Wanted: First winter Oystercatcher who goes by the name “LV.”

This bird is wanted regarding a series of stabbing attacks on cockles in the Tramore area. LV (1) was ringed by members of the Dublin Bay Birds Project (DBBP) team in Kilcoole, Co. Wicklow in July and was last seen on Newcastle beach, Co. Wicklow in August, sporting the colour rings.

This photo of LV was taken during routine reconnaissance shortly after ringing. Ornithologists believe that LV, having undergone a partial post-juvenile moult, has changed considerably in appearance since then.

LV (right) pictured at the Breaches, Kilcoole,
Co. Wicklow on 8th July Niall Keogh

It was initially thought that this serial cockle killer may have absconded on a southward migration, possibly to France, but yesterday evening, thanks to a tip off from a member of the public, ornithologists have learned that LV is still at large in Ireland.

Birdwatcher, Clare Scott, who encountered LV on Garrarus beach, near Tramore in Co. Waterford on Wednesday, told ornithologists:

“It was only when I saw the blog that I decided to report the sighting.”

Kilcoole-ringed Oystercatcher, possibly "LV" Clare Scott

An eye witness at the scene managed to snap this photograph of these three suspected mussel murderers, thought to be accomplices of LV, as they fled.

Oystercatchers on Garrarus beach, Co. Waterford Clare Scott

A BirdWatch Ireland spokesperson stated that ornithologists “are following a definite line of enquiry” regarding the ecological requirements of the birds.

A source close to the DBBP stated that a sting operation, code-named “cannon-net”, is being planned for 2014, when a number of waders will be apprehended and fitted with radio transmitters in order to keep tabs on their movements and activities:  

“This radio tracking work will allow fine-focused observations at an individual scale, which will be used to support conclusions drawn from observations of larger flocks.”

The source added:  

“Surveillance of these (radio-tagged) birds will allow their ecological requirements and any threats they face to be investigated. It will also allow us to track these birds during the hours of darkness … when it is thought that they exploit different foraging areas.”

More information on this case will be posted to the BirdWatch Ireland Facebook and Twitter pages as it comes to light. Members of the public are encouraged to remain on the lookout for colour-ringed birds and to report any sightings to ntierney@birdwatchireland.ie

Justin Timberlake, Hen Harrier and Health & Safety on Sandymount Strand

Apologies for the title of this post, but it is inspired by a post on the excellent Little Tern blog from way back in the breeding season.  The wardens, as a result of either sun stroke or just general eccentricity, decided to give pet names to the birds that were breeding in and around the Little Tern colony in Kilcoole.  And while reading Oystercatcher rings on Sandymount Strand the other day, I realised that I had taken a leaf out of their book - I’d started naming the Oystercatchers according to their two-letter inscriptions! My rationale is that it saves me taking out my notebook between every ring read: when the rings are coming thick and fast, it’s more efficient to remember a few in your head and then pull out the notebook (that’s my story and I’m sticking to it!).

Oystercatcer "DJ" Colin Corse

So JT, HH and HS were just three of the 29 rings I managed to read in about forty minutes at low tide on the northern part of the strand. That shows how readable these rings are, and therefore how much information we can learn from these colour-ringed birds. With so many of the Sandymount Strand Oystercatchers ringed, we have an invaluable opportunity, and perhaps even a duty, to get some science out of the re-sightings, and the more re-sightings we get, the better the science will be. We now have over 450 re-sightings logged in the database and have re-sighted 90% of the birds. Over time, we will be able to piece together the ecological story of how these Oystercatchers are faring in their winter home, and the more re-sightings we get, the more informative that story will be. I know I'm labouring the point, but I really can’t stress enough the importance of reading these rings! So please get out there with the camera or scope and make your birding count.

…What I can stress, though, is the importance of not disturbing the birds when reading the rings. Mid-winter is a tough time for these birds, as they work hard to gain sufficient reserves to stand them in good stead for the rest of the winter and into next season. Any disturbance caused by ring-readers is another straw on the camel’s back. Every time they are forced to take to the air, they are both losing valuable foraging time and wasting valuable energy. And you know what happens if the energy budgets don’t balance at the end of each day….

