BRANCH MATTERS Any of the 10Km Squares Below That Have Yet to Turn That the Colony Has Grown from 0-2 Pairs to 19 Pairs Red Then Please Send in Your Bird Sightings
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CAIRDE EANLAITH NA GAILLIMHE BIRDWATCH GALWAY This is a local forum newsletter – www.birdwatchgalway.org contributions and comments are QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER – EDITOR: NEIL SHARKEY most welcome. Telephone: 086 1680856 e-mail:[email protected] Distributed by e mail only Issue No. 66 August 09 BRANCH MATTERS any of the 10km squares below that have yet to turn that the colony has grown from 0-2 pairs to 19 pairs red then please send in your bird sightings. in just one year, even after the hardest winter for a Branch activities seem to come to halt during the To find your 10km square or view the species decade. At that continued rate of increase the summer month of July and August as there are no richness maps and species lists for your 10km species will soon be as common, if not more so, Wednesday night branch meetings, Saturday square please go to www.birdatlas.net . than the Grey Heron in a very short period of time. morning outings at Nimmo’s Pier or Friday night All records or ‘Roving Records’ as they are called We would be grateful for any re-sightings of these talks in the Anno Santo Hotel. However, while we can be submitted online. Alternatively, you can birds in the coming months and years, as it will be may seem dormant a lot happens in the field or at simply contact the Atlas Coordinator to have any of very interesting indeed to see where they winter, the desk. Members monitor areas for the these details posted or e-mailed to you. where they breed and how long they survive. Even Countryside Bird Survey, re-visit tetrads to [email protected] or 05791 51676. just sightings of birds without the digits being read, contribute data to the new Atlas of Birds in Britain but noted carrying coloured rings will be useful. and Ireland, carry out maintenance activities at our Brian Caffrey You can email any sightings to me, Chris Benson, hides at Rostaff and Rusheen Bay or put together Note: Map is on P4 of Newsletter NS at: [email protected] yet another issue of our Galway Newsletter. The Chris Benson. latter, particularly, is an activity which never allows LITTLE EGRETS IN GALWAY for a break – the deadline always looms over our CONFIRMED BREEDING IN 2009 UPDATE: Three of the ringed Little Egret chicks editor and his commitment to the publication is have been recorded at Rahasane Turlough in late second to none. So, here is a big THANK YOU to In mid - April 2009, John July by Neil Sharkey. Lusby informed me that, Dermot Reports keep coming in of Little Egrets breeding in while conducting Barn Owl Breen. So, County Galway. It was bound to happen sooner survey work close to Galway on your rather than later, with so many of these elegant, city, he had noticed ‘about travels, strikingly white birds frequenting our wetlands 24’ Little Egrets in and please look during the last few years. Please, read Chris around a known Heronry closely at Benson’s article for more information on what to and wondered if they could any Egrets look out for. be breeding. A week later you might The autumn will soon manifest itself in many ways; the Heronry was checked encounter branch-wise by the start of the Nimmo’s Pier first- and four Egret nests, each for Saturday-of-the-month outings on the 5th of containing eggs, were ringed September and our branch meeting on Wednesday found. birds. the 16th. We are looking forward to seeing you all at Fast-forward to the third one or more of the forthcoming events. week of June and by then a grand total of 19 nests had been discovered, from which 41 Egret chicks Marianne ten Cate had been ringed, 32 of these with colour rings. The birds are carrying a black ring with a white letter on Little Egret at about 28 days old. Chris Benson CALLING ALL BIRDWATCHERS the left leg, and a yellow ring with a black digit on the right. Please note that these rings are placed THE ROUNDSTONE STONE CURLEW We have now reached the end of the second above the knee on this species for ease of sighting breeding season of Bird Atlas survey work and the when the birds are wading in water etc. Although I received a call from Eric Dempsey at 9.15 a.m. on mid point of this four-year survey. This is a crucial 41 chicks have been ringed, there are many which Monday 29th June. He informed me that he had period for the survey so, more than ever; we now have not, mainly because they couldn’t be caught – been in touch with a Dublin couple, Mike