Don't mind Evelyn Cusack…

It’s officially autumn…the breeding season, and therefore the summer, is over.

OK, this may not be strictly true, but it may make you think twice about the way that we define the seasons. The reason I say this is because for some waders, the breeding season is already at an end, and northern breeders are starting to trickle in to our wetlands once again. Failed breeders start to arrive on our shores from as early as late June, and as July progresses this passage of waders will increase.

With that in mind, I want to mention a colour-ringing project that is hoping to get to grips with the migration ecology and wintering areas of the Scottish breeding population of Greenshank. The researchers are very keen to get any records they can of their Greenshanks passing through or wintering in Ireland, and these movements are already likely to have begun. So, please keep an eye out for colour-ringed Greenshanks if you are out and about. Please send details (date, location, etc.) and any photographs to Brian Etheridge (brian@milvus.myzen.co.uk).

And if you happen to come across some of our colour-ringed Oystercatchers on your travels, all the better! The latest reports we have suggest that as many as 18 colour-ringed Oycs have summered in Dublin Bay. So get out there - there really is no better weather for ring-reading!