The additive effect of human disturbance on wader 

over-winter survival as a result of a reduction in calorific

 intake and an increase in energetic expenditure

 during avoidance behaviour. 

Thankfully, with a telescope or a camera and decent light, you can easily read the rings without disturbing the birds, which is the whole point of colour-ringing after all.

Apart from seeing some of the regulars, it was good to catch up with CN, IN and IX, who hadn’t been re-sighted since February. It’s good to know that these three are still knocking around. 

The wing of a Song Thrush, but the weight of three

We had an interesting capture at our wader mist netting session in Dublin Bay the other night – a Little Grebe! 

Some people call them Dabchicks (which happens to be the only bird name to have the first three letters of the alphabet occurring consecutively!), Shakespeare called them Dive-dappers, but I prefer Ducky-divers. Anyway, I flushed one while setting up the net at dusk, but I didn’t think for a second that we would be ringing one later on.

Grebes are fascinating birds: they build floating nests, which they cover with vegetation before leaving, carry their chicks on their back and pluck their own feathers and feed them to their young! And they’re quite interesting birds in the hand too.  

Little Grebe in winter plumage Clive Timmons

The short wings look like they are just about capable of dragging the rotund body from the water to splatter along the surface, but the legs and feet really are something to behold. They are disproportionately large, and placed well back on the body. While this makes them good swimmers and expert divers, it also makes them very ungainly on land. This, coupled with their small wing area, means that they are unable to take off from land. The tarsi are laterally flattened and have serrated hind edges, the front toes are separately lobed, and the claws are flat and nail-like. Another interesting feature is the tail: a bunch of wispy feathers that are no more than a token of a tail.

So you wouldn’t expect these short-winged, plump, almost tailless birds to be seasoned travellers. And you’d be right, they’re not, but check out this map of the journey of a Latvian Little Grebe. He was ringed on the nest in Latvia in June 1983 and was shot in Lancashire in January 1985 after travelling a (straight line) distance of 1,653 km! 

Recovery map for a Latvian Little Grebe
that turned up in the UK

I know I mentioned wader mist netting at the top of this post. Not much to report just yet, but watch this space...

Colour rings

I know this isn’t a Dublin Bay story, but it’ll be interesting to our colour-ring readers. 

In October, we blogged about a Galway-ringed Little Egret  that we came across on Sandymount Strand during one of our low tide surveys, and in that post mentioned the one that another of the Galway birds had ended up in the Azores. Now another of these colour-ringed birds, DH (ringed in June this year), has been seen... in ICELAND – one of a total of only 16 Little Egret records there ever! 

These birds, having colonised Ireland from the south east, must have a tendency to head north west, so maybe that’s something to do with it! The more resightings that are generated, the more chance we’ll have to piece this story together. Please report your colour-ringed Little Egret re-sightings to jlusby@birdwatchireland.ie

DH Birding Iceland

We also posted about a Greenshank colour-ringing study that aims to ascertain the wintering grounds of these waders. The latest news is that another of the Scottish-ringed birds has been recently been recorded on the Mullet Peninsula in Mayo. 

Colour-ringed Greenshank Peter Hill

This guy, “NB-LO,” was ringed in July 2010 in the Ythan Estuary in north east Scotland, was re-sighted close to the ringing location six times between then and the August 2010, and wasn’t seen again until it turned up in Mayo on the 14th October this year. Any colour-ringed Greenshanks should be sent to Brian Etheridge brian@milvus.myzen.co.uk

This lad stands out from the crowd

Have you seen this leucistic Oystercatcher around Dublin before?

The Dublin Bay I-WeBS count team say he’s a regular, and often come across him during their monthly rising tide surveys. We first noticed him this year on Sutton Strand on the 12^th September, and picked him up again on the Red Arches pitches in Baldoyle yesterday.

Leucistic Oystercatcher Anna Valentín

Leucism results in white feathers, due to an absence of melanin pigment. It is an inherited trait, so we can’t know for sure if we’re looking at a single individual or perhaps one of its offspring. Aside from making affected birds more noticeable to predators, the white feathers are prone to more abrasion than normal feathers, and this can affect flight in some cases. And if that wasn’t bad enough, there is evidence that sometimes these birds aren’t recognised by their peers and potential mates!

