A few more Recoveries

We've received a couple more recoveries from the BTO.

The first was another of our Storm Petrels heading off to the Treshnish Isles on the west coast of Scotland - our seventh caught here and the sixth on Lunga Island specifically.

We caught the bird at Rinnagree Point on the 25th of July 2017 and it was recovered on Lunga, 146km away, on the 28th of June 2018.

Storm Petrel Recovery

The next one wasn't particularly distant but interesting all the same. It is my first personal Lesser Redpoll recovery which was originally ringed on the 16th of April 2015 at Portstewart Strand. It was found dead just 7km away in Coleraine (just down the road from my house) but the 1363 days between ringing is pretty impressive. The bird was born in 2014 so made it into its 5th calendar year - the longevity record for Lesser Redpoll is 6 years old, most living just 2 years.

There is an old blog post from the same date this bird was ringed - see the link

http://causewaycoastrg.blogspot.com/2015/04/portstewart-strand-18042015.html

Lesser Redpoll

We have been out doing a little bit of ringing but the weather has finally turned and the arctic winds have brought us a lot of cold wet weather including the first snows of the winter. It's more of the same this week but there is a potential weather window open this coming weekend. I'll update on these recent activities when I have a bit more time.

Other Ringing and Recoveries

I updated on our ringing activities since early summer at both Portstewart Strand and Lough Neagh in previous posts but we weren't just limited to those sites. Through this time we continued our summer Storm Petrel ringing, seven/eight trips to Copeland Bird Observatory between us and a few other bits a pieces.

There was another new species for the group in Grey Heron caught by Ken and James on the 9th of June. Usually when river ringing we are fearful of these massive brutes blundering into the nets and ripping them to shreds but on this occasion it stuck with out any damage to the bird or net and was extracted quickly. Handling Grey Herons is a two man job so no pictures were taken.

One of the nicest birds in this time was this stunner of a Long-eared Owl caught at the University campus in Coleraine by John and Ken on the 4th of July.

Long-eared Owl

We had our first Long-eared Owl recovery but in unfortunate circumstances. One of the chicks ringed at the University campus back in 2011 (pictured below) was hit by a car on the 13th of June this year around 9.5 miles away near the town of Ballymoney. Although sad circumstances, it is interesting to see the dispersals of the birds.

The Storm Petrel season was a poor one yet again and it really is on a downward trend and so to is effort because of it. This year it was just the three visits with catches of 5, 16 & a control and 17 & a Redshank.

As well as our control, we had two birds recovered making it a hat-rick of bird observatories.

The controlled Storm Petrel was ringed at North Ronaldsay Bird Observatory, Orkney, Scotland on the 2nd of August 2018 and controlled by us 18 days later at Rinnagree Point at a distance of 529km.
North Ron is one of those enviable observatories that see and catch what we would deem rare by the bucket load - check their blog out here - http://northronbirdobs.blogspot.com/

A Storm Petrel ringed by us Rinnagree Point on the 17th July 2017 was caught at Skokholm Bird Observatory, Pembrokeshire, Wales on the 11th August 2018.  398 km distance and 390 days.
Skokholm, like North Ron, makes us very jealous and we'd love just a fraction of their birds! Visit their blog  - https://skokholm.blogspot.com/

The final bird was one of our 2016 birds ringed on the 1st of August which was retrapped at the Calf of Man Bird Observatory on the 9th of June this year. We have never caught a bird before the 1st of July so perhaps these guys have picked up breeder (which arrive earlier) on route to its breeding site. I'm not sure if they breed on the Calf again yet after the recent eradication of rats. 174km distance and 677 days.
You can keep up to date with these guys on Facebook - 
https://www.facebook.com/calfofmanbirdobservatory/

Storm Petrel Movements

I haven't updated the Storm Petrel control maps or info in a while but you can click on the tabs above to check out all the other movements.



This control isn't particularly impressive but considering I just caught my first Greenfinch retrap a few weeks ago, it is nice to see where they go. The said bird was ringed at Castlerock on the 7th of Jan 2018 and found dead by a member of the public 4km away in Articlave on the 15th of May 2018, dead within a week. It was presumably breeding along the local hedgerows which are quite good and hold a population of Yellowhammers, the only decent one I'm aware of in the wider area.

