More Warblers

Last July I tested out a new site that I had been eyeing up for quite a while. The reedbed at Kilcranny is the largest in the estuary and it backs onto a fantastic Ash wood with marginal wet grassland habitats and Willow scrub. Access had previously been the main hold up with a walk of a few kilometres down farm lanes, barbed wire fences to hurdle, an overgrown understory of brambles to traverse and then crossing of the fenced railway line plus the risk of high tides. With a bit of investigatory work, I found a much simpler access route on the nearside of the railway with some fantastic habitat. 

On the tester on the 29th of July utilising some temporary net rides for three nets in existing gaps I caught 12 Sedge Warblers and a single Willow Warbler. The site contains six species of breeding warbler and on my visits in recent weeks I have heard five back on site including 3 reeling Grasshopper Warbler - still waiting for the Whitethroats in the estuary but they aren't particularly common here. 

Grasshopper Warbler

I visited the site on Bank holiday Monday (6th May) & put up a 3 nets once again although I avoided the main reedbed as the water was a little high and rain was forecast to appear mid-morning. The site has loads of breeding birds and warblers although distributed over a wide area, many away from the nets. I managed a nice diverse catch including the five warbler species present with a Grasshopper Warbler the best of the bunch.

 

                                          New     Retrap

Blackcap                             3

Bullfinch                             2

Chiffchaff                           1

Grasshopper Warbler         1

Sedge Warbler                   5

Willow Warbler                 3

Total                                  15                         

Sedge Warbler

 

I'm looking forward to trying the site properly in late summer/early autumn once the breeding birds begin to disperse and move around the site. 

 

John has made a few visits to his ringing site along the river at the Ulster University Coleraine Campus. The range of sites we use in the wider Bann Estuary are actually quite well connected now that we have opened up Kilcranny to plug the formerly large gap up to the university. We have had birds move between Portstewart and the Uni River site and Portstewart to Castlerock but it will be interesting to record any other further movements between all the sites.

 

The river site has chipped in with a number of warblers and had a particularly good movement of Blackcaps passing through the scrubby woodland with 10 trapped on the 23rd of April.

                                          New     Retrap

Blackbird                             4             2
Blackcap                             15            2

Blue Tit                                1             1                  

Chiffchaff                            1

Coal Tit                                1
Dunnock                              3             1
Goldcrest                                            1
Great Tit                              2             2
Long-tailed Tit                    2
Robin                                   2             1
Sedge Warbler                     1
Song Thrush                        2

Willow Warbler                   8             2   

Wren                                    3             3

Total                                   45           15             

 

A male Whinchat on territory in Antrim Hills on Sunday. A bird I'd love to see in the Bann Estuary

The Warblers are back

With the sounds of our favourite species group - the warblers, back on territory, we have visited some our regular spots to catch up with some old friends and meet the new cohort.
By the end of April we've had our regular six breeding species back which include Blackcap, Chiffchaff, Sedge Warbler, Whitethroat, Willow Warbler and most pleasingly, Grasshopper Warbler. For regular readers you will know that there was a complete absence of Grasshoppers over most of Northern Ireland last year and I hadn't seen or heard a single bird. Things seem to be back to normal this year with at least five territories back in the Bann Estuary and probably a few more to come.

Some good weather over the five day long Easter weekend gave the perfect opportunity to get out and open the nets. I made three visits to Portstewart Strand in this period with a great morning on Good Friday encouraging another the following day and again out on Easter Tuesday.

Willow Warbler

The first visit seemed to be very well timed with a catch of 14 new Willow Warblers which is a daily record for the site, most were females and caught moving through the gorse bushes. The same nets also produced 13 new Linnets. A female Greenland type Wheatear was the last bird in the nets and keeps up our track record of catching one Wheatear each spring at the site.

Greenland Wheatear

                                     New        Retrap
Blue Tit                                            1
Bullfinch                                          2
Dunnock                        2
Linnet                            13
Meadow Pipit                                   3
Sedge Warbler               1
Wheatear                        1
Willow Warbler              14
Wren                               2               1

Total                              33              7

Sedge Warbler - dirty nails are regular when ringing here

The Sedge Warbler on the 19th of April was my earliest ever beating the previous record held by a bird at Copeland Bird Observatory on the 24th of April in 2016. My earliest Sedge Warbler around the Bann Estuary is the 29th of April in two years & the 30th of April in two others, so certainly an early bird.
One of the Bullfinches retrapped was also an old lady having originally been ringed as a female on the 20th of November 2014 born in that year.

The middle gorse net at first light

Having had such a good catch (in limited nets) I opted to go again the following day in what appeared to be an even better forecast and added an extra net.
The result was disappointing with very little moving and much fewer birds seen out on the estuary.

