Sand Martins 2019

On the 20th of June I was joined by Nathan for the first visit to the Grangemore Sand Martin colony. I had been keeping an eye on it earlier in the year and had noticed 100+ Sand Martins and lots of fresh holes. We arrived bright and early and got the nets up but the result was disastrous with just three new birds caught and two retraps from previous years one from 22/07/2017 & the other from 14/07/2018. With first catches normally ranging from 56-147 birds, it was looking like a poor year. A new Sedge Warbler, a retrap from July 2017 and a new Meadow Pipit were also caught.

Sand Martin (old picture)

A few more visual visits were made to the site and there were still far too few birds around to warrant any further ringing visits. It is presumed that mammalian predation may have led to the abandonment of the colony - Fox or Badger most likely.

Something that may go in some way to explain where they have all disappeared to is that two of our birds are now breeding in Scotland. The first of these is one of last years juveniles that has opted for a sand quarry in Argyll and Bute, Scotland, 7 kilometres from Campbelltown. The bird was recaptured in Scotland on the 21st of June, 342 days after originally being ringed. The distance between the sites is only 73km but this bird will have migrated to Arica and back in between.

The second bird was also one of our 2018 juveniles and it has moved even further north. It was captured on the 28th of June along the River Lochy to the north-east of Fort William, Highland, Scotland. This site is 218 kilometres to the north east of us, 349 days between ringing and recapture.

Sand Martins have also recolonised the southern side of the Portstewart Strand spit tip and a few have taken up home in Castlerock Golf Club, so, although our main bank is down, they are still doing well in the estuary - but certainly lower numbers.

Acro Warblers on Lough Neagh 2018

After our exploratory visits to our new site on the west shore of Lough Neagh in 2017 we were full of anticipation to get back in amongst the reeds this summer.

In 2017 we made two visits to the site producing 197 birds with 30 Reed Warblers, 121 Sedge Warblers, 17 Blackcaps, 10 Willow Warbler, 1 Sparrowhawk 2 Chiffchaff, 1 Wren, 2 Blue Tit and 6 Reed Buntings (which seems rather strange after 2018).

To refresh your minds on last years visits, please follow the links below:

https://causewaycoastrg.blogspot.com/2017/09/end-of-summer-update.html

https://causewaycoastrg.blogspot.com/2017/07/acros-galore.html

Reed Warbler

The total of 30 Reed Warblers was massive in an Irish and Northern Irish context given that the average catch of the species in NI between 2007-2016 was 3 birds per year and that there hadn't been more than 4 Reed Warblers caught in one year in the initial nine years before 17 in 2016. In the south they have averaged around 25 birds per year for the past 10 years. Certainly for the north, much of the change is down to effort and increased ringing around Lough Neagh once again - in 2015 there was no ringing in the area, one site in 2016, two sites in 2017 and two in 2018. In 2019 we should see this number climb further with certainly three, possibly four sites up and running, including two Constant Effort Sites with Portmore Lough being brought back into action after decades of no ringing - this site has produced over 1000 Sedge Warblers in certain years in the past and 1/2 Reed Warblers when they were much rarer back in the 1970's/1980's.




In 2018 we made three visits to the site on the 22nd of July, 11th of August and the final visit on the 25th of August producing 126 new birds (+2 controls), 182 new birds and 165 new birds respectively. Sedge Warbler numbers were pretty consistent across the three visits with 98, 97 & 84 respectively with Reed Warblers increasing across each with 10, 12 and 19. 

On the third visit there were noticeable gatherings of hirudines (and Swifts) feeding over the reedbeds and wet woodland so once the deluge of Acrocephalus (acros) warblers had subsided we had a go at tape luring some, successfully catching 15 Swallows and 3 Sand Martins with many more landing on top of the nets and poles and avoiding capture in the bright sunshine. I've never visited the Lough in the evening or at night but undoubtedly there must be some massive hirudine roosts forming all around the lough in autumn and our site seems better than most for potential habitat.
Through lack of extra hands we still haven't fully explored the potential of the backing wet woodlands but we did catch 26 Blackcap, 19 Willow Warbler and 4 Chiffchaff in short spells but a concerted effort would produce much more and perhaps a secret pair of Garden Warbler - the habitat is perfect (we may have as few as 50 breeding pairs in Ireland, generally around the Lakelands of Fermanagh, Leitrim, Roscommon and Cavan).

