31st December
Last ringed bird of the year was in Tymon Park, Spawell, a repeat sighting of the metal ring from Flintshire in England. (Which is near Chester). It was not a first sighting for EZ90582. I recorded it at the same location in August.30th December
Bird of the day was going to be a Norwegian Black-headed Gull JC38. Ringed in 2014 as an adult, it was not seen back in Norway during the Summer, so the last previous sighting was also mine on 25/02/2018!
However bird of the day was a mute swan that was missing its coloured ring!
Metal ring W40464 used to be CASS and was ringed in 2016. However in February 2017, the colour ring was reported as damaged and it hadn't been recorded since. This now becomes a priority bird to re-catch and put a new colour on. Without the colour ring the chances of it being recorded by someone (other than me) is extremely unlikely.
Read some Brent in Ben Madigan Park on the way home but the grass is very long which makes it difficult!
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| Brent B4BW - Took 30 photos to be sure of the code! |
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| Great Black-backed gull 1EJ in Sandyford Industrial Estate. |
29th December
A Saturday morning trip to Howth is usually rewarded with lots of coloured rings. But today was unseasonably warm 12 degrees and there were only 20 Gulls as opposed to the usual 100's. There were 2 colour ringed Juvenile Great Black-backed Gulls, both from Irelands Eye.
With not many Gulls around I went off and read some Brent and Swans.
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| Brent 2KWB and 2SWB at Portmarnock |
27th December
Back at work means another lunchtime trip to Sean Walsh Park. The fountain is off and Black-headed Gull numbers are up again to seasonal norm. No new coloured rings at the main lakes so I tried the Stadium Lake. I spotted a juvenile with a yellow coloured ring. I assumed it was 2A88 from the North Thames Group again, but it was EA10. This is a Belguim code and I await the details of this new Gull. |
| Black-headed Gull. Yellow[EA10] from Belguim |
25th December 2018. Christmas day
A walk on the Grand Canal at Portabello produced 8 Mute Swan Rings but no Colour Ringed Gulls among the 40 Juveniles and 12 adults. Heading home I stopped at Ben Madigan Park. There was a large flock of Brent Geese but the grass was also very long. 148:D was the only Colour Ringed Gulls! I did manage to eventually read a pair of Brent, but gave up on the rest!
22nd December
I went to Sandycove to read Med Gulls, but 50 Scuba Divers in Santa Costumes meant not many birds around. It looked like a fund day, but I cut my losses and headed for Bray Harbour. The tide was quite high but there were over 100 gulls on the beach. A scan revealed no colour rings. But there were 33 Swans and some of them were out of the water so I started recording the rings. Then I saw my first Colour Ringed Herring Gull, 677:D. This is an Urban Herring Gull from a nest on a building in Dublin. Only the 3rd sighting and the 2nd at Bray Harbour.
More gulls arrived on the beach and the next one spotted bore only a metal ring. 60 photos later I had the full code! The ring series I don't think belongs to our club so I can assume it is foreign. GV61797. I have reported it through DEMON and I will know in a few days.
Shortly after this one the 4th Ring was noted! 039:D is another Urban Gull! But this is a first sighting.
When I spotted a ring on a herring Gull sitting on a roof, I assumed it was probably one of the 2 I had already recorded, but a photo revealed it was yet another of our project Herring Gulls. 791:D was ringed on Irelands Eye last summer. It is only the 2nd sighting having been recorded last week at Dun Laoghaire.
Not a bad hours ring reading. 5 Gulls, 2 Foreign, 2 Urban and 1 Island. I also recorded 11 Mute Swan Rings.
18th December 2018
I did my weekly trip to Grangecastle Business Park. The trips have been disappointing of late but today I got 1 red ring. 127:D was ringed 2017 year on Irelands Eye, an Island off Dublin, 26 Km from the re-sighting. It has been 363 days since it has been recorded and that too was at Grangecastle Business Park. |
| Herring Gull 127:D |
16th December
I stopped by Blachardstown IT lake. I note one of the pair of Swans has gone missing. These are a residential Pair so I can only assume it is no more! The other wouldn't come near the banks so I don't know if it is CAHK or CAJA that is "Missing".Black-headed Gull White[J5TZ] I recored here last winter. Ringed in Norway in 2013, mine was the first foreign sighting since 2014 when it was sighted once in England. These Gulls are so habitual, I thought if I went to this pond I would record it again. It took me 1 minute to locate it! There have been 13 sightings back in Norway since I last recorded it.
15th December
Storm Deirdre and horrible weather, but as I didn't do the I-WEBS count last week end, I had to do it this week end. A 7 Km walk along the Grand Canal, for much of it, it rained heavily! I didn't get much of a chance to read rings. There are 88 Mute Swans on this stretch of the Grand Canal at the moment, with 75 being at Portobello Harbour. I only read 13 Mute Swan rings as I was concentrating on counting Wildfowl and Gulls. However I did take my camera out when a Heron in the Reeds had a colour Ring! O[K21] was ringed in the Phoenix Park a couple of years ago. I have recorded it using this stretch of the Canal before - but only once before
At Grand Canal Basin, after I had completed the count, I went to see Herring Gull 699:D - our most reported Herring Gull! Despite only being ringed only this year it has separate 26 observations on the data base, mainly at this location. Sure enough it was there!