Back in March I updated about the ringing in Kens garden and the good numbers of Siskins and a brilliant control all the way from Cape Clear Bird Observatory 454 km at the very south of Ireland. (http://causewaycoastrg.blogspot.com/2018/03/siskins-and-garden-ringing.html) The Siskins continued to visit and 78 new birds were captured. One of these birds itself was then controlled elsewhere making its way to Salsburgh, North Lanarkshire, Scotland. It was originally ringed on the 13th of March and recaptured on the 6th of May - 54 days apart, 193km away. This is the second of our Siskins that has been controlled at this same site following one from my parents garden in the Loughan a few years back.

Siskin to North Lanarkshire 

I've finished with a picture of the Portstewart Strand Cuckoo just because its a stonker bird!

End of summer update

Yet again I have been slacking with the blog updates following a holiday in Hungary & Slovakia and I'm currently in the process of moving in to my new house. I'll hopefully get sorted in the next week or two and be back in action.
I received some great news from the BTO midweek to say that my application was successful and I have now been granted my A permit and I am also now registered as a ringing trainer!

So...... we have been semi-busy in the past 6 weeks with some more Storm Petrel ringing, general passerines, a trip to Copeland Bird Observatory, waders and we have been back down to Lough Neagh.


Lough Neagh, Take Two

Back on the 13th of August, John, Steve and I met with Godfrey and returned to the west shore of Lough Neagh where we had the very productive catch of 102 birds on the 16th of July.  We had another brilliant session with a slightly lower catch of 93 new birds but it did consist of a greater diversity and a fantastic 17 Reed Warblers taking us to 30 for the year. As an extra to the two nets we used the last time, we placed a net across the channel that separates the island from the mainland which is much closer to the wet woodland and it produced the majority of the Blackcap, Chiffchaff and Willow Warbler.
You'd like to think one or two of these 150+ acros will produce a recovery on the way south or during a later migration.

Reed Warbler

Lough Neagh                            
                                       New       

Blackcap                        17                                           
Blue Tit                           2                                              
Chiffchaff                        2            
Reed Warbler                17
Sedge Warbler               38
Sparrowhawk                  1
Willow Warbler              8                                        
Wren                                1               

Totals                              93                  

Sparrowhawk

We plan to return next year from mid to late summer and, with the right team, work the site to its full potential - 250-300 birds in a morning? A few trainees would be handy to carry the gear as the 1 mile walk through soaking reeds and swarms of flies is tough going :P



Mist-netting Waders

On August 25th John and I had a bash at mist-nesting some roosting waders with a decent forecast and a workable tide. With just the two of us on hand we stuck with just two 12m nets in a V over the main pool playing the 'Killer Redshank' tape. Ideally we could have had high tide two hours later and a bit of cloud cover but it wasn't bad.
There were plenty of birds about through the evening including 3 Greenshank, 2 Whimbrel and 100's of Curlew & Black-tailed Godwit and c30 Redshank. Early on there were 20 Teal in the pool but they were flushed by a Peregrine which I only noticed when 2 Teal landed right in front of me, which I thought was weird, when the Peregrine whizzed by and tried to nab them.

Black-tailed Godwit 

With the nets open we waited for darkness, catching one Redshank early on. The roosting birds began to move about around an hour after sundown and we ended the night with 16 birds of four species.

Curlew

Grangemore Waders
Species                       Ringed

Black-tailed Godwit      2
Curlew                           2
Dunlin                            2
Redshank                      10

Total                              16

Dunlin

We had hoped to have a few more attempts through September, as well as some Swallow roost catches but as mentioned I've not had the time but there are still a few weeks left yet to make it happen! 


Storm Petrels

On the Storm Petrel front we made our last two attempts of the season (six in total), again with a few visitors, this time from Northumberland.  We added another 5 new Storm Petrels and one control, taking us to a year total of 44 new, 1 retrap and 3 controls, which is our lowest since we started studying the species. We have yet to submit the details of the last control as yet but hope to sort that over the next month.

Storm Petrel

We had a little more luck with Redshank adding another 7 birds.

 Next stop Tiree in a due north path

Portstewart Strand

We have had three visits to Portstewart Strand on the 20th & 27th August and the 17th September and the combined ringing totals are below. There have been a few odds and sods around the estuary and my species total as of 19th Sep is now up to 115 including a roosting Long-eared Owl, Curlew Sandpiper, Sooty Shearwater, Great Skua and finally my first Collared Dove after 4/5 years of waiting! I've also been missed plenty in the estuary in the past month with Osprey, Sabines Gull (which would both be NI ticks for me), Little Stint, Arctic Skua and Ruff sighted by others. 

