Fuel spill on County Antrim coast

Worrying news has emerged over the past couple of days. 

A large diesel spill has occurred along a stretch of the County Antrim coastline which is home to several key seabird breeding colonies including The Gobbins, Muck Island and Larne Lough, which includes one of our Black-headed Gull study colonies.

Ringing Black-headed Gulls in Larne Lough in 2013

The story, including photographs, can be viewed by following the links below:

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/huge-diesel-spill-off-larne-coast-threatens-wildlife-34797335.html

http://www.larnetimes.co.uk/news/larne-news/irish-sea-diesel-spill-came-from-larne-caterpillar-factory-1-7428643

http://www.itv.com/news/utv/update/2016-06-13/significant-fuel-spill-pollutes-water-near-larne/

While an incident like this would be awful at any time of year, it may be particularly devastating at this time of year as auks, terns, gulls, cormorants and shags use the area affected for feeding. In addition, the weather has been relatively calm recently, which is slowing the dispersal of the spill.

Members of the East Antrim Boat Club have already reported a number of dead birds along the coastline.

Fingers crossed the impact upon the birds at these vitally important colonies will be minimal.

Black-headed Gull - 2ANX

In my last blog post back in January before my impromptu break in blogging, I reported catching and colour-ringing a German ringed bird at Carrickfergus in County Antrim (see here).

I signed off with saying it would hopefully increase the number of reports of the bird, perhaps back in Germany.

Well, it appears to have worked....in April we received a report that the bird had indeed been seen, not in Germany but in Poland.

The bird was re-sighted at Swinoujscie near the German border at end of March, a great result and once again highlights the benefits of colour-ringing. 

Carrickfergus (yellow) - Ringing location
Swinoujscie (red) - Re-sighting location

This was the second sighting since the bird was colour-ringed, having been recorded at Carrick Harbour in late February by Cameron Moore.

It's been a while....

Indeed it has! The lack of posts on the blog doesn't mean the project hasn't been continuing, I've just been extremely lazy in keeping it updated. Apologies, normal service will be resumed soon.

There have been some exciting sightings which I will post about in the future.

In the meantime, here's a photo taken by Suzanne Belshaw of 2ABK looking well in her breeding plumage.

Photo by Suzanne Belshaw

When an opportunity presents