February 2021

February 28th 2021 

This lock down means I am restricted to 5Km from my home and as a result I only see the same ringed Gulls. However, the big movement of Black-headed Gulls has started and today I recorded White NUT from Denmark. I first recorded it in January 2013 when I started ring reading. I don't know where it winters, but it stops at Sean Walsh Park, Dublin every year since for a week or so before it departs our shores. Interestingly it hasn't been recorded in Denmark since the 2013 breeding season. What is amazing about this Black-headed Gull is that it was ringed in 2005 as an adult of at least 3 years old. That makes it at least 19 years old! Great to see it still going strong. Surprisingly the Darvic ring is still in reasonable condition.

January 2021

January 27th I have not been posting as through out lock down I just haven't been recording any Black-headed Gulls with |Colour rings. I am checking 1,000 of legs every day on my exercise within my 5KM. However, on the Grand Canal I got my first new ring for quite some time.

From Cuba in Oslo, Norway and a first sighting away from Norway

November 2020

30/11/2020 An update on the Black-headed Gulls in Dublin. I haven't got to grips with the new blog format! It is not yet user friendly! 25/11/2020 Black-headed Gull X2VC Ringed as an adult in North Easter Germany in 2019, Sighted last year and this year at the same location on the Grand Canal in Dublin.

24/11/2020 Black-headed Gull J25X Recorded in Rathcoole Park. Only other Dublin record was I recorded it in Sean Walsh Park in 2018.

September 2020

 September 28th

I had decided to keep this website mainly for Black-Headed Gulls but again due to COVID restrictions I am not going out as much.  But unfortunately, coloured ringed Black-headed Gulls are not being sighted by me locally at the moment.  I was at Bushy Park, which I went to to investigate new a Swan Family (which turned out to be the Family from Terenure College a mile away) and spotted a Polish Black-Headed Gull I haven't seen for years.

Black-headed Gull White [TUUA] was ringed in Poland, as an adult in 2016 and although I haven't seen it since 2017, it was recorded in Dublin in 2018 and 2019.  It wasn't interested in the bread being fed to the ducks, so ring photographed underwater.

August 2020

 26th August.

I haven't been blogging as frequent as I used to.  Studying from home means that I am not at all the places I usually ring read.  Today I had a one of my delayed final exams and afterwards took a walk to the Great South Wall in Dublin Docks.  Two of our Herring Gulls were sighted.

Despite the fact I have 3,000 entries on the database, I and the observers who kindly ring read for the project continually turn up first sightings.  My thanks to Jan, Joe and Brian who are prolific in sending in constant sightings to add to my own observations.  My thanks to the overseas and National ring readers who send in sightings from Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, all over Ireland, England, France, Spain Portugal and Morocco.  Our Dublin Gulls certainly disperse.

Today at the South Wall in Dublin Port, I read 2 rings.  This is a well watched area but continually turns up new gulls.

Herring Gull B59:D.  Ringed in 2019 by Tonya.  First sighting since ringed

Urban Herring Gull 215:D.  Ringed 2018 and going Grey.

July 2020

A quick update on whats happening with my Dublin bird projects.  

Adult Mute Swans

So far 165 adults have been re-sighted.  This is well down on normal years when I try and re-sight 200+.  (Last year it was 220).  However, there is still 2 months of this season left and I usually observe some missing ones in late September.  The late start due to lockdown is the main reason for this. 

This RAS project (Re-trapping Adults for survival) is now, after 7 years, feeding into the survival data of Mute Swans.  It is the only Irish projects that is providing this data.  Even though the scientific name for the project contains the word "re-trapping", I don't need to re-trap, the rings are just read.

Mute Swan Nesting Project.

Coming to an end for 2020.  I have started doing the data entry for all the nests.  Still looking for Cygnets numbers from all sites as I close Mute Swan nest records at 12 weeks after hatching - when cygnets can fly.   

