                 1 

                   

Total                          11                5             

Ken and a team of five (three from the National Parks and Wildlife Service) made the first follow up ringing trip to Inch Wildfowl Reserve in Donegal on Tuesday, following the initial visit back on the 10th of May to gauge the number of nests, eggs etc.
The team  had a successful day and ringed 180 Sandwich Tern chicks, which is only 9 birds shy of last years total with the second visit to come in a week or so.  There had been around 400 eggs counted on the first visit so, all being well, there should be many more fledged birds on the final visit.  They also managed to ring 43 larger Black-headed Gull chicks.  Andrew took the opportunity to count the Common Tern nests and found 57, the majority with 3 eggs.  If the fantastic weather and lower water levels continue and the local predators stay at bay, we could be set for one of the best years for the Common Terns.  The most productive year at Inch was back in 1999 with 86 chicks ringed.

For some videos of the trip check out the Inch Wildfowl Reserve on Facebook -  https://www.facebook.com/inchandfoyle/


Over the long weekend I managed to get around the rest of the general nest boxes scattered around the estuary and in Castleroe Wood.  The boxes in the estuary haven't had a great uptake with just one pair of Blue Tits at each of three.  I did manage to get at least one pair of Tree Sparrows with eggs and a second partially complete nest.  It is a decent start for the target species and they will hopefully use the boxes further and increase. 
Castleroe Wood has improved on the dismal year in 2015 when only 27% of the boxes were occupied.  So far this year it looks liked c40% are occupied, which is still down on the norm of c75% in the wood.  I ringed 24 Great Tit chicks, 3 adult females plus two adult female Blue Tits on this visit.  The Blue Tits are well behind, mostly still at the egg stage but they should be ready for ringing this weekend.  I did find 4/5 Spotted Flycatcher territories around the wood, 3 with vacant open faced boxes but no interest in them as yet.     

Blue Tit

Ken also checked his boxes back on the 26th of May in the University campus and ringed 39 Blue and Great Tit chicks.  This scheme is part of a study on the preference of tree species for nesting, comparing c30 species, so it will be interesting to hear the initial results from year one! 

John has been keeping an eye on an accessible Long-eared owl nest in the University campus over the past few weeks but we have missed the opportunity and the chick has fledged already.  It is still nice to see the birds in such close proximity and that they continue to fledge young every year. 

Long-eared Owls by John Clarke

I have received news of one of the colour ringed Black-tailed Godwits and of a local movement of a Meadow Pipit, so I'll try and update on those next time!

Nest boxes and PSS 22/05/2016

On Saturday morning, with the weather looking a little bit hit and miss, John and I headed over to the Glens of Antrim to check out our latest next box scheme.  There are a total of 75 boxes, of which 15 are open faced.  The boxes have been purposefully placed in clusters of five to ensure vacant boxes are available to potential migrants from Africa looking to set up home.  With this in mind and being the first year of the scheme, we weren't expecting uptake to be that great. 

Blue Tit

We managed to find all 75 boxes, which is a good start, but I had mapped them with using a GPS and if you find one, you know there are 4 others close by!  The boxes are generally separated into the lower woodland and upper woodland, with a difference in height of some c75 metres.  In the lower wood we found 3 of the 30 nest boxes occupied, all with Great Tits - 5 eggs, 4 eggs and 3 one day old chicks.  In the upper woodland Blue Tits were a little more prevalent with three occupied nests with 10 eggs, 8 eggs and 8 eggs.  There were a further two Great Tit nests, both with 5 eggs.  In general the occupied nests were well spread, with the exception of two Blue Tit occupied boxes in the same tight cluster. 

Example of boxes and placement

We didn't hear any of the target species in the woodland but we did locate five Spotted Flycatcher territories with 9 birds noted.  All the nests in the woodland are very late and I would suggest they are probably at least 16 days behind that of the nest at Portstewart Strand below.  I may pay another visit in the first week of June and see if there is any change!

More information on the project is available on this previous post - http://causewaycoastrg.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/springs-around-corner.html

A view down the lower glen, with the conical Ailsa Craig visible in the centre and Sanda Island to the left

On Sunday morning I opted to make the most of the fine conditions and headed down to Portstewart Strand.  I wasn't overly optimistic, being in the lull between the end of migration and the first juveniles appearing, so I gave myself another couple of hours in bed.  Conditions were very sunny, so I stuck to the net rides amongst the scrub, which are now in full leaf and create a bit of cover. 

Whitethroat ♀

The birding was pretty decent as I added four new species for the year, two of those site ticks.  The new birds for the site were a drake Garganey and a female Scaup.  Given the time of year, I spent a bit of time attempting to turn the Scaup (Greater) into a Lesser Scaup... but not this time.  The other new birds for the year were a Little Egret and a female Whitethroat that appeared in the nets mid-morning.  Both species are pretty uncommon in the estuary with just one record of each last year involving 3 and 2 birds respectively. 

