August Colour Ring Reading

Not a huge amount to report on the rare bird front since the Royal Tern which has subsequently turned up down in the Shannon Estuary moving between counties Kerry and Clare. Evidently this bird must have flown south via Galway unseen! It's performed a lot better than during its short stay in Mayo and has been widely twitched at this stage. Most of the shots below were taken just with phone camera so the quality of most isn't great. I had to get the Canon 7D cleaned recently as there were two nice big specks of dirt caught on sensor which were showing up on the pictures. I haven't had an opportunity to use it in the last fortnight anyway.

Cathal and myself headed down to the Bridges of Ross last Saturday for a spot of seawatching, about 12 hours of it in fact. We arrived about 40 minutes late for a very close in Fea's Petrel which was a bit of bummer but that's what you get for not arriving first thing in the morning. Despite this disappointment we had a very productive seawatch with four different Wilson's Petrel, one of which I managed to pick up myself. Add to this 1 Blue Fulmar, 7 Cory's (one very close), 5 Great, 325 Sooty, 8 Balearic Shearwaters, 3 Leach's, c.1850 European Storm Petrels, 5 juv Long-tailed, 1 ad Pom, 29 Arctic, 25 Great Skuas, 12 Sabine's Gull and 2 Black Terns (thanks to Niall Keogh for keeping tabs on the tallies). The Storm Petrel passage was particularly impressive. I can't recall ever seeing such a large and consistent passage which continued all day. Only 20 maximum birders were on site during the day. The weather conditions haven't been as productive in the last week but most visiting birders probably aren't complaining too much with the backup of a Royal Tern. We didn't manage to see either the Solitary or Least Sandpiper which were on a nearby lough previously.

I've been doing all the regular wader sites out here in Connemara in recent weeks but so far I've just had two single Curlew Sandpipers and a juvenile Little Stint so far. I also had a very brief but very close Hobby out on Mweenish Island near Carna on Thursday. Probably more interesting on a Connemara front was a heard only Spotted Redshank at the same time. The only previous Connemara record that I can find is one at Clifden in September 1961! The species is only really regular at three or four sites in Galway. Also out on Mweenish was a colour ringed Ringed Plover originally ringed in Dena, Meaño (Pontevedra), Spain by the Shorebirds Monitoring Programme in Galicia on 19th September 2014. This was the first resighting of this individual.

I also had my two colour ringed Oystercatchers back in the very same spots in the last week also. The white and yellow rings on the Icelandic bird have somehow managed to overlap each other which makes reading them rather confusing from a distance. The Scottish bird's colour ring appears to have been slightly damaged/worn over the summer period also.

Icelandic ringed Oystercatcher, Ballyconneely Beach.

Scottish ringed Oystercatcher T90. Ring slightly damaged on the other side of the ring now.


I've also managed to read six colour ringed Sanderling in the last month or so. Details below.

G1WWWR - ringed at Sandgerði, SW Iceland on 10th May 2011. First seen at Omey Island on 4th August 2011. This bird has been seen every winter since and was back this autumn on 2nd August 2016.

G3BBGY - ringed at Sandgerði, SW Iceland on 22nd May 2016. Seen on 2nd & 9th August 2016 at Omey Island, Galway.

W1YBRY - ringed at Ostgronland, Eastern Greenland on 22nd June 2016. Seen on the North Inishkea island, Co. Mayo, 5th August 2016. This bird was fitted with a geo-locator, hopefully it will be recovered next summer to retrieve the data showing it's migration route and strategy.

B3BBYR - ringed at Ostgronland, Eastern Greenland on 11th July 2011. Seen in Achill Sound, Mayo on 10th August 2014. Back on the breeding site in Eastern Greenland again on 3rd July 2015. Seen by myself near Lough Baun, Mayo on 26th July 2016.

G3WYRB - ringed at Sandgerði, SW Iceland on 17th May 2016. Seen by myself near Lough Baun, Mayo on 26th July 2016.

NB00707 - ringed on Sandy island, Orkney, Scotland on 21st May 2016. Seen by myself near Lough Baun, Mayo on 26th July 2016. Presuming this bird pushed north and bred in the Arctic in this short period, it just goes to show how little time is spent on the breeding grounds by the species.