The combined totals of the three visits were:

Blackcap                      26
Chiffchaff                      4
Reed Bunting              83 (2)
Reed Warbler              41 [1 NW England control]
Robin                            2
Sand Martin                  3
Sedge Warbler            279 (1) [1 French control]
Swallow                        15
Willow Warbler            19
Wren                             1

Total                            473 (3) [2]

Reed Bunting

The biggest surprise of the year was the numbers of Reed Bunting around and the number caught. On the second visit an incredible 53 were caught (for not being a roost catch this is spectacular), an impressive 21 on visit three and a very decent 9 on visit one. Given that we only caught 6 in both visits combined in 2017 this is a massive change and 2019 might let us know what is normal! 


Having gone through the first autumn migration without a recovery from the 180 ringed warblers we were really quite surprised, particularly for Sedge Warblers which are readily controlled in the habitats they stopover in on migration. We were then even more surprised that we avoided any recoveries on the return journey north. 
The first visit of the season produced the goods with two controls, a very nice French ringed Sedge Warbler and a BTO ringed Reed Warbler which was even better in our minds! The Reed Warbler had been ringed at Middleton nature Reserve at Heysham Bird Observatory in Lancashire. Interestingly one of the ringers there, Pete Marsh, used to ring on our stomping grounds in the Bann Estuary back in the early 1970's and he reported that the Reed Warbler had arrived in a fall, including birds ringed elsewhere with 2 Sedge Warblers ringed in France and another in Belgium - did they all head to Ireland also?
A week after we received the details of our French control Sedge Warbler, we received news that one of our Sedge Warblers from this year had been recovered on the way south in France.

Sedge Warbler Movements (green) and Reed Warbler (light blue)

The Reed Warbler was originally ringed at Middleton Nature Reserve, Heysham on the 04th of May 2018 and controlled by us 79 days later at a distance of c151 miles.

The Sedge Warbler was originally ringed near La Rochelle on the west coast of France on its way south on the 11th of August 2017. It then spent the winter in sub-Saharan Africa before returning to Northern Ireland to breed for the first time, 345 days later, at a minimum distance of 1087 km but in reality this will be much more.

Our recovered Sedge Warbler was a juvenile ringed on the 11th of August this year and was recovered in Dourges in NE France 17 days later at a minimum distance of 790km. Normally we would expect these birds to stick to the west of France on their way to Africa but that's part of the beauty of the study of migratory birds.

Sedge Warbler

Limitations and Restrictions
As a ringing group, all of us are located 70-90 minutes away from the site, so regular visits and very early starts are difficult to enable the full monitoring the site deserves. The walk into the site is also over a mile long striding through reeds and wet grassland and not the easiest with all the equipment but the shear volume and quality of birds makes it very worth while. Getting sufficient pairs of hands in 2018 was our biggest restricting factor in regards to the number of nets we can use and also keeping the limited number open - at times the birds enter the nets faster than they can be extracted, let alone processed so the nets are closed until all birds have safely processed and released before reopening. Early morning seems to be the key time for the movement of birds with birds pouring through before tailing off before 9am, with basically no birds being caught around 10am. Normally on arrival the birds are in full flow and we've caught up to 17 birds in two joined nets in the process of erection which only takes a couple of minutes.
Cost is also a consideration when ringing such volumes of birds, the current price per bird for an A ring is 25.2p, so for the 449 ringed in 2018 equates to £113.50 + a further £5.07 in AA rings. Thankfully I have been able to source some funding sources over the past 4/5 years to pay for some of the rings, most notably to the Centre for Environmental Data & Recording (CEDaR) who covered the cost of 1000 A rings for 2018, but having never charged our T's & C's (and no plans to do so) there is still a financial burden into the £100's each year for myself and John. A CES would help us get a real understanding for the local breeding population of the site and take away the financial burden but unfortunately we couldn't commit to the effort at the moment!