                                     New        Retrap

Blackbird                                         1

Bullfinch                                          1

Dunnock                        2                 1

Linnet                            3

Stonechat                       1

Willow Warbler            3

Wren                                                1

Total                              9              6    

Linnet

The third visit was on the 23rd of April and although the conditions weren't overly promising but the nets were sheltered from the northerly wind. It continues to be a strong start of the season for Willow Warblers but many will have to find new territories elsewhere with a lack of habitat to serve them all. We tend to catch more Linnets in the autumn with the use of tape lures but we seem to be doing particularly well this spring. There are certainly 2/3 breeding pairs right beside our nets but there are still small flocks passing through the gorse (tape lures have not been used).

                                     New        Retrap

Blackcap                        1

Bullfinch                                          1

Dunnock                                          1

Linnet                            3                 1

Willow Warbler            4                 1

Wren                                                1

Total                              8              5    

The retrap Willow Warbler was one of our returning adult male birds originally trapped on the 9th of April in 2017.

Early Spring

We kicked off the spring ringing along the Lower Bann on the 6th of April at Portstewart Strand with a focus on the gorse scrub and a couple of short nets in the remaining Sea Buckthorn/Elder scrub.

Stonechat

The catch wasn't a big one with 13 new birds and 7 retraps with the best bird being a retrap Bullfinch from May 2015.

                            New     Retrap
Blackbird               1
Bullfinch                              1
Chaffinch               1            1
Dunnock                              1
Linnet                    5
Meadow Pipit        4
Reed Bunting                       1
Stonechat               1            1
Wren                      1            2

Total                     13            7
   

Reed Bunting

The following weekend the weather was very windy yet again so I decided to dust off the spring traps and visit Ballintoy Harbour and see if I could retrap some of my Rock Pipits. I had passed by in recent weeks and only noticed 1-2 ringed birds amongst the 50+ present, although this number was declining.

Ballintoy Harbour is a great spot with lots of small rocky islands, bays, basalt cliffs just behind and usually has big piles of seaweed on the shore which are great for shoreline birds. The site is also used as a film location for Game of Thrones as Pyke, on the Iron Islands.

Wheatear

I arrived early doors but didn't have much luck in the first 45 minutes with just four Rock Pipits knocking around the spot I had chosen and a Pied Wagtail that constantly walked back and forth over the traps. A Wheatear then swooped in and was caught within 2 minutes.
It didn't take long then to add a second bird with a Rock Pipit taking a fancy to a meal worm. I left shortly after with my fingers frozen in the biting north wind and the first lot of tourists arriving.

Rock Pipit

We've also been back out on a couple of spots on the local rivers with a trainee from the Belfast & Down Ringing Group, who happens to live locally, to target some of the river species. We had a bit of luck with the capture of a Kingfisher and a couple of retrap Dippers

Kingfisher (JC)

Dipper (JC)

I came across this drake Mallard which had been knocked down on a nearby road during our time on the river. Unfortunate but he was a proper stunner.

Mallard (RD)

With my two heronries in the Bann Estuary now classified as extinct it leaves me with just the one to check for the UK wide BTO survey, which is located near the Donnybrewer Levels close to City of Derry Airport. The colony has moved from a mature Scots Pine plantation (following 95% harvesting) into the adjoining Sitka Spruce plantation which is probably 22-23 years old (I remember the mature forest being just a field which makes me feel old at the age of 30).
Some more trees have blown down beside where the herons nest so a few nests may have been lost as I could only locate 9 nests this year. I also found three dead young chicks which is more than usual - it has been a very windy early breeding season. I would estimate I found at least 29 egg shells under the nests (2,3,3,3,4,4,5,3,2) but I presume that not all shells will be removed from nest or make it to the forest floor.

Dead Grey Heron chick

Grey Heron eggs

The heron colony is in a very dense conifer plantation which is very hard to move through and see up to the tree tops - a good strong stick for whacking branches and spider webs is essential!

The dense conifer plantation is full of Woodpigeons and I noticed a number of hatched eggs under their flimsy stick nests but also came across the unhatched egg.

Woodpigeon egg

Ringing on the Rock & Northern Irish Acrocephalus Warblers

I've finished putting together a report on the first two years of ringing at Blackers Rock, a little bit on the Reed Warbler in NI and also the migration of Reed Warbler and Sedge Warbler to/from Northern Ireland.

The report can be accessed in the link below or drop me an email and I can send by PDF

https://1drv.ms/b/s!ApJre-YC-2PrxhXxQ4yNlvVwde_m 


Below is just a snippit of the 43 page report.

Enjoy! 

New Recoveries including a first movement for NI!

We've had a three more of our birds recovered outside of Northern Ireland and received details of a colour ringed bird in the Bann Estuary.

The details of the star bird came through last night from the BTO and it was a very pleasant surprise. One of our juvenile Stonechats which we ringed on the 13th of July, fresh out of the nest at Portstewart Strand was controlled at the Calf of Man Bird Observatory on the Isle of Man on the 23rd of March this year. A minimum distance of  176km and 253 days in between. It is very likely that the distance was much further and that this bird actually spent the winter further south and was captured at the Calf on its way back north - hopefully to the Bann Estuary once more. This is at least our 9th exchange with the observatory having had two of our Goldfinches trapped there and exchanged 6+ Storm Petrels. 