The Blue and Great Tits all appeared on the 17th September with 4 of the Chaffinches showing the changing of the guard. The final Willow Warbler of the year was caught on the 27th of August, one day earlier than the final bird of 2016. The Starling was caught in an evening catch.

Starling

 Portstewart Strand/Grangemore                            
                                       New       Retrap    

Blackcap                         11
Blue Tit                            3              1                 
Bullfinch                          2              1
Chaffinch                         5                                                       
Dunnock                          5              2
Goldcrest                         7              4
Goldfinch                        1
Great Tit                         5                        
Lesser Redpoll                2                                   
Linnet                              6          
Meadow Pipit                                  1  
Reed Bunting                  3
Robin                               5               1
Starling                           1                          
Willow Warbler             1                                        
Wren                               5             

Totals                              62              10                

We are approaching peak season at Portstewart Strand and John has 3 weeks of holidays coming up so we will be hoping for plenty more ringing in the coming weeks. We have also not had a suitable team where we can use all the nets so it will be nice to have some of the lesser-spotted trainees in tow.



Copeland Bird Observatory

On the 1st of September I headed over the Copeland Bird Observatory with a team of 11 others on a special trip to ring Manx Shearwater chicks during the peak emergence. I was planning on staying through to Sunday but the terrible forecast meant that we had to be taken off the island on Saturday afternoon.
In the down time waiting for darkness I had a shot at ringing some waders and was successful in catching one Redshank. Very little wader ringing has taken place at CBO in the last few decades and wader numbers are still very low on the island at this time of year but if I get another weekend visit this autumn I'll make a bigger effort. When the sun went down we headed out across the island in three teams of 4 and caught 173 new Manx Shewarwaters and dozens of retraps. I headed for bed at 1am so I could be up for 6am to open the mist nets to catch some migrant passerines. Some of the others lasted until around 4.30am.

Manx Shearwater youngster (DS)

I didn't actually record the number of birds caught in the nets in the morning but we did get 30+ birds made up mostly of Goldcrests, Robins and Swallows plus 4 Chiffchaff, Wren, a Blackcap and some of the resident retraps. We also found a late Woodpigeon nest with two chicks which were ringed.


There have been a few more birds processed with two mornings at the river site with a catch of 30+ birds made up mostly of Warblers, particularly Chiffchaff, of which we catch very few of.  I also had an attempt of catching the Jays in my parents garden but ended up catching the same Magpie three times and the rats have now eaten my big of peanuts yet again! 

Magpie



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!

Acros Galore

John and I headed off to the western shore of Lough Neagh on Sunday 16th July following a kind invite from the local gun club who had recorded a number of singing male Reed Warblers, which, as I had mentioned in the previous post, have a restricted distribution in N Ireland.  The site is a former island which has reconnected to the shore after the draining of Lough Neagh decades ago and has since become a huge reedbed with surrounding ASSI Wet Woodland.  Access isn't the easiest and requires a mile+ plus walk to get to the 'island' but fantastic habitat the whole way down.

We didn't arrive at the ringing site until after 8am but we soon set about erecting two 18m nets in a likely spot close to lough shore.  It was clear that it was a going to be a good session as we had managed to capture 14 birds before we had actually opened the nets fully!  After 3 hours we packed up and headed for home but had caught a massive 83 Sedge Warbler, 13 Reed Warbler, 6 Reed Bunting and 2 Willow Warbler.  The catch 13 Reed Warblers is probably a record for a single day catch in NI and 83 Sedge Warblers is by far our biggest.  The vast majority were birds of the year including 79 of the Sedge Warblers.  A 6am start would have easily produced double the numbers.  We were surprised not to get a control amongst the big catch but there is a good chance of one or two being recovered on the way south.

Reed Warbler

The gun club have recorded up to 6 singing male Reed Warblers in the direct vicinity so there is probably a sizeable population across the greater area.  An estimate of 1000+ Sedge Warblers wouldn't be far off the mark for the same area. It was also a great spot for wildfowl watching with plenty of Tufted Duck, Pochard, Gadwall, Mute Swan, Great Crested Grebe, Moorhen, Little Grebe, Mallard on the water and a Black-headed Gull breeding colony on the offshore island.

Reed Warbler

On Monday the 17th John, Ken, Nick and I had the second go at catching Storm Petrels this summer in good conditions.  We had the net open between 23.30 and 01.30 and managed a catch of 9 birds.  There didn't seem to be too many more Stormies about but we will hopefully hit better passage in the coming weeks.  An extra bit of interest was the capture of a Common Pipistrelle bat early on which is a fairly regular occurrence - potentially the same bats/family each time!

