March 2017 - BTO Cormorant

March 18th

Brent Geese appear more common in North Dublin.  I was out at my boys football match and stopped briefly.  Photographed 14 sets of rings (from the car) in only a few minutes before I had to carry on.

View from the car where I photographed the rings on the Brent!

In the afternoon I had half an hour at Bullock Harbour.  Two colour ringed Great Black Backed Gulls.  1JK was at Howth in February.

Great Black Backed Gull 1JK

 However, 2KV is bird of the day.  This Great Black backed Gull was ringed in 2009 on Irelands eye.  I only saw it once last year, so great to see it alive and well.

Great Black Backed Gull 2KV

March 17th - St Patricks Day

Swan ringing again this morning!

March 13th

It has been very quiet on the ring reading front, partly due to my own ringing activities and time spent trying to locate Mute Swan nests.  Today there were Cormorants, as usual, at Grange Castle Business Park. One was metal ringed and although it was standing on the weir in the center of the lake I have a new camera, a Nikon P900.  This gives me more Zoom (x84).  So I went about walking around the lake photographing it from every angle.  Bingo - Full code read.  With this new ability to read Cormorant rings at 30m I will be able to see if the same Cormorants use this lake annually or are they just passing through.

Cormorant with BTO ring 5225726