..... but after all that, we do hope to increase our studies at the site next year to increase our understanding of the breeding birds on site, the turn over of birds in 24 hours and potentially investigate the sites potential in the evening (= overnight camping!).
If I get some time over the winter (on top of everything else I take on and pile up) I may take a look at the patterns from previous recoveries of the migration routes taken by be Sedge Warblers with the UK and Ireland to and from Lough Neagh of which I think there are three main routes - via NW England (possibly more so spring?), direct line through Wales out of SE Northern Ireland and NE Ireland and some to SE Ireland before making the leap to SW Wales and SW England.

The fresh wing (lower) of a juvenile Sedge Warbler and worn wing of an adult (upper)

A big thank you to John Clarke, Steve Fyffe, David Stirling, David Galbraith, Ken Perry, James O'Neill and James McDowell who were present at one+ of the visits and to Godfrey who gives us access to the site and is always on hand to assist. 

Mid Summer Update

Storm Petrel season is continuing on the trend of last season and we are failing to get any large catches, although we haven't stayed out later than 1am.  We have been out two times since the previous post and have been able to introduce three more people to Storm Petrel ringing.  The two catches were of 15 and 14 new birds plus one new British control and a retrap.  On the first visit we also continued our luck with waders whilst out stormie ringing with another two Redshank.  If we are lucky we might get one or two more chances before the end of August and may get rewarded for our efforts.

Redshank

On the weekend of 29-30th of July I hosted/organised a large BioBlitz across the Magilligan SAC with the help from partners from Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council, Ulster Wildlife, Butterfly Conservation NI, Irish Whale and Dolphin Group, NI Bat Group, NIEA and other partners.  The event was a great success with over 200 recorders and members of the public taking part and hundreds of biological records collected. 
As part of the event we had some members of the group and a few guys up from Copeland Bird Observatory to do a ringing demonstration.  I had prepared a bit of ringing site along an ideally maintained footpath with scrub on either side allowing for 90 metres of net. 

Whitethroat

The catch was a small one but it did include species that we don't ring all to often with limited garden ringing these days including Long-tailed Tit and Magpie.  It was a touch breezy and rain was forecast for after 10am so the nets were taken down in advance and the guys enjoyed a free breakfast at the Boardwalk Café!  The area is loaded with Blackberries and Sloes which when ripe would have attracted thrushes and Sylvia warblers in large numbers. 

Blue Tit                1
Bullfinch              1
Chiffchaff            1
Dunnock              1
Goldcrest             2
Long-tailed Tit    2
Magpie                 1
Whitethroat         1
Willow Warbler   3
Wren                     1

Disappointingly we have only had two visits to the Bann Estuary since the last post - one each to Grangemore and Portstewart Strand.  The trip to Grangemore included the third and final visit for the season to the Sand Martin colony.  Other than the Sand Martins, Sedge Warbler and Linnet were the two most common species caught across the two sessions and we caught the first and probably only Grasshopper Warbler of the year.

 Portstewart Strand/Grangemore                            
                                       New       Retrap    

Blue Tit                                            1 
Bullfinch                                          1           
Dunnock                         3          
Grasshopper Warbler    1
Lesser Redpoll               1                                      
Linnet                             10           
Meadow Pipit                  4    
Reed Bunting                  4    
Robin                               2
Sand Martin                   25            34
Sedge Warbler               11              3
Willow Warbler               8               1                         
Wren                                1               1