W1YBRY with geolocator on the left tibia.

While wader hunting yesterday I was delighted to read another two juvenile Sandwich Tern rings at Inishdawros at the exact spot that the Hudsonian Godwit was last year. Both birds are Tony Murray's birds from Lady's Island Lake, Co. Wexford. K3Z was ringed on 17th June 2016 and seen on site subsequently on 11th, 12th and 13th July, K2V was ringed on 4th July 2016. I heard Niall Keogh had another of Tony's bird while twitching the Royal Tern in Kerry recently and Eoin McGreal had another unread ring near Lough Baun two weeks back also.

K3Z white darvic.

K2V green darvic.

Juvenile/first-winter Sandwich Tern. A very advanced bird which also had a metal ring on the right tibia.

Inishdawros

Sunset at Coral Beach yesterday evening.

 

Colour-ringed Sandwich Tern

A quick bog post about a colour ringed juvenile Sandwich Tern that I had at Ardmore beach just east of Carna last Thursday. I had a flock of just over sixty Sandwich Terns resting on the beach here. It's one of the few spots where they rest up on the mainland away from the breeding colonies. The nearest Sandwich Tern colony this year was about 16 kilometres to the east at Costelloe near Rossaveel. There were just a handful of juveniles in amongst the flock and the logical thought would suggest that these were locally born young. I was surprised to see one of the juveniles was wearing a white darvic on the left leg and a metal ring on the right. It appeared slightly more advanced in its moult compared to the other juveniles in the flock but it was still very clearly a juvenile/first calendar/hatch year individual. I thought there would be virtually no hope of reading the code as terns are usually skittish at the best of times. I tried to edge closer and closer over a long period and after the flock settled down a little I managed to read the ring - K4T.

I regularly see Sandwich Terns with metal rings here in Connemara but without nearly seeing the bird in the hand it's impossible to read these in most circumstances. The only sites in Ireland where Sandwich Terns are ringed that I'm aware of are Inch Island Lough in Co. Donegal and Lady's Island Lake, Co. Wexford. It didn't take long to find out that it was from the latter site and was ringed by work colleague Tony Murray on 17th June, only seven weeks ago! That's a movement of 260 km in a straight line between the two sites but it's far more likely that this bird easily covered twice that distance if it like most Sandwich Terns, it flew along the coastline. The nearest previous resighting of juvenile Sandwich from Lady's Island was from Kerry last August. There have also been a few from around the Irish Sea as well. The bird wasn't being fed by any adults so it looks like it was on it's own.

Most of our Sandwich Terns winter along the Atlantic coastline of Africa. Have a look at the BTO site for a map of UK and Irish recovered Sandwich Terns https://app.bto.org/ring/countyrec/resultsall/rec6110all.htm
Inner Galway Bay is one of a handful of sites in Ireland where Sandwich Terns winter, less than a dozen birds at most. I've encountered two colour ringed birds here in recent winters both of which originated from the Farne Islands off Northumberland in north east England.

Juvenile Sandwich Tern K4T

 

Nimmos' Pier 7.12.14

Another trip down to Nimmo's Pier on Sunday. Usual fair with nothing too out of the ordinary. Best result of the day though was managing to read a colour ring on a first-winter Sandwich Tern. It was associating with and still trying to beg from one adult present, possibly one of the parents? One single adult also present though no sign of the Forsters. The young bird was sporting a dark blue ring with the code UAC. As far as I can make out it hails from Grampian, in north east Scotland. Still awaiting on full details. Interesting to note that I also had a colour ringed first-winter here last winter which came from the Farne Islands in NE England. Great to have an idea of where some of our wintering Sandwich Terns originate from.

I also had the same first-winter, second-winter and adult Ring-billed Gull and a first-winter Little Gull in the same area. A first-winter colour ringed Black-headed Gull from Scotland was at Waterside also (also waiting for details on this one).

No sign of the orange harrier out on Lough Corrib later in the day, just one or two standard ringtails about. While scanning for harriers I managed to pick the Great White Egret in flight that's been hanging around for about two months now on Lough Corrib, nice way to finish up the day.