Reports with date and locations are really valuable.  Examples from today

22/07/2020 Sean Walsh Park - Big lake - still 3 cygnets

22/07/2020 Naas Ponds CBXT CBPD - still 3 cygnets

22/07/2020 Naas Ponds CABV - Still 4 cygnets

Lesser Black-backed Gulls (LBBGU)

Surprised to see Scottish LBBGU nesting on Dalkey.  Only a 4th year so first year nesting.  Still colour ringing Juveniles and any adults we can.  

176:F From Scotland but breeding on Dalkey island in 2020.  Note plumage is 4th CY

Great Black-backed Gulls

I have a RAS also running on this species and again number of observations of Adults is down on previous years, mainly due to lockdown and Irelands Eye being closed for almost all of the nesting season.  Still hoping to have enough adults re-sighted to allow this season count.  The Juveniles ringed over the past few years have not helped by being mainly observed outside the project boundries, eg Northern Ireland Arklow, Cornwall, Spain etc.

1RJ From Irelands Eye but breeding on Dalkey island in 2020

572:D Walking away with its rings.

Herring Gulls

Projects take many years to set up.  We have been actively ringing Herring Gulls since 2017 and hopefully will have enough adults to start an accurate survival project in 2021.  So far we have been concentrating on juvenile survival stats between Urban nesters and Island nesters with surprising results.

I will update on other projects later.  Projects just don't happen.  A large number of observers report their observations which feed into the projects, so a big thank you to all those who assist with observations. 

28th May 2020 Adult Swans

30th of May 2020  - Adult Swans sighted = 136

Scroll down- next page if you are looking for latest Cygnets news

The RAS season is on it's way.  This is checking all Swans within the project boundries roughly 40 Km from  Dublin and recording each individual which is ringed.  This information over years provides the annual survival totals.  Many thanks to all the regular ring readers and many thanks to the new ones.  I will update analysis periodically to the following over the coming week.  The season doesn't end till the end of the summer so hopefully the list will end up as 250+ Swans.  The more individuals the better the survival statistics in terms of margin of error.  New swans are being sighted most days

The following have been sighted and input so far since April 1st 2020 (22/05/2020).
(Table 1) All first ringed before my project started.  Some have had a colour ring added, 2 of them haven't.  If the metal ring number is in Blue they are confirmed as having attempted nesting this year. 

PLEASE NOTE:  I colour ring a lot of Juveniles which have a low survival rates compared with adults.  This is natural.

Out of the 32 Swans that have been in in the project since it began that fall into this category.
Confirmed dead  = 4
Seen in 2019 = 12
(22/05/2020) Seen so far in 2020 = 9
(So far, year on year, it is at 75% survival)  However the stats are done by a much more complex formula.

(Table 1) Mute Swans ringed before 2015

The following (Table 2) are swans ringed in 2015 which have been re-sighted already this season.  Further sightings are always welcome.  CAFP has the colour of the ring set as Grey.  This is because the colour ring is now missing.  Swan identified by the metal ring.

The number of swans metal ring in 2015 = 91

Confirmed dead  = 10

Seen in 2019 = 25
(22/05/2020) Seen so far in 2020 =18 (72% approx.)

(Table 2) Mute Swans Ringed in 2015

The number of swans metal ring in 2016 = 209

This 209 is a high percentage of cygnets which have a high mortality rate
Confirmed dead  = 20
Seen in 2019 = 64
Seen so far in 2020 = 24 (37% survival since last year)
This is where it it requires field work.  Those ringed in 2016 as Cygnets are now either nesting, looking for nest sites.  Therefore locating them is a challenge.  

The number of swans metal ring in 2017 = 127
Confirmed dead  = 7
Seen in 2019 = 49
Seen so far in 2020 = 22

(Table 4) Mute Swans Ringed in 2017

The number of swans metal ring in 2018 = 28
Confirmed dead  = 0
Seen in 2019 = 21
Seen so far in 2020 = 12

(Table 6) Ringed in 2019 before the RAS season ended

Mute Swans ringed since the end of the 2019 Census.