Next stop Iceland for these leggy beauties!

Dublin Bay hosts internationally important numbers (that is to say that more than 1% of the flyway population) of Black-tailed Godwits each year. From late summer, normally towards the end of July, Blackwits begin to arrive back to Ireland from Iceland. It is often the failed breeders that arrive first, with the breeders and the juveniles coming slightly later on. They tend to arrive quite suddenly to Dublin Bay. Our first July count last year amounted to 159 birds, but this had doubled by our next count, ten days later. We get an autumnal peak (7 or 800 birds) in Dublin Bay in September, but the flocks soon disperse. Then, as the winter progresses the numbers gradually grow before peaking at about 1,500 birds in March and early April. And by May, they’re gone.

Flock of Black-tailed Godwits in springtime Liam Kane

Right now Black-tailed Godwits are focused on feeding up and getting in condition for migration in the coming weeks. But they also need to get plenty of energy on board to fuel a complete change of their body feathers. Many have started this spring moult, which effectively is them putting on their glad rags for the breeding season. They will transform from a palette of grey into vivid burnt orange on the head, neck and chest with the flanks and belly strongly barred, the wings held closed have coarsely spotted orange, white and black feathers amongst mainly grey white fringed feathers.

Springtime in Dublin Bay presents the fantastic opportunity to observe these beautiful birds as they transform into their summer finery. An international team of Godwit researchers  are keen to investigate the regional differences in the timing of moult - some of the birds that winter in Portugal start their moult earlier than our birds up here. They are looking for your help to piece this story together. Read more about this on Wadertales - a fantastic wader-focused blog, which is definitely worth checking out.

A colour-ringed Black-tailed Godwit was recently spotted in the South Lagoon on Bull Island. This bird was originally ringed as a juvenile bird in the Montrose Basin in north east Scotland in 2012, and is now a regular to Dublin Bay. We have become very familiar with this bird over the past few years and have followed his movements around Bull Island and the surrounding parks and pitches. You may remember him being mentioned on our blog previously; find out some more about this guy here and here.

Colour ringed Black-tailed Godwit Richard Nairn

With the Black-tailed Godwit regional moult survey fast approaching, why not get out to your local patch and see how your Blackwits are looking? It would be really interesting to see where the Black-tailed Godwits wintering in Dublin Bay sit within the international moult trend. The coordinated observation period is the Easter weekend - the 25^th and 28^th of March. Read the full instructions and all the details on the Wadertales blog. 

Dublin Bay Oystercatcher: an Oransay regular

One of our Dublin Bay Oystercatchers is becoming a regular on Oransay in the Inner Hebrides. Morgan Vaughan, RSPB warden up there, tells us about how he crossed paths with Oystercatcher “UA”.

I am fortunate enough to carry out a WeBs survey for the BTO which falls within the South Colonsay and Oronsay SSSI, Argyll, Scotland. The two inner Hebridean islands are separated by a tidal strand and this is where I carry out the monthly survey as part of the monitoring work as warden of RSPB’s Oronsay. I tend to count on a rising tide shortly after low water as this pushes the waders out from the skerries of the islands peppered through the strand to feed along the water’s edge. This also gives a readily countable stretch of sand to work along. The intertidal zone is flanked by costal heath, maritime grassland and salt marsh, all of which granted protection for chough, corncrake and grey seals.

Colonsay and Oransay and the intertidal area
where Oystercatcher "UA" hangs out

During the March count (16/03/2015) last year, I spotted a colour-ringed oystercatcher close enough to get the colours and I could see that there was an inscription on one of the yellow rings, but it was just too far away to make out. I returned eagerly the next day with camera in hand and managed to find the bird again in the same spot and snapped a usable photo. UA.

Oystercatcher "UA" foraging on the sandflats
between Oransay and Colonsay Morgan Vaughan

I’d worked out on the day that it could be potentially a Dublin Bay bird and with great excitement I fired the photo off to Niall Tierney who promptly informed me about the bird’s history; “The bird was caught on the 22nd November last year [2014] and has only been seen once since then, on the 27th November, back at the ringing site”. I’m always so pleased with a result like this. Finding out the history of a ringed bird, especially an international traveller is always marvellous!

I kept a close eye while surveying our breeding waders on Oronsay for any other oystercatchers with rings, but no sign of UA. I’m always on the look-out for rings, a minor obsession borne out of my work with colour ringed chough, but I had no further sightings on the strand.

Oransay landscape Morgan Vaughan

Nearly a year on (23/02/2016), I’m on the strand again, counting on the incoming tide, and there’s UA once again - close enough to make out with the eye!  It is fascinating to wonder where this bird has been for the last 11 months. Perhaps it has been breeding somewhere nearby. I will be certain to be on the watch for it again during this year’s breeding season.

Brents Before Breakfast - more successful Brent Goose catches in Dublin

Last week, the Dublin Bay Birds team had the opportunity to do some cannon-netting with the Irish Brent Goose Research Group. As we know from our own cannon-netting work in Dublin, you’re at the whim of the Cannon-net Gods and humour of the birds, so a successful catch is far from guaranteed. But in spite of this wonderfully stormy winter, fickle geese and several over-energetic dogs, we had a few decent catches during the week, in various parks in Coolock, Baldoyle and Malahide.