Totals                              70            41       

 Distinctive tail of the Grasshopper Warbler

 Garden Tiger Moth



Juvenile Lesser Redpoll

Ken's project studying Sandwich Terns in County Donegal continued into it's 32nd year with a couple of visits to the islet at Inch Wildfowl Reserve.  Ken and the National Parks and Wildlife Service had visited the site in early spring to improve the habitat of the islet because of the rank vegetation that has taken root and repair some of the stone gabions.  It had looked as though this hard work was worth the effort and we were in for a good year.  Unfortunately the often cold and wet weather in mid summer resulted in only around a third of the eggs laid producing chicks which fledged.  This was reflected in the ringing totals with 139 chicks ringed, down from 357 in 2016 and the lowest total since 1997 with the exception of 2011.  No Common Terns were ringed this year and no effort was made on the breeding Black-headed Gulls.    

Coming ashore on the islet

Freshly hatched Sandwich Tern

Ringing a Sandwich Tern chick

Black-headed Gull chicks

We had another fantastic catch at Lough Neagh and Sunday which I will update on it soon and will include the results of our Stormie session tonight!

Early July

Since the last update we have been ticking along with the various projects and had particular success with the Sand Martin ringing at Grangemore.  As mentioned in the previous post the Irish Open Golf Tournament was being held at our main ringing site so we had to steer clear for a few weeks as they turned it into a mini city and hosted over 92,000 people.

Two weekends ago we did visit 2 to Grangemore in perfect conditions and caught another 145 new Sand Martins, retrapping 19 from visit 1 and the previous year.  The productivity of the colony looks to be fantastic this year and we ringed 91 juveniles amongst the catch.

The following evening I did a quick visit to Macfin for the first time this year.  My main interest here was to catch a number of retrap Sand Martins from previous years, so I was pleased to get 12 out of a catch of 33 birds.  Two of these were adults from 2014, one of which was recovered in Anglesey, Wales in the autumn of 2014 and now has been retrapped by us again in 2016 and 2017. 

Elsewhere around the estuary in the past week I did net restricted visits at Portstewart Strand and Grangemore.  The PSS catch was very disappointing and no warblers were caught when two days previous there had been Willow Warblers everywhere.  I heard only two through the morning so perhaps the first wave have moved south - I know the first trickle have started to pass through the coastal bird observatories of the UK. 

Juvenile Lesser Redpoll

The Grangemore visit was targeting Sedge Warblers so I had placed 3 nets across the main ditch that splits the marsh.  The catch of 13 Sedge Warblers were very good considering the minimal amount of habitat covered and it was good to see lots of fresh juveniles (adult pictured below).  That takes us to 20 for the year at the site so far with probably more to come over the next six weeks. 

Sedge Warbler

Portstewart Strand/Grangemore                            
                                New       Retrap    

Blackbird                 1            
Dunnock                  1               1            
Great Tit                  1
Lesser Redpoll        2                                      
Linnet                      2           
Meadow Pipit          2    
Reed Bunting          1      
Robin                       
Sedge Warbler       16                         
                                  

Totals                      26               1                    

Back on the 5th we had out first attempt at Storm Petrel ringing for the year.  The conditions weren't quite what we has expected and we got rained off after an hour but we did catch the first Stormie of the year plus a BTO control. 

 

Storm Petrel

 

The control ring sequence looked familiar to birds we have trapped before so a quick message to the Calf of Man Bird Observatory confirmed that it was one of their birds ringed on the 13th of August last year.  This is the seventh bird we have traded with the CoM, four of theirs to us and three back the other way.

The forecast looks decent for early next week so we hope to get back out and catch a few more.


We have had two short spells back out on the rivers with a couple of C permit holders who were seeking to get some experience ringing over rivers and to handle some new species.  We had a decent total catch of 3 Kingfishers, 2 Dippers (1 a retrap) and a Grey Wagtail.
 

Kingfisher

John and Ken did a bit of ringing around the university last week with a catch of around 30 birds.  The catch was made up mostly of tits but did include some quality with Blackcap, Willow Warbler and a retrap Sedge Warbler from last year.