and Miriam need your help to ensure that we get Co. Galway these birds have a natural habit of leaving the nest Harris, who regularly visit Connemara. Mike had covered for the Bird Atlas. The map below provides and climbing around the tree in which the nest is photographed an unusual bird on the previous an indication of coverage achieved to date, thanks located at an early age. They are expert climbers Friday evening while birdwatching at Murvey near to the hard efforts of local birdwatchers, but it also with their near pre-historic looking feet expertly Roundstone. Eric told me matter of factly that the highlights the many 10km squares across the gripping the twigs and branches. bird in the pictures was a Stone Curlew; I was a bit county with few or no bird records at all. Now is your There is no doubt that a combination of superb shocked to say the least! chance to do your piece to help conserve Galway’s weather and good feeding by the adults in and Aonghus O’Donaill and I searched for the bird for birdlife by submitting your bird sightings to the Atlas. around the bay resulted in a bumper-breeding about 2 hours during the day but failed to relocate it. Make your birdwatching count! season. Just like Heron pulli, as a defence I left the site at midday thinking that the bird was Each of the squares in the map below represents a mechanism, young Little Egrets have a habit of long gone. I arranged with Mike and Miriam to meet 10km square. For the Bird Atlas we are trying to regurgitating any recently eaten food over any up at the site that evening. After a quick walk compile a full species list for each 10km square for perceived predator (in this case bird ringers!), and around the southern end of the machair we both the Breeding Season (April – July) and the most of the ringed young had full crops of small fish, unsurprisingly came across nothing. On the off Winter (November – February). All your bird prawns and beetles. By the time of our last visit on chance I decided to play the call of Stone Curlew sightings from the Robin nesting in your garden to 15th June, many of the older young, both ringed or since I had the MP3 and megaphone with me. A the Grey Heron on your local river will help to otherwise, were flying strongly between the trees, minute later the bird came flying straight toward us, produce these detailed species lists and help turn some even flying down into the nearby field and making its way down to the shore (it did exactly the the Galway map red. As a species list for a 10km ditches. same thing the next evening nearly to the minute square starts to build, the colour changes from The age of this colony is probably only two years without us playing the call). I couldn’t believe what I blank to white, to yellow, to orange and eventually old, as the farmer, on whose land the birds are was looking at - a Stone Curlew in Connemara?! It will turn red. So if you live, work or spend time in nesting, only noticed two of the ‘white herons’ for gave a very close fly-by, showing the white wing-bar the first time in the spring of 2008. This would mean CAIRDE EANLAITH NA GAILLIMHE BIRDWATCH GALWAY This is a local forum newsletter – www.birdwatchgalway.org contributions and comments are QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER – EDITOR: NEIL SHARKEY most welcome. Telephone: 086 1680856 e-mail:[email protected] Distributed by e mail only Issue No. 66 August 09 and flashes on the wing, quite long yellow legs, Marlow in Joseph Conrad’s classic, I feel drawn to yellow base to the bill and even the yellow eye. vast areas of emptiness on maps that long to be I must admit that, at this stage, my language was a filled with the rigours of effort and the trepidation of little on the colourful side and a mild state of panic SURVIVING THE BLITZ adventure - all to the chorus of glorious birdsong. nearly overtook me. We thankfully managed to see the bird on the ground a few minutes later. It was I wasn’t at the branch meeting when someone John Carey now around 9.30p.m.and the light was fading suggested we organise an ‘Atlas Blitz’, but whoever quickly. I managed to get some video footage for it was - I thank you. SAND MARTINS the record but due to light and distance the quality The Atlas project is incredibly important. Its findings isn’t great. It can be viewed on will influence the policies and legislation that will On July 30th around midday in locations near http://www.birdforum.tv/action/viewvideo/1557/Roun ensure that birds and their habitats remain secure, Inchiquin Headford I came upon huge numbers of dstone_Stone_Curlew/ for the near future at least.