Colour ringed first-winter Sandwich Tern, Nimmo's Pier.

Colour ringed first-winter Sandwich Tern on the left with an adult, Nimmo's Pier.

Colour ringed first-winter Sandwich Tern on the left with an adult, Nimmo's Pier.

Colour ringed first-winter Sandwich Tern, Nimmo's Pier.

Colour ringed first-winter Sandwich Tern, Nimmo's Pier.

 

Adult Common Gull

Same Common Gull with pale irides.

Second-winter Ring-billed Gull

Second-winter Ring-billed Gull

Second-winter Ring-billed Gull

Adult Ring-billed Gull

Adult Ring-billed Gull

 

Terns & Gulls

Some shots from mostly Nimmo's Pier over the last month or so.

There are currently at least seven Sandwich Terns hanging around Nimmo's again this winter. They've been wintering here now for the last two decades. In amongst the seven there is a first-winter which are unusual here during the winter. On top of this it is also colour ringed with a red ring. Unfortunately it looks like the ring may be damaged already as I haven't managed to fully read it on the three times I've seen it. The first digit is a U but after that it becomes unclear. However we do know that it was ringed on the Inner Farne Islands, Northumberland, UK. Nice to know where some of our winter Sandwich Terns originate from at least. It has also replaced a lot of the juvenile feathers on the lesser and median coverts in the last month.
I've often thought that if we can get Forster's Tern here maybe we could get a Cabot's Tern some day?
The winter has gotten off to a decent start for white-winged gulls here in Galway with three first-winter and a second-winter Iceland along with the second-winter and adult "Kumlien's" Gull here so far. Most white-wingers don't traditionally show up until after New Years here. With all these violet weather systems making their way across the Atlantic there may well be even more on the way, fingers crossed.



Adult Forster's Tern, Nimmo's Pier, 4th December 2013.

Adult Forster's Tern, Nimmo's Pier, 4th December 2013.



 

Adult Forster's Tern, Nimmo's Pier, 4th December 2013.

 

First-winter Sandwich Tern, Nimmo's Pier, 16th November 2013.

 

Close-up of the colour ring.

Adult Sandwich Tern, Nimmo's Pier, 16th November 2013.

Adult Sandwich Tern, Nimmo's Pier, 16th November 2013.

Adult Sandwich Tern, Nimmo's Pier, 16th November 2013.

First-winter Ring-billed Gull, Nimmo's Pier, 4th December 2013.

 

First-winter Iceland Gull, Waterside, 15th December 2013.

First-winter Iceland Gull, Rinvyle Point, 16th December 2013.

First-winter Iceland Gull, Rinvyle Point, 16th December 2013.

Inis Meáin July Birds

I took a spin out to Inis Meáin on Saturday 13th July mainly to check to see how the breeding terns are doing out there this year. The island is usually home to good numbers of Arctic and Little Terns which all breed on the beach on the North side of the island. I was disappointed to say the least to find no Little Terns breeding and only single figures of Arctics breeding. This has become a regular fate of nesting terns here in Galway in recent years with many of the large tern colonies having disappeared and while these colonies can be ephemeral in nature with terns regularly moving to different islands we haven't come across any major colonies on any of the Connemara islands in recent years. Hard to know what exactly the problem is but I would tend to think lack of food may be one of the significant factors.
I was also out there to look for the rare Great Yellow Bumblebee which now appear to be only found out on the Aran Islands having apparently completely disappeared from mainland Galway, more on that later.

Only Little Tern of the day with Arctic Tern.

First-summer Arctic Tern, I've previously noticed near double figure numbers of this age class at this colony which is a little odd.

First-summer Arctic Tern.

One Arctic Tern still trying his luck.

Arctic Tern

Pair of Arctic Terns.

Arctic Terns

Sandwich Tern also seemingly still in the mood, a few acquiring winter plumage already though.

Adult Common Gull mid way through primary moult.

Pair of Common Gulls giving a Lesser Black backed Gull the good news.

Eurasian Oystercatchers

First-summer and adult summer Eurasian Oystercatcher.

Adult summer Eurasian Oystercatcher

Manx Shearwaters

Skylark