We have had three cannon-netting sessions as part of the project so far, and have brought on board cannon-netting experts from Scotland to help us out with this very technical method of catching birds.
Here, Simon Foster, Policy & Advice Officer at Scottish Natural Heritage, regales us with a synopsis of his experiences on the project, ably accompanied by Kenny Graham and Ewan Weston, the other members of their modestly self-named “Team Awesome”.
3….2…..1…., kind of like a cannon net
catch, and as quick as that it seems our time helping BirdWatch Ireland and the
Dublin Bay Birds Project has come to an end. Back in 2012 we were asked to help with the
project – “come over to Ireland an ye can catch some waders, ah go on”. I think
that’s how it went. Seriously though, we had no idea what we were embarking on.
Our only sneak previews were from Niall; a few photos of the Merrion gates
roost – wow that’s a lot of oystercatchers!
A look at the map, hmm that’s a big area! And counts of the individual
roosts – jings that’s a big flock of birds!!
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| Merrion Gates roost at high tide Niall Tierney |
Anyway, convinced that this was a very
worthwhile thing for us to embark on, the three of us headed across. The first time
we drove all the way from north Scotland to Dublin. Navigating all the way to Dublin was easy. Getting
around Dublin was a nightmare! We frequently drove right round the Aviva stadium
on our way between Merrion and Bull Island, spent what seemed like a lot of
euros on the tolls, which was only because we drove up and down the same bit of
road several times within the space of an hour!
But when we got to the shore we could see the massive numbers of
waders: flocks and flocks of bar-tailed
godwit, knot, dunlin and oystercatchers. Bucket loads of shoveler, mediterranean
gulls, little egrets – it was a birders’
paradise. Our job from the outset was to
catch some waders so that they could be colour-ringed and their movements could
start to be unravelled. Thanks to the
detailed recces by everyone involved, it made our job relatively simple. The
Dublin Bay Birds team had identified the roosts in advance, and had watched the
birds intensely, which meant they knew how birds moved up the shore as the tide
pushed in. If we had to do this from scratch ourselves, it would have probably
taken a great number of days to figure out what was happening.
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| Radio-tagged Redshank John Fox |
In the first year we took a small oystercatcher catch on Merrion, the next winter we spread our wings and
targeted redshank at a few locations and of course the memorable large catch a
lot of you were at. In our last winter,
we were successful again, with a lovely catch of 190 oystercatchers and 20 curlew,
which allowed all of the remaining colour rings to go on and 10 radio
transmitters. Not only have we learnt a
great deal about Dublin Bay (although our navigation skills are still terrible
around the city!) but we’ve collectively learned a huge amount about wintering waders
in Dublin.
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| Members of Team Awesome getting just the right angle! Helen Boland |
So, our impressions – it’s been a real genuine
pleasure to help with this fantastic project. To be able to help in starting,
what we really hope will be a long-term commitment to studying waders in Dublin
Bay, is a genuine privilege. Bird colour-ringing
is vital for helping us understand our birds, and these studies are the work of
teams, not solo efforts. You guys pulled
together as a great team – showing enthusiasm, enjoyment and of course a lot of
entertainment. We hope we have whetted your appetites and will be spurred on to
continue this great work.
Keep watching all those colour-ringed birds
and remember “Team Awesome” are only a phone call away!
Simon Foster, Kenny Graham and Ewan Weston.
