3 New Metals...

Antrim Marina - Sunday 13th September 2015

My sister Heather and I arrived to a nice sunny morning at Antrim Marina.  The temperature reading 11°C, with 50% cloud cover and a slight breeze was coming off the Lough, which was quite chilly at times.

As it was such a nice calm morning, there were plenty of flies about and the gulls must have been getting their fill of these, as for prolonged periods, many were not interested in people arriving with bread.

There were fewer BHGs about than usual and maximum numbers may just have been around the 100 mark.  Of the 23 Darvic-rung birds so far recorded this autumn/winter, only 14 were spotted today and 9 were not present.  For large periods of the morning, most of the gulls settled themselves onto the green behind the café.

Colour Ringed Black-headed Gulls Recorded at Antrim Marina on Sunday 13th September 2015

2AAT	2AAP	2ACV	2ADJ	2AAB	2AAF	2ABL
2ABF	2AAN	2AAH	T35J	2AAC	2ABS	2BRA

Colour Ringed Black-headed Gulls Absent Today

2AAK	2AAA	2ABN	2AAD	2ABK	2ABA	2AAV	2AAS	2BRD

No new Darvics were re-sighted, but a 'metal-ringed' Black-headed Gull was spotted around 9:21 on the long wooden jetty.  At around the same time, two 'metal-ringed' Mallards were seen and the race began to capture the three numbers before any of the birds disappeared, and was successfully completed.

The BHG bore a BTO ring, the number being   EW66235 .  I have reported this bird online and hopefully will have it's details back in time for next weeks Blog.

Black-headed Gull  -    EW66235   -  Antrim Marina, Antrim Town, Co. Antrim  (13 Sep 2015)

The recovery details for -   EW66235  duly arrived from the BTO.  The gull was ringed as a chick, on the 14th June 2011, at Lady's Island Lake in County Wexford, in the Republic of Ireland.  The distance to Antrim Marina, is 280 kms / 173 miles (N), and the duration since being ringed, was 4 years, 2 months and 30 days.

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Other Species at Antrim Marina

There was only a single Mute Swan present when we arrived this morning.  Over the course of the morning, a further 7 swans arrived in from the Lough.  Of those that exited the water, only one had a ring, that one being that of the regular visitor  W34158 .

Mallard numbers were good with around 60 to 70 birds at first, increasing during the morning to around the 110 mark.  Two of the Mallards were bearing metal-rings and were spotted around the same time as a Black-headed Gull with a metal-ring.  My work was cut out for me to try and obtain all three ring numbers before any of these would move on, which I successfully managed to do.

Looking at the ringed Mallards, I knew straight away, they were both from County Monaghan.  I experienced this last year, when I realised there was no address on the rings, just two rows of numbers.  It turned out that the top row was a telephone number and the bottom row was the ducks ring number.

All I had to do this time was obtain the bottom row of numbers for each duck.  The male Mallard (drake) was ringed  5MN 1173  and the female Mallard (duck) was ringed  5MN 1207 .  When I got back home, I emailed Dan Curley, secretary of the Monaghan Gun Club with the numbers for these ducks.  I quickly received a reply from Dan as follows :-

Dan Curley

To

Gareth Platt

CC

Dermot Greenan Tom Woods

Today at 5:33 PM

Gareth,

Those  2  Ducks  were  let  out  by  my  own  Club,  Annagh-Ma-Kerrig  Gun  Club,  ( By  Myself  )  on  Doohat  Lake,  which  is  between  Newbliss  Co  Monaghan,  and  Cootehill  Co  Cavan.

They  were  let  out  in  the  Middle  of  June  2015   @  7 - 8  Weeks  Old

These  would  have  travelled  20  Miles  or  so  further  than  the  Glaslough  Ducks  last  Year.  (  They  had  no  Blackwater  etc  to  Follow,  so  they  must  have  travelled  with   migrating  Ducks  )

Some  of  our  Ducks  Did  turn  up  on  Lough  Neagh  Before.

In  relation  to  the  Number   5 =  2015,  MN  =  Monaghan, 

End  no.  is  the   Number  that  ID's  which  Club  let  them  out.

In  Co  Monaghan  this  Year  we  let  out  1,360,  so  the  numbers  would  have  gone  from   1  to  1,360

Thanks  again   Gareth

Dan

My Thanks go to Dan once again for the information supplied.  There is still no sign of either of the two Mallards from County Monaghan, that I recorded last winter.

Mallard  -   5MN 1173   -  Antrim Marina, Antrim Town, Co. Antrim   (13 Sep 2015)

Today, I recorded a Red-breasted Merganser at the Marina.  This is my first sighting of one here, although I do know that they breed out on the Lough.  It was a nice surprise to see it.  I think it is a male, which has now lost its breeding season plumage.

Red-breasted Merganser  -  Antrim Marina  (13 Sep 2015)

There was very little showing by other gull species.  An adult female Common Gull was present for about thirty minutes.  On three or four occasions, a juvenile Herring Gull put in an appearance.  Whether it was the same bird each time, there is no way of knowing.  An adult Lesser Black-backed Gull arrived and harried the Black-headed Gulls for about 5 minutes before moving on.

Two young Hooded Crows came and went all morning, as did a young Magpie.  Jackdaws were also present, though fewer in numbers than normal.

The only smaller species to be seen here today, was a juvenile Pied Wagtail.

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Oystercatcher Confirmation

On Thursday, I finally received an eagerly awaited email from Iceland concerning the Oystercatcher that I spotted at the Whitehouse Lagoon, on the outskirts of Belfast last Sunday.  The photos that I took of this bird, with it's combination of colour rings, were good enough to allow confirmation.

It was caught on the nest as a breeding adult, on the 5th June 2015, roughly 10kms south-east of the small town of Hella, in the Ranga area of southern Iceland.  The distance from the ringing site to Whitehouse Lagoon is about 1, 293 kilometres / 803 miles.  It's arrival into Northern Ireland by early September, shows that Oystercatchers leave fairly quickly once their breeding season is completed.

Tomas G. Gunnarsson commenced his colour-ringing study of Oystercatchers in Iceland during 2013 and carries out similar cr-studies for Black-tailed Godwit and Ringed Plover as well.  Many Thanks to Tomas and Boovar for the details.  This is my first confirmed ringed Oystercatcher.

Iceland to Whitehouse Lagoon  -  1,293kms / 803 miles

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