It’s now the season for juvenile dispersal and the onset of migration for many species, and it is often the peak time for recording ringed birds on the move. As well as being able to monitor survival, productivity etc., ringing allows us to track the movements and migration of many species and colour rings are particularly useful in generating these recoveries.
Terns and gull species are some of the species most studied across the island of Ireland and we have a number of local projects in need of your help. We would like to encourage our fellow bird watchers to keep an eye out for and report colour ringed birds. Some of the main local projects include:
Sandwich Terns
· Dark-blue ring with a white (Bw) three numeric code (501-700)– ringed at Inch Wildfowl Reserve, Co. Donegal. Contact Richard Donaghey (Richard.Donaghey89@gmail.com)
· Dark-green ring with a white (Gw) three alpha-numeric code (each ring begins in 3, followed by a letter, then by a number) – ringed at Blue Circle Island, Larne Lough, Co. Antrim. Contact Roisin Kearney (LarneLoughTerns@rspb.org.uk) or (kearnerm@tcd.ie)
· Dark-green ring with a white (Gw) three alpha-numeric code (each ring begins in 4, followed by two letters/numbers) – ringed at Cockle, Swan and Jackdaw Islands on Strangford Lough. Contact hughthurgate@gmail.com
Common Terns
· Dark-green ring with a white (Gw) 3 numeric code (300-399) ringed at Swan Island, Larne Lough, Co. Antrim. Contact Roisin Kearney LarneLoughTerns@rspb.org.uk or kearnerm@tcd.ie
Extensive colour ringing of all native tern species (Arctic, Common, Little, Roseate [double metal], Sandwich) takes place across Ireland, especially in counties Dublin, Wexford, Cork, and they regularly appear on our shores. Birds from Britain and the Netherlands are also regular. Terns are longed lived species (some up to c30 years) and will return year after year.
Black-headed Gull
· Dark-blue ring with a white (Bw) four alpha-numeric code (2FAA-2FXX) – ringed at various sites in Northern Ireland. Contact Gareth Platt (plattgareth@yahoo.co.uk)
· Orange ring with a black (On) four alpha-numeric code (2AAA-2AXX, 2BAA-2BXX, 2CAA-2CXX, 2DAA-2DXX) – ringed at various sites in Northern Ireland. Contact Gareth Platt (plattgareth@yahoo.co.uk)
Common Gull
· Dark-blue ring with a white (Bw) four alpha-numeric code (2AAA-2AXX, 2BAA-2BXX, 2CAA-2CXX, 2DAA-2DXX, 2HAA-2HXX, 2JAA-2JXX) – ringed at various sites in Northern Ireland including Rathlin and the Copeland Islands. Contact Gareth Platt (plattgareth@yahoo.co.uk)
· Yellow ring with a black (Yn) four alpha-numeric code (2AAA-2AA9, 2ABA-AB9, 2BAA-2BA9, 2BBA-2BB9) - ringed at various sites in Northern Ireland. Contact Gareth Platt (plattgareth@yahoo.co.uk)
Herring Gull + Lesser Black-backed Gull
· Yellow ring with a black (Yn) three alpha-numeric code : number / number / ":" (colon) / letter "W" (e.g. 1A:W) – ringed on Irish Sea coast of Wales and England but also Belfast and Copeland Islands. Contact Katherine Booth Jones (katherine.boothjones@bto.org)
· Yellow ring with a black (Yn) four alpha-numeric code , starting letter "B" followed by a colon ":" and three numbers (e.g. B:084) – ringed at various Irish sites. Contact Kendrew Colhoun (kcolhoun@btinternet.com)
Great Skua
· Dark-green ring with a white (Gw) two numeric code. Ringed on Irish coastal sites. Contact Kendrew Colhoun (kcolhoun@btinternet.com)
Black Guillemot
· White ring with a black (Wn) three alpha code (AAA-AZZ). Ringed at Copeland Bird Observatory. Contact Richard Donaghey (Richard.Donaghey89@gmail.com)
There are numerous other projects within the north of Ireland including Carlingford Lough waders, breeding Curlew, Bangor Black Guillemots, Brent and Barnacle Geese, raptors (Buzzards & Red Kite) etc. In the south, there dozens of projects on the five main gull species, Dublin Bay waders, geese, Chough, raptors, Raven, Dipper, Whinchats and a number of seabirds to name but a few. We also regularly record ringed birds from as far north as Greenland & Arctic Canada, as far east as the Baltic states and as far south as South Africa.
The first port of call for any colour ring sighting is to check out the European colour-ring Birding website (https://cr-birding.org/) which details all registered colour ring projects across Europe. By clicking on Find a Colour Ring Project you can undertake a filtered search to narrow down the options and find the appropriate the project(s) and make contact with the ringer to get the ringing details. Note that Common Gull is known as Eurasian Mew Gull and the colour Black is referred to as Niger (N) on colour rings.
We also keen for any information on any metal ringed birds and don’t forget to check dead birds! These rings, as well any unidentified colour ring projects, can be reported directly the BTO (https://app.bto.org/euring/lang/pages/rings.jsp).
If you require any assistance with any ringed bird or ringing in general, please get in touch with myself (Richard.Donaghey89@gmail.com) and I will try my best to help. Please also keep us informed with any sightings of ringed birds, as the information doesn’t always come back to us within NI from the project coordinator.
Many thanks,
Richard Donaghey
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