On checking the other Northern Irish recoveries for Stonechat into/out of the country, it turns out that this is the first! For the Republic of Ireland there have only been two but they were impressive movements to Spain from the south coast one in 1960's and the other in early 1970's. 

Next up was another of our Sedge Warblers from Blackers Rock, Lough Neagh, ringed as a juvenile on the 22nd of July 2018. It was a fast mover being trapped 15 days later at Sant-Philbert-de-Grand-Lieu, Loire-Atlantique, France, 897km away, on its way south to sub-Saharan Africa. The movement might have been even quicker as the bird hasn't necessarily left Lough Neagh straight after ringing and could have spent another week along the lough shore. 

The third recovery was a Siskin which has moved up to Cromdale in the Highlands of Scotland. The bird was ringed in Kens garden on the 12th of April 2018 before been recaptured 311k away on the 19th of March this year. This is the third Siskin control/recovery in Kens garden in 2018 following another Scottish bird and the Cape Clear bird. 

The colour ringed bird was a Black-tailed Godwit which has appeared with hundreds of others in the Bann Estuary in recent weeks. The bird seemed familiar at the time and it turns out I have seen it twice before. The bird was ringed as an adult male in northern Iceland and has been sighted eight times since including England, Republic of Ireland and back in Iceland. 

River Tripple Crown

With the persistent weekend winds keeping the nets down at the Bann Estuary I decided to try a little river ringing. In recent years we have kept much of the river ringing for training purposes plus the continuation of Ken's study of the Irish Dipper.

I headed over to the River Rhee on Saturday the 23rd of March which is our regular hotspot for Dipper, Grey Wagtail and Kingfisher where we have caught a number of the years.

Dipper

I had an instant capture of a retrap Dipper which I had originally ringed on the 26th of March 2016 before another bird bounced out of the net twice- I  keep the bottom shelf quite tight to ensure the bag of the net doesn't droop into the water with the weight of a bird but at the same not too high to allow the birds to fly under easily.

Kingfishers (female top - male bottom)

Next up was a pair of Kingfishers in the net, again one slipped out but the male came back down and was captured on the second pass.

Grey Wagtail

A always find Grey Wagtails the most difficult to capture and today was no different as they always notice the net - flying over, around, walking under it and evading capture. I got lucky with one towards the end of the session but it's partner wouldn't join it.

Wood Anemone

Slow Start to 2019

The first three months of 2019 have been a slow one on the ringing front with seemingly continually bad weather any time we have some availability. Ringing at exposed coastal sites presents lots of problems with wind, usually some 10+ mph stronger than in Coleraine.

We haven't been totally idle and did manage three visits to Castlerock Golf Club and a single session at my work place in Magilligan.

Blackcap

The visits at Castlerock took place on the 5th Jan, 19th Jan and 24th Feb producing 41 new birds and eight retraps.

Species	New	Retrap	Total
Blackbird	5	1	3
Blackcap	1		1
Blue Tit	5	2	7
Bullfinch	7	4	11
Chaffinch	4		4
Dunnock	2	1	3
Fieldfare	5		5
Greenfinch	4		4
Robin	1		1
Song Thrush	6	1	5
Wren	1		1
Totals	41	9	45

Fieldfare

The run of Fieldfares continued with another five, taking us to nine for the winter at the site. I still reckon we could up this substantially with a bit more tweaking and effort but certainly a big improvement. Another wintering Blackcap is always nice and it continued to a bumper winter for Song Thrushes.

Song Thrush

Magilligan Field Centre

I haven't touched on my work place previously but I work at the Magilligan Field Centre where I had been feeding the birds through the early winter. The facility is set amongst improved farmland on the flat lands of Magilligan and has a decent number of trees and hedges around the perimeter.

The main lure is the wintering flock of Tree Sparrows which also breed here in sealed nest boxes around the small nature garden.

Tree Sparrow

I have been doing the odd bit of ringing here and there through the autumn/winter up until the 4th of January catching 166 new birds and 48 retraps.

	New	Retrap
Blackbird	7	2
Blue Tit	14	12
Chaffinch	41	4
Coal Tit	2	4
Dunnock	1	1
Goldcrest	3
Goldfinch	37	4
Great Tit	8	8
Greenfinch	5	1
HouseSparrow	18	3
Pied Wagtail	1
Robin	7	3
Song Thrush	1
Starling	1
Tree Sparrow	17	3
Wren	3	3
	166	48

Greenfinch

I was particularly pleased with the number of Tree Sparrows and also the House Sparrows, a species I don't ring all that often. I had intended to continue feeding in to the mid-late winter but I let it slip. I did have the odd Lesser Redpoll and Siskin begin to visit but once the nyjer disappeared so did they. In the snowy conditions we had Fieldfare, Redwing, Skylark and Snipe all appear in the grounds but no attempts were made to catch them.

House Sparrow

Pied Wagtail

Spring looks to have arrived finally and so too has our drive to get out ringing (I hope). With the loss of our main site at Portstewart Strand we will need to do a bit of testing out to get a proper migration site up and running.