Speaking of birds standing out from the crowd, when you’re out and about this weekend, keep an eye out for some newly colour-ringed Redshanks!

Brent Geese arrive back as normal

Well, I say normal, but some closer scrutiny of the flocks might prove otherwise...

The Irish Brent Goose Research Group first reported geese in Ireland on the 4th September, but also remarked that, throughout September, the influx was slower than expected. This could have been down to the weather or to good feeding opportunities delaying the final leg of their journey from Iceland to Ireland. Numbers increased throughout September, and 16,000 were counted in Strangford Lough towards the end of the month. 

Brent Geese David Dillon

The first Dublin sighting was on the 20th September in Malahide Estuary, and from then on they started to be picked up at their regular haunts around the county as the birds filtered down to us along the coast. On the 4th October a flock of 25 were seen on Malahide Estuary, another flock of 11 were on Bull Island and a further 40 were at Merrion Gates on Sandymount Strand. 

The International Brent Goose Census took place on the weekend of the 5th and 6th October and 34,000 birds were counted in the most important sites at this time of the year in Iceland, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, with 150 of these in south Dublin Bay.

Brent Geese Clive Timmons

So what’s all this about closer scrutiny of the flocks? Well, this year, like last year, the folks at the IBGRG are noticing a low proportion of juvenile birds among the flocks, which of course suggests an unproductive breeding season. By mid-September, the IBGRG had reported some sightings of juveniles in Iceland, but none in Ireland. While some juveniles have been reported here since then, this is definitely something worth taking a closer look at. We have no way to know for sure what has caused this poor breeding season in Arctic Canada, but we can try to put some numbers on it by investigating the proportions of adults and juveniles in the flocks we encounter throughout the winter (see photo below). 

Brent Geese juveniles showing white barring 
on the wing coverts Billy Clarke 

As the numbers continue to build throughout the autumn, we’ll be treated to the amazing sight of these arctic breeders spending the winter right amongst us, and have the privilege of sharing our parks, pitches and beaches with these birds. The sight and sound of thousands of Brent Geese flying en masse from the city parks to roost on Bull Island is certainly something to behold, and one of Dublin’s great natural spectacles. 

Keep up to date with these developments and lots more Brent Goose stuff at: http://irishbrentgoose.blogspot.ie/ 

Colour-ringed Little Egret

Ugly ducklings...

One of the team spotted a colour-ringed Little Egret at Merrion Gates on Sandymount Strand the other day. It turns out that “HN” was ringed on the 4^th June this year at a colony in Galway Bay, and that it’s the second bird from this colony to head to the big smoke for the winter.

Little Egret nest in Galway Bay colony John Lusby

Little Egrets are a very recent coloniser – we only confirmed their breeding in Ireland in 1997, so we know very little about them here. We do know that their population and range are expanding, and thanks to a colour-ringing project, we are able to follow the movements of these pioneering birds. Chris Benson and John Lusby started to colour-ring Little Egrets in Galway in 2009, soon after they started nesting there, and they are getting some fascinating insights into the movements of these birds away from their natal colonies.

Little Egret chicks after ringing John Lusby

In January 2011, John was contacted about a resighting of one of his Galway Bay birds. You’ll all remember what a harsh winter we endured in 2011, and how we constantly mused about escaping to the sun? Well that’s just what one of John’s Galway-born Little Egrets did! This bird was seen in the Azores in Portugal in October, over 2,000 km from its natal colony! Who would have guessed that they would travel as far as the Azores?

Colour-ringed Little Egret John Lusby

Chris and John have received good numbers of resightings so far, but are of course, always keen to hear about more. As the season progresses, we’ll bring you lots of info on the colour-ringed birds that are in Dublin Bay this winter. Colour-ringing projects can tell us so much about birds – things we would have no other way of finding out.

Please report your colour-ringed Little Egret resightings to jlusby@birdwatchireland.ie