Scaup ♀ (I'll get a proper camera eventually...)

The ringing was limited with only sixteen new birds ringed plus a couple of retraps.  Included in the new birds were 9 well developed Blue Tit chicks from one of the four nest boxes on the site.  As mentioned before the Whitethroat was a nice catch and it was the first for the site.


Portstewart Strand 22/05/2016                                 

                                   New       Retraps          

Blackbird                    1                1                                                                 

Blackcap                     1

Blue Tit                       9               

Bullfinch                     1                1               

Dunnock                     1                1              

Lesser Redpoll           1

Song Thrush               1

Whitethroat                1

                   

Total                          16                3             

We are approaching the busy summer season when a few of the seasonal projects kick into gear.  The Sand Martin colonies first visit will be coming up mid June with further visits at the start of July and the final visit in mid July.  Storm Petrel season starts in July, running through to the end of August.  The Sandwich/Common Tern colony will be visited at the start of June to count nests/eggs with follow up visits a few weeks apart to ring the chicks.  The autumn will also see a few attempts at catching roosting Swallows in the estuary.  The remainder of the next boxes will be visited and revisited if necessary.  All that plus our general mist netting will keep us busy right through until autumn migration when our focus will once again return to Portstewart Strand. 
Helpers are always welcome so give us a shout if you are interested. 

2016 Ringing Season Prep and Visit 1 to PSS

Last Saturday, John and I headed down early to Portstewart Strand to get the site ready for the coming ringing season.  The site is a designated as an Area of Special Scientific Interest & Special Area of Conservation, so any work has to be carried out before the beginning of March.  We had quite a bit of work to do, as we lost the majority of 'East Ride', which was 66 metres long, due to scrub management by the golf club.  The result was a large clear felled area of the invasive Sea Buckthorn, including removal of the roots.  We were of course given prior notification and are very supportive of the clubs habitat management program and grateful for access to the site.

Part of the clear felled East Ride

The net ride had been reduced down to around 20 metres, so with the use of the chainsaw, we were able to blitz a new path through the dense scrub and extend it back up to 48m. We then have the option of a 12m extension which has cover on one side and what should hopefully be an area full of seed bearing weeds, on the newly exposed ground.  The ride probably won't be overly productive this year, as many of the buds had already formed (and then removed), thus leaving it a little bare.  Everything should hopefully green up before the first summer migrants arrive - the first Willow Warblers appeared on the 9th of April, so we have around a month to go. 
We also gave the other rides a little TLC, topping a few taller bushes beside the nets and cutting back the brambles. 

The new, rather rough, East Ride

John and I went for the first proper ringing session of the season on Sunday morning in ideal conditions.  We set most nets but it remained very quite with only a few birds caught.  We had set a few feeders in and around 'East Ride' last weekend and it was from those that we caught most of the birds, attracting a few Goldfinch and Linnet.
The Skylarks and Meadow Pipits are in full song and ready for the breeding season and it was one of the former that bundled its way into the 18m three shelf gorse net, making a nice start to the season.   

Skylark

Ringing Totals                                     
                                      
                                      New       Retraps          

Blue Tit                                           1 

Dunnock                       2                3

Goldfinch                      2                1         

Linnet                            2                                               

Robin                                               3

Skylark                          1 

Song Thrush                 1  

Wren                              1               1             

 

Total                               9               9      

During the quite spells I put up four next boxes in amongst some of the only mature trees on the site.  Two of the boxes are closed face, with the other two open and they have no real target species in mind.  We don't actually do any nest recording/searching on site, so it will be nice to some pulli in the scrub. 
The tideline of the estuary is in a bit of a state following the winter, so I started a bit of a tidy up.  I amassed quite a bit of rubbish in a pretty short stretch of the shore.  Over the coming months we will tidy further bits as we walk back and forth and hopefully keep it tidy until next winter.

On Saturday morning and Sunday afternoon I spent a bit time putting up more next boxes in a couple of locations.  On Saturday morning I put up ten closed face boxes and two open faced, at the derelict farm at Grangemore on the other side of the Estuary, owned by the National Trust.  This is the only location in the estuary that I see Tree Sparrows with any regularity and the hope is to boost the population, which is usually around 3/4 pairs. 

Nest boxes at Grangemore

In Caslteroe Wood we have had 30 closed face boxes in place for a number of years, which usually have a 50-75% occupancy of Blue Tits and Great Tits.  One of the boxes had gone missing, so I replaced it and added six new open faced boxes (in twos) in locations I observed Spotted Flycatchers last June.  The boxes are potentially a little low for Spotted Flycatchers but they were all placed in relatively concealed/sheltered locations on Ivy covered trees.  The last few boxes went up around my house for the local House Sparrows, although I may be a little too late, as a few of the birds appear to have paired up and found the usual nest sites under the ridge of the roof.    
Ken has initiated another nest box study on the University Campus and has erected c30 boxes as part of this scheme, looking at tree species preference for titmice.  We have three Kestrel boxes left to go back up, after which, I may spend a bit of time updating the nest box information in the Projects/Activities above.
That is us more a less ready to roll for migration and the breeding season, so hopefully here on out it will be ringing! 