The geese are fitted with conspicuous colour-rings, which are very easy to see on the geese on the coast, or in many of Dublin’s parks and pitches. The project has been on the go since 2001, and over 3,500 Brent Geese have been colour-ringed in Ireland, Iceland and Arctic Canada to date.

Colour-ringed Brent Goose "JCBY" Ricky Whelan

Unlike our shoreline wader catches, the tide isn’t as important for catches on parks in the city, but it does still play a role. The ideal scenario is to have the net set in luscious grassland close to the coast, when there is high water at dawn. The birds, who have roosted on the water close to the coast, will be hungry after fasting since the previous evening, and, with water levels high, will have to head straight for your luscious grassland for brekkie. That’s the theory anyway, but it doesn’t always work out in practice. And it often means that we have to embark on a @brentgoosechase (follow the lads on Twitter!) to locate the flocks of geese that are flying over our heads into seemingly endless housing estates!

But when things go well and the geese behave, good catches can made and the team have the chance to colour-ring the birds and collect faeces, feather and blood samples and take measurements of each bird.

We had the added bonus of catching 5 Oystercatchers, who were hanging out with the geese in Red Arches in Baldoyle, and we were more than happy to ring them and collect biometric data for our database, which has been somewhat neglected this winter!

Oystercatcher Ricky Whelan

We often read each other’s colour-ringed birds when out on fieldwork, so it’s great to hook up with this well-oiled research machine from time to time and share information on our respective colour-ringed birds. A few of the Brent Geese that we crossed paths with in recent weeks include SKRB who was ringed by the Brent Goose team in his breeding territory in Axel Heiberg in Arctic Canada in 2014. We also connected with DXBY, who has been seen several times in Dublin this winter. It was nice for us to catch up with this lad, as Niall had been part of ringing team to catch and ring this bird in Iceland last May. Another very well recorded bird was also seen recently - 99BB. Having been ringed in 2012, it has been re-sighted in Dublin every year since, in Iceland in 2012 and 2013, and on the Faroe Islands in 2013 and 2014. The value of such a long-term dataset, and the information we can get from such really cannot be overstated.

If you see any colour-ringed Brent Geese, you can find details on how to submit your sightings here.  

Scopes and sun cream: six months with the DBBP team

What’s involved in working with BirdWatch Ireland on the Dublin Bay Birds Project? I reflect on my six months as an intern, which gave me a taste of what it’s like to work in conservation; a dynamic area where fieldwork, office work and public engagement are all key parts of the job.

Ringing Arctic Tern chicks in Dublin Port Ricky Whelan

In June 2015 I joined the BirdWatch Ireland team as an intern, working primarily with the Dublin Bay Birds Project team. With the breeding season in full swing, it was a running start, and over the first few months Common and Arctic Terns were in focus. Fieldwork involved visiting the breeding colonies in Dublin Port, to conduct nest and egg counts and ring the chicks. It was a fantastic experience to visit the breeding colonies and to be involved in this important research, although some of my clothes will never be the same again!

Carrying out nest surveys on the new tern raft at the
Great South Wall, Dubin Port Ricky Whelan

After the breeding season, the focus of our field work changed, along with the temperatures. The sun cream was swapped for a flask of tea and a scope, and we began counts of wintering waterbirds in Dublin Bay. Bull Island became my training ground, and with a lot of help from the team, my identification, counting and ring-reading skills greatly improved. Visiting various locations around Dublin Bay gave me a whole new perspective on the city, and the important role it plays for so many species during the winter months.

Searching for colour-ringed Oystercatchers on 

Sandymount Strand, Dublin Jen Lynch

Overall being part of the Dublin Bay Birds team has been extremely rewarding and enjoyable. I got the opportunity to be involved in many different aspects of conservation work and learned a huge amount in this short period. Working alongside people who are willing to share their experiences and knowledge (especially Niall Tierney, Ricky Whelan and Steve Newton) was an essential part of this, and I would recommend this position, or similar ones, to anyone hoping to pursue a career in conservation. 

Cannon-netting in Dublin Bay

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!!

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.

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. 

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.

Colourful jigsaw pieces added to the puzzle!

A day spent reading colour-rings, with your help, has allowed us to gather important information on 51 individuals across five different species.

After a brief introduction to the project at the Bull Island Interpretative Centre, volunteers and equipment were divided, and two teams headed out into Dublin Bay in search of birds with bling (colour-rings). As the tide rose, it pushed the feeding birds closer to the shore, where teams stood ready, searching legs for splashes of colour.

Niall Tierney talks about the merits of colour-ringing as a conservation tool Ricky Whelan 

We managed to read colour-rings on five species; 32 Oystercatchers, 9 Brent Geese, 5 Bar-tailed Godwits, 4 Redshanks and one Black-tailed Godwit. When a colour-ring sighting is submitted, a detailed history, showing information on all re-sightings of that ring, is returned to the person who submitted it.