We would also like to take the opportunity to thank the National Museums Northern Ireland (NMNI) and specifically the Centre for Environmental Data and Recording (CEDaR) who have kindly given us funding of £756 from the Environmental Recorders Group Fund.  With this money we have been able to purchase some new nets, poles and rings which will greatly help with our various projects!

NMNI Website - https://nmni.com/home.aspx
CEDaR - https://nmni.com/cedar


We are heading down to the west shore of Lough Neagh tomorrow morning to do a bit of reedbed ringing in the hopes of catching a few Acro warblers.  We are probably some 30 miles north of the northern range of breeding Reed Warblers in Ireland so they are a species we never catch but should be on the cards tomorrow.  I'll possibly update on that soon but no doubt it will take me a few weeks to a month on current form! 

Dark-green Fritillary - nice feature of our Bann Estuary ringing sites in July

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)

French recovery via a Long-eared Owl

Hot on the heels of the Sand Martin movement to France we have received news of another French recovery although it wasn't what we were expecting.
The bird in question refers to a mystery small French ring which John had found inside of a Long-eared Owl pellet on the Ulster University Campus in Coleraine back in April 2011.  Following a few years of trying to get the ringing details, even sending messages in French, we had written off receiving them.  We had thought the most likely species would have been something like a Lesser Redpoll, Sedge Warbler or perhaps a Siskin.
As it turns out it was another Sand Martin originally ringed at Lagunage, Rochefort, Charente-Maritime on the Atlantic Coast roughly 112 miles to the south of last weeks bird.  It was originally ringed on the 20th of August 2006 during an evening roost catch at a minimum distance of 1101km from Coleraine.  It was aged as a youngster in 2006 so it could have made as many as ten flights between Northern Ireland and Sub-Saharan Africa.  John is quite confident that the pellet was fresh when he found it as he had been watching the LEO nest above.

Sand Martin movement from France

This was actually the second recovery John has found in LEO pellets at the University and it's a great reward for his efforts.  The other bird was a Siskin which had originally been ringed at Gibraltar Point in Lincolnshire on the east coast of England.  

Post 100!

The BTO sent through some good news to say that one of our Sand Martins was controlled in France on its first migration south.  The bird was originally ringed at our Grangemore Sand Martin colony on the 18th of June 2016 and wound up at Tour aux Moutons, Donges, Loire-Atlantique, France 52 days later, travelling a minimum distance of 932 kilometres. 

Sand Martin control to Donges, France


I promised to give details of one of our Oystercatchers that turned up in Dublin ages ago and I have finally got around to processing it.  It was ringed as a recently fledged bird by Ken back in June 2004 at Croaghan Islet, Mulroy Bay, Donegal which was a former gull/tern breeding colony before it was decimated by American Mink.  We are unable to say where it has spent the past 12 and a half years of its life but it was still going strong at South Lagoon, Bull Island, Dublin on the 29th November 2016.  The minimum distance travelled is 228 kilometres although it is highly likely that it passed along the coast on its way to Dublin.  The oldest Oystercatcher recorded in the UK was over 40 years old, so some way to go for this bird to be a record breaker.

 Oystercatcher movement to Dublin

It had been over a month since our last visit to Castlerock, when John, David, Dineka and I dragged ourselves out last Sunday.  It was a cold start sitting at 3 below, with a very hard frost, which had even turned the normally soft estuarine sand to a hard cake.  It heated up a bit in the clear sunny skies but perhaps not the best for mist nets.  There are still thousands of berries remaining on the bushes to keep the birds interested but it looks like they are starting to drop now.  The flock of c40 Fieldfare were still scattered through the bushes with plenty of Bullfinches for company.
The Fieldfares are still giving us the run around and we failed to catch any but we did catch a few Blackbirds and Bullfinches.