I am taking part in the Patchwork Challenge for a second year with my patch of the Bann Estuary.  As of Saturday morning, I have notched up 75 species with the best birds of Merlin, Gadwall and a patch tick in Red-throated Diver.  The Irish contingent this year has increased to 29 patches and has now been divided into two sections, with coastal and inland patches. 
For more info on the coastal patches, check out the link below.  For blog posts, check out Patch Birding Ireland on the side bar. 

http://patchworkchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/coastal-ireland-minileague-january-2016.html

Springs Around The Corner

Finally after going a month without any ringing, Steve, John and I managed to find a short weather window and opened the nets in my garden.  The feeders in the garden at their peak are emptied every day but weather has remained fairly mild this winter, so I've only had to top them up every other day.  The conditions were decent but finches were thin on the ground with a small flock of Chaffinch and a handful of Siskins.  The catch died off around 10, so we closed up soon after. 

Siskin

Ringing Totals   21/02/2016                                     
                                      
                                      New       Retraps          

Blue Tit                          8               

Chaffinch                       5                3

Coal Tit                          1                3         

Great Tit                         6                2               

Goldcrest                       2               

Robin                                               1

Siskin                             1                

 

Total                             23               9      

Goldcrest

Earlier this month I made a start with the redeployment of nest boxes following the closure of the University next box scheme of 314 boxes.  Over the course of two mornings, aided by seven volunteers and the Heart of the Glens Landscape Partnership Scheme, we erected 75 nest boxes in a wood in the Glens of Antrim.  It is a nice woodland with Red Squirrels, Pine Martens, and up until recently, breeding Wood Warbler.  The majority of the boxes were places in the areas with the greatest concentrations of Oak and with a better developed understory.   

The main aim of the scheme is in the hopes of attracting Redstarts and Pied Flycatchers to breed in Northern Ireland once again.  They both breed just across the water in the forests of Dumfries and Galloway and a few pass along the Irish east coast each spring.  It is a bit of a long shot but certainly providing ideal nest sites is a start.  The boxes are arranged in clusters of five in relatively close proximity to ensure there are sufficient vacant boxes come late April when the target species may pass through.  Every fifth box in the cluster has been left open faced and placed in a more concealed location to potentially increase the range of species that can use the boxes i.e. Robin and Spotted Flycatchers. 
We will be back to check the boxes in the breeding season and will post updates on the progress.

We did a bit of a litter pick after and the result was quite shocking

A view from the upper glen

We will (should be anyway) be busy over the next couple of weeks prepping our sites before the fast approaching breeding season.  The main bit of work will be a chainsaw job to create the new 'East Ride' at Portstewart Strand following the removal of a large section of the scrub.
There are also still a number of bird boxes to go up, which will be used in three different locations, targeting Tree Sparrows and then a number of open faced boxes. 
The next update on Irish Ringing Data will be on Corvids, although I've not had much time for that of late. 

June Bits and Pieces

Time has been limited thus far in June, so we have only managed bits and pieces, here and there.

 Back at the start of the month I re-visited the Castleroe Wood nest boxes to ring the 5 broods that weren't ready in May.  The poor breeding season for Blue & Great Tits continued with only three of the broods having some success.  The first brood had 1 chick and 2 cold eggs, brood two was 2 alive plus one dead chick, brood three were 5 dead chicks, brood five (the only Blue Tits of the season) were 7 cold eggs and brood five was 2 alive & 2 dead. 

 

 Great Tit

Normally from the 30 boxes (now 29) there is c75% occupancy but that was down to 26/7% occupancy producing only 16 chicks to a ringable age.  All those ringed were Great Tit, so it may be the disastrous season for the Blue Tits that is skewing the results. 

 Great Tit

Each year a pair of Pair Wagtails nest around my house, usually managing two broods.  This year they choose the new nest box nestled in the Climbing Hydrangea.  I ringed the 4 chicks on the 9th of June and they have since fledged.  Hopefully the adults will go again for brood two.

Pied Wagtail 

 

 

 

Last week Adam McClure from the Northern Ireland Raptor Study Group came up to check out some birds of prey nests around the University of Ulster in Coleraine.  Thanks to Adams tree climbing skills we were able to access a couple of nests, although the presumed Buzzard nest was empty but we did get an active Sparrowhawk nest.  There were 3 chicks in the nest with one male and two females.

 



Another of Adams main projects is running the Northern Ireland Black-headed Gull Survey, which has produced some nice results.  You can check out more information on the blog below.

http://bhgullsni.blogspot.co.uk/

 Adam hard at work

On Saturday morning John and Steve had a session at the University river site.  In very nice conditions (for basking in the sun) they managed a dozen birds including the first Whitethroat of the year, a couple of Starlings and a few more fledglings of common species.