Ringing and re-sighting information for colour-ringed  Oystercatcher "LL"

One Oystercatcher, LL, which was spotted on the day, has been re-sighted 11 times since it was ringed in February 2013. The first sightings were during the autumn/winter of 2013/14 when LL turned up at Bull Island, Merrion Gates and Shellybanks, exploiting foraging opportunities on both sides of the bay. However in May 2014, LL was reported in Orkney in Scotland. A few months later LL returned to sunny south Dublin, with sightings from August to December at Sandymount. After that, LL disappeared off the radar until August 2015, when it was spotted back at Merrion Gates, before being spotted again in October at the same place.

Some of the key overwintering areas for waders in Dublin Bay

The majority of colour-rings read were part of the Dublin Bay Birds Project, but we did manage to spot some non-project birds, ringed by other schemes. A lot of patience was required to read a Black-tailed Godwit ring (LG-WL - lime over green on left leg, white over lime on right leg).

Colour-ringed Black-tailed Godwit “LG-WL” (centre) at the 

North Lagoon, Bull Island Niall Tierney

After a quick tweet to @JenGill3, Professor of Applied Ecology at the University of East Anglia, who works on Black-tailed Godwits, we discovered that LG-WL was ringed in the south-western part of Iceland in April 2000, and has been re-sighted 52 times since then! Between 2001 and 2014 LG-WL was re-sighted a whopping 47 times in Ireland, with 46 of those sightings in Dublin Bay and one in Cork harbour, in 2003. Towards the end of 2014 LG-WL was spotted at the Wash Estuary in Lincolnshire in east England, but returned to Dublin Bay in September 2015.

Searching for colour-ringed birds on Sandymount Strand, 

South Dublin Ricky Whelan

Throughout the day, nine Brent Geese with colour rings were also spotted, and their details hae been sent to the Irish Brent Goose Research Group. If you spot a colour-ringed bird in Dublin Bay or elsewhere, we are very keen to hear from you. More information on how to report a colour-ring sighting can be found here. Follow the project on Twitter using #DubBayBirds.

Colourful German Curlew Overwinters in Dublin Bay

Reading colour-rings is a great way to make valuable contributions to bird research projects all over the world. Why not join us on Bull Island on Saturday 17th October to learn what it’s all about?

Here’s an account of the last colour-ringed bird that we read in Dublin Bay and the information we were able to find out about the bird. More importantly though, we were able to provide a very important datapoint for the project coordinator, and let them know where one of their study birds spends the winter.

On the 6th of October, during an “all-day” waterbird survey in Dublin Bay, we found some extra time between counts to scour the mudflats for colour-ringed birds. Searching for, and reading colour-rings, requires a little extra time and attention, and we don’t often have this luxury during regular counts, when the tide gives us a small window to count all birds in a specific area. Positioned at the Wooden Bridge at the south end of Bull Island in Clontarf, we watched the hungry waders redistribute themselves as the tide dropped and small islands of mud became exposed. With our heads stuck in our scopes, we picked through a mixed flock of Curlew and Bar-tailed Godwits and a flash of colour appeared! Filled with excitement, we quickly adjusted the scopes to get better views of the colour-rings on both legs of the Curlew. We recorded the important information, which includes colour and location of the rings, and even managed to “phone-scope” a few grainy photos.

Colour ringed Curlew RRY-GYY close to the Wooden Bridge, 
Bull Island, Dublin Bay – October 6th 2015 Jen Lynch

While the bird was still in our sights, a brief exchange on Twitter told us that it was most likely a bird ringed by Natalie Meyer as part of a NABU project in Germany! So we sent off a quick email with the grainy photos. Natalie got back to us to say that the bird, known as RRY-GYY (red-red-yellow, green-yellow-yellow) was ringed as a breeding adult female on the 19th of June 2013 in Tetenhusen, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany . Since the project began in 2013, Natalie has colour-ringed 18 adults and 65 chicks. RRY-GYY has bred successfully over the last 3 years at the monitored site and she is excellent at hiding her nest from predators (and the researchers!). Nest predation by mammalian predators is a big problem in the area where RRY-GYY breeds, so this year her nest site received enhanced nest protection in the form of an electric fence!

Curlew RRY-GYY ringed in northern Germany (green) and 
re-sighted in Dublin Bay (red) a distance of approx. 1,033 km

While the researchers are up to speed on the breeding situation for these birds, little is known about their wintering locations. By submitting colour-ring sightings like this one, researchers can gain a better understanding of the movements of their birds away from their ringing sites.

You can get involved in contributing to research like this. This Saturday, October 17th we are holding a ring-reading day at the Bull Island Interpretative Centre where we will introduce people to ring-reading and spend some time trying to connect with colour-ringed birds in Dublin. We’re meeting at the centre at 10:00 sharp, having a quick cuppa and a short presentation before heading out to find some colour-ringed birds. We’ll reconvene at the centre at 14:00 to collate the results and give some feedback on the colour-ringed birds. More details can be found here.