Storm Petrel

 

Myself, Ken and Nick

 

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

Thrushes plus Sandwich Tern and Storm Petrel Recoveries

It has been yet another quiet week in the Bann Estuary and we still can't manage to find a warbler of any form!  The week was split into two weather wise with windy and wet conditions from Saturday to Tuesday and warmer settled weather for the rest of the week, with the winds still generally from the east or south.  Wednesday marked the first day of northerlies for almost 3 weeks and it brought some new birds with it.

Redwing (JC)

The first half of the week was the quieter period with little obvious passage or grounded migrants with only a handful of Blackbirds, Chaffinches, Song Thrushes and singles of Redwing flying over early morning.  Goldcrest numbers have dropped off quite substantially with only one bird caught and only a few heard.  Things on the estuary have been a little better with lots of Golden Plover, Teal and Wigeon, a constant stream of Whooper Swans flying over from Wednesday, six Greylag Geese, six Little Egrets (3 more than my previous patch max count), three Great-crested Grebes and only the second Little Grebe of the year.  Thursday seen a better movement of thrushes with larger numbers of Redwing and a new wave of Blackbirds and Song Thrushes.  Skylark movement also picked up with flocks of up to 50 birds passing through on Thursday.  At least one Long-eared Owl is still frequenting the area and was spotted on two mornings pre 7am. 

Whooper Swans (JC)

Again we managed a couple of ringing sessions before work or on days off so generally shorter restricted sessions when working by ourselves or in twos.  A sprinkling of northern migrants has helped boost the numbers as the local bird numbers continue to struggle.  The first Redwing of the autumn is always nice and a further two Skylarks are welcome as they can be a challenge to catch! 

Blackbird

PSS Ringing Totals 15 - 20/10/2016
                                New      Retrap
Blackbird                   6                
Blue Tit                      1  
Dunnock                    1              3
Goldcrest                   1
Goldfinch                                   1
Great Tit                    2              1
Linnet                        2
Meadow Pipit           18
Redwing                    4
Robin                        1               5  
Skylark                      2   
Song Thrush             2
Wren                         4           

Total                       44               10            

Skylark (JC)

The feeding station has been relocated as it has become very exposed since the leaves have fallen off the trees so the birds are steering clear when the nets are up.  The feeders have also been plagued with rats with up to three large brutes spotted at a time so a new location was certainly in order.

Linnet

It has been a while since we have had a Sandwich Tern recovered in Africa but news came in of our 66th bird to the continent.  The bird was retrapped in La Somone, Senegal, which is our second bird from the site and 25th to Senegal.  The last one was controlled some 14 years ago so it has been quite a wait to get one from La Somone!
The bird was ringed by us as a pullus at Inch Island, Donegal on the 4th of June 2014 and re-caught by a South African (at least registered) ringer on the 6th of April of this year.  The straight line distance between the sites is 4585 km with the time lapsed of 672 days. 

Sandwich Tern recovery in La Somone, Senegal

As mentioned in the previous post we had news of another Storm Petrel controlled elsewhere in the British Isles and since then we've had another two reports in!
The first bird was controlled at Rhuba nan Sasan, Loch Ewe, Highland, Scotland on the 3rd of September 2016 at a distance of 305 km.  We had trapped the bird 38 days earlier on the 27th of July at Rinnagree Point, Portstewart. 

The other two birds are quite interesting and almost associated.  They represent an exchange from the Calf of Man Bird Observatory in both directions.  The first of these was a bird that we ringed at Rinnagree Point on the 19th of July this year which was controlled only 4 days later at the Observatory at the southern tip of the Isle of Man.  On that same night the Obs staff ringed another Storm Petrel which made its way to us nine days later, taking the reverse route as the first.
These are not the first Storm Petrels that we have exchanged with the Calf (174km straight line distance away) with two of ours going there and two of theirs coming our way.  Two of those birds were also caught within less 15 days apart so it is clearly a natural route for the birds through July and August. 

Edited note: I've only just noticed that the bird of ours trapped at the Calf was the same bird also caught at Bardsey Bird Observatory 19 days later. 

Storm Petrel Recoveries

The settled weather looks set to continue into the weekend so we will hopefully get another visit in and potentially carry out a bit of habitat management.
Our final visit to Copeland Bird Observatory for the season is pencilled in for next weekend so fingers crossed the weather is kind to us and we actually manage to get to the island and get some nice birds!