Castlerock Golf Club 05/02/2017  
                                New      Retrap
Blackbird                  3              1          
Bullfinch                   2              1
Dunnock                   1
Goldcrest                                  1
Robin                        1               1 
Song Thrush            1          
Wren                                         1 

Total                          8              5            

Bullfinches             DS


There have been a further two ringing training sessions in Antrim with Copeland Bird Observatory.  The catches have been rather low with not many birds visiting the feeders throughout the winter.  We did get a bit of excitement on the first visit when a flock of Waxwings had appeared in the car park but unfortunately they had been chased off by a pair of Mistle Thrushes by the time we arrived. 
The Observatory opens up again next month so all focus will be back on the island.


I have spotted and received details of 16 colour-ringed geese over the past few weeks and will update on those in a later post.

Bits and Pieces

Waders were again on the menu on Wednesday night with another Swallow roost attempted before.  We weren't overly optimistic going into it with a full high tide only beginning to drop around 9pm, clear skies, no wind and very large bright moon - i.e. bad conditions.  It was also a hot one and the midges were out on mass and somehow after all the rain and it being high tide, our pools were nearly dry!
We set as usual for the Swallows and managed to attract only 30 birds this time around.  We watched them for a while and they appeared to drop into the reedbed but not near the nets.  We ended up with 2 Reed Buntings, 1 Stonechat and 1 Wren.   

Dunlin

For the waders it was a bit of a tester to see if they are still attracted to the pools and tape during high tide or falling tide.  The answer I guess is NO but we didn't leave empty handed.  We caught 8 Dunlin and 3 Redshank with a couple more birds bouncing when it was still bright including a Curlew.  I think we will stick to rising tides in future!

Dean with a Redshank and Dunlin

We were out again at Portstewart Strand on Saturday morning in what was a mostly sunny morning with a stiff North westerly breeze.  Dean, John, Rick and I were on site shortly after 6am and set the usual nets, although none around the feeders.
The site was really quiet with the only obvious migrants being a single Willow Warbler, 6+ Wheatear, 70+ Meadow Pipits and a few Sand Martins and Swallows.  The feeders did get a bit of action through the morning with 6+ species visiting them and we probably should have put a net in front of them.

Meadow Pipit

We did spot an interesting duck, which when first glimpsed looked like a male Pochard with a bright reddish head.  I've only ever seen one Pochard in the estuary so I grabbed the scope for a proper look.  The bird had turned in the sun to show a clean white patch between the bill and eyes and Scaup-esque flanks like an adult female Greater Scaup.  It then showed an obvious white 'bum' with its white under tail coverts, similar to a Ferruginous Duck.  Overall a very confusing bird and surely a hybrid unless someone knows of some exotic duck that 'fits the bill'?  I would suggest it was a Ferruginous x Greater Scaup.  Not sure how hybridisation works exactly (i.e. can a bird show male traits of one species and female of another) but it certainly showed suitable features for a female of both species.

The lack of birds had a direct impact on the ringing and it was really quiet with five nets catching nothing.  Our usual staples of Blackbird, Blackcap, Bullfinch, Song Thrush etc. are still missing and surely indicative of a poor breeding season.

On Tuesday I paid a short visit to PSS once again between 16.00-19.00 to see if there was anything new in.  It was a sunny evening with a stiff breeze from the north.  There was very little about other than a flock of Goldfinches at the feeders and a single Chiffchaff calling from the bushes.

Goldfinch

PSS Ringing Totals
                                 New      Retrap
Blue Tit                                    2
Chaffinch                   2
Dunnock                                  1
Goldcrest                   1
Goldfinch                 14           5
Meadow Pipit           10
Wren                          1            

Total                        28           8           


The ringing information for the controlled Portuguese Sand Martin came in during the week and it was a really nice catch.  The bird was originally ringed in the Algarve region of Portugal just behind the glitzy marina of Vilamoura in what looks like a marshy reedbed with a couple of ponds/lakes.  It was originally ringed on the 4th of October 2015 as a juvenile and retrapped by us 286 days later at a straight line distance of 2012 kilometres.   

Portuguese Sand Martin Control

Ken and Tyrone were set for a good morning ringing in Kens garden last Friday but unfortunately the rain appeared and cut it short.  The garden is attracting quite a few birds at the moment with the majority tempted in by 12 sunflower heart feeders. Considering they were only up and running for around an hour they got a decent catch of 30 birds including 14 Coal Tits. 