However, it wasn't the only colour ring at this location! Great Black-backed Gull 1AV was also present. Ringed in 2010, it the the 7th sighting on the database. The last sighting was by Jan in September at Skerries Beach 28Km north of this location.
14th December
This week in Sean Walsh Park, it has been a week of - "The Usual Suspects". The usual Black-headed Gulls with Colour Rings and the Metal ringed Swedish Juvenile all showing daily. Black-headed Gull, Black[X25P] (See November 20th) appeared again, but is not a park regular. Herring Gull 010:D appears occasionally on various building around the park. Although I haven't been close for a good photo, the record shots are showing the appearance of Grey feathers! It will be a 3rd year in 17 days time! This is an Urban Gull from the roof of a hospital
9th December
I went to Booterstown Strand. After scanning the high tide roosting Gulls and recording no rings, I concentrated on other species. There were 50+ Brent but they were mainly in shallow water. Eventually among those that ventured onto land there were 2 with rings. Brent XTBY may be a first sighting this Winter. The Brent database is being "migrated" to a web based reporting system so for the moment there may be sightings not yet input. 9XBY was also recoreded.
I then concentrated on the Oystercatchers. They were so tightly packed together and being careful not to disturb them it was a slow process reading what I could.
I recorded 9 from the Dublin Bay Project, but I could see foreign Colour schemes. However most were standing on 1 leg and half a code is no good! Photographing from 40m you could see rings. Move a couple of feet to see if the other leg was visible and then being unable to relocate it! Really frustrating. Eventually a low flying Gull spread them out a bit, but still the same issue.
Yellow over red is visible with a white coded ring which I never got to read! ZD and AA in the foreground.
Again a foreign ringed Oystercatcher, but again on one leg. AAARRRRRGGGGHH!
I had to make do with recording locally ringed ones!
I recorded 9 from the Dublin Bay Project, but I could see foreign Colour schemes. However most were standing on 1 leg and half a code is no good! Photographing from 40m you could see rings. Move a couple of feet to see if the other leg was visible and then being unable to relocate it! Really frustrating. Eventually a low flying Gull spread them out a bit, but still the same issue.
Yellow over red is visible with a white coded ring which I never got to read! ZD and AA in the foreground.
Again a foreign ringed Oystercatcher, but again on one leg. AAARRRRRGGGGHH!
I had to make do with recording locally ringed ones!
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| Oystercatcher ZS. |
6th December
The Council drained the "Hippo" lake again. This time not to clean but I think to mend the fountain again! Lots of Black-headed Gulls but no new rings recorded.
2nd December
After a morning of ringing Passerines, I stopped at the Liffey where there were over 100 Gulls. Despite so many Juveniles, there were none of our Red rings. The only colour was the Great Black-backed Gull 1LL. This was ringed on Irelands Eye in 2011.
1st December
Heading for Howth Harbout and stopped at Baldoyle. About a dozen Brent Geese on the foreshore and first ring of the day! Ringed in Iceland and although seen in Strangford lough recently, first sighting in Dublin.
Howth Harbour
Arriving at Howth Harbour it looked like it would be a good morning and it was! Our red ringed gulls was the prime objective. Great Black-backed Gulls 336:D, 353:D, 401:D, 412:D, 448:D and 452:D were recorded and photographed. Also Herring Gull 753:D making 8 of our project birds. |
| Herring Gull 753:D. The only ringed Herring Gull from Irelands Eye |
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| GBBGU 448:D. A first sighting since ringed |
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| 452:D Another from Ireland Eye. I've recorded it at Broadmeadows but 1st time at Howth Harbour |
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| This Great Black-backed Gull is from the Isle of Man! S58:M |
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| Great Black-backed Gull 1TN. |
Bull Island
Brent Goose C9WW. Over 100 sightings over the last 10 years, but this is the first sighting ever in Dublin!!! This goose usually winters in Northern Ireland, will it go back to Dundrum Bay or Killough?
Brent Goose INRR, at least it is where it is expected to be at this time of year
Brent 6BWW. Ringed this year in Iceland. First recorded sighting since
Seagrange Park
Stopped at Seagrange Park on the way home. The grass was too long to read the Oystercatchers and the Brent Geese, but there were a couple of hundred Godwits? Should be able to read them, even if the grass hadn't been cut.However first Colour ring I spotted was an Oystercatcher. Trying to photograph it as it walked eventually proved successful. 4C is a Dublin Bay Project Ring but I've not seen numbers used before on the codes.
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| Add caption |
Black-tailed Godwit RO-OZ was my surprise of the day. I have seen it a number of times over the years but not this far north.
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| RO//OZ ringed in Iceland in 2015 - Thank you Boddi |
