Tuesday 10 January 2017

Bann Estuary 2016 Totals

As the regular readers will be aware, the focus of our ringing (and birding) activities are focused on the Bann Estuary spread across three main sites.  The majority of the effort is focused on Portstewart Strand through spring, summer and autumn, Castlerock over the winter period and Grangemore for Sand Martins, waders and marsh/reedbed birds.  2016 was the first year that we really extended our activities beyond Portstewart Strand and this is represented in the greater number of species caught this year, although we failed to pick up any rare/scarce passerines.
  The total number of new birds was boosted by the number of hirundines but it was a pretty poor breeding season at Portstewart Strand with 243 less new birds caught at the site. Some species had a very poor year including, Blackcaps - down 235%, Bullfinches - down 366%, Lesser Redpoll - down 453% (no local breeders this year), Reed Bunting - down 225% and Willow Warbler down - 421%.    Some species faired a little better, including Blue Tit, Goldcrest and Stonechat, although the Blue Tit increase is associated with the addition of feeders and the migrating number of Goldcrests was higher.  Not including the waders, there were a few new species captured for the site including House Sparrow, Kingfisher, Wheatear and Whitethroat.  The biggest surprise of the year was the Curlew Sandpiper which was caught amongst our first roost catch.


Controls/recoveries were pretty thin on the ground but the best of the bunch were a Portuguese Sand Martin, a Belgian Blackcap and Sedge Warblers from Dorset and Devon.      

 Hopefully the local breeders can recover for next year!



I have posted the totals from the Bann Estuary below with the Portstewart Strand totals in brackets.  I will follow up with the full group totals in the coming weeks once all data has been updated/submitted.


Curlew Sandpiper and Dunlin





Species  NewRetrapControlTotal
Bar-tailed Godwit22
Blackbird34 (27) 16 (15) 50 (42)
Blackcap16 (14) 1 (1) 17 (15)
Black-headed Gull11
Black-tailed Godwit33
Blue Tit50 (27)13 (10) 63 (37)
Bullfinch19 (9) 7 (6) 26 (15)
Chaffinch 40 (22)3 (3) 43 (25)
Chiffchaff3 (3) 3 (3)
Coal Tit1 (1) 1 (1)
Curlew11
Curlew Sandpiper11
Dunlin2222
Dunnock   23 (19) 31 (31) 54 (50)
Fieldfare33
Goldcrest 24 (23) 10 (10) 34 (33)
Goldfinch84 (83)14 (14)98 (97)
Grasshopper Warbler2 (1)2 (1)
Great Tit10 (10)10 (10)20 (20)
Greenfinch1717
House Sparrow11
Kingfisher11
Lesser Redpoll14 (13)5 (5)19 (18)
Linnet45 (43)3 (3)48 (46)
Meadow Pipit70 (68)3 (3)73 (71)
Pied Wagtail1 (1)1 (1)
Redshank25 (2)25 (2)
Redwing8 (8)8 (8)
Reed Bunting15 (8)1 (1)16 (9)
Robin40 (32)32 (28)72 (60)
Ruff22
Sand Martin101133117
Sedge Warbler22 (3)3 (1)227 (4)
Skylark4 (4)4 (4)
Snipe11
Song Thrush26 (18)4 (4)30 (22)
Sparrowhawk1 (1)1 (1)
Starling1 (1)1 (1)
Stonechat16 (12)1 (1)17 (13)
Swallow8989
Wheatear1 (1)1 (1)
Whitethroat3 (3)3 (3)
Willow Warbler15 (14)5 (5)20 (19)
Wren26 (22)15 (14)41 (36)
Total 884 (493) 189 (164) 6 (1) 1079(658)
    44 Species (30)  















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