Blue Tit      8
Chaffinch   5
Coal Tit     14
Great Tit     3


There have been some new Tern arrivals this week in the estuary including a Black Tern.  I grabbed an hour on Sunday morning to try and pick up the Black Tern for the patch list.  I located the Terns in their usual roosting spot and had a good sift through. Amongst the birds I found 2 Black Terns, 1 colour ringed Sandwich Tern and a further 14 metal ringed Sante and comic terns.  I tried to clinch the colour ring digits but the bird kept flushing.  The bird was either ringed in the Netherlands or much more likely, in the Ethan Estuary in Scotland. 


Dean, Steve and I are off to Copeland Bird Observatory this weekend so we are hoping for something good.  Tonight's boat was cancelled unfortunately but we hope to get out early on Saturday morning and make the most of it.  Fingers crossed we will have something to update on!

Waders and Swallows - Take 2

After the success of last Wednesdays wader and Swallow roost catches we went for a repeat performance on Monday evening (http://causewaycoastrg.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/wader-bonaza-and-roosting-hirundines.html).  The prospects were a little better with high tide peaking roughly an hour after full darkness and we were a little closer to peak Swallow time in the estuary.  We had a team of five this time around with John, Ken, Siobhan, Steve and myself and the nets opened for around 7.30pm.  The evening was a scorcher with full sunshine and temperatures hitting 25°C at 7pm and although it clouded over a little, it was still a muggy 20°C on departure after 11pm.   

Snipe

The Swallow tapes worked immediately and attracted in c25 birds within a few minutes and over the next half an hour birds continued to trickle in and swarm overhead totalling around 1000 birds.  The commotion stirred up the resident Water Rails with 4/5 calling all around the reedbeds.  With the lower tide we were able to set two separate 18m nets slightly further in amongst the reeds. 
As with the last attempt, a number of waders and Teal etc. were flushed out of the pools when setting up the nets with the majority not returning.  We opted for the same set up but with an extra 18m three shelf net in the other pool without a tape.  The drier weather of late had dried out the pools a little, but as I write, it is raining cats and dogs, so I don't think it will be an issue on our next visit. 
There were a few other bits and pieces around the estuary with a Grey Seal, Otter and a couple of pipistrelle bats.

Sunset over the estuary

Given the number of Swallows that we had attracted in and the number that had dropped into the nets early we had to switch off the tapes.  The big flock circled overhead while we processed the other birds and eventually settled into the reebed just before dark.  Half had dropped in a bit earlier but a bird of prey (which we didn't get a proper look at) had flushed them back up. 
We caught a total of 73 Swallows, 4 Sand Martins and a single Sedge Warbler.

Last couple of Swallows being processed

For the waders, we again had to wait for complete darkness before the birds appeared and hit the nets.  We had an initial good catch but only a few birds in subsequent rounds.  The catch was quite different from the previous with some larger species in Bar-tailed Godwit, Black-tailed Godwit and Curlew and only a single Dunlin. 

Black-tailed Godwit (left) & Bar-tailed Godwit

Grangemore Ringing Totals 05/09/2016

                                        New               

Bar-tailed Godwit              2

Black-tailed Godwit           3

Curlew                               1

Dunlin                                1

Redshank                         18

Snipe                                 1

Sand Martin                       4

Sedge Warbler                   1

Swallow                             73

                           

Total                                 104             

Curlew

We are planning on heading to Portstewart Strand on Saturday morning with another attempt at Waders/Swallows at the start of next week if we can match up the weather and tides!  The stormy blast from the south this evening is probably good news for the guys on the south coast and the islands of the east and west but it might just produce a little bit for us - fingers crossed!
 
There are a few nice birds around the north coast at the minute including a couple of Little Stint and two Little Gulls at Magilligan Point pictured below. 

Little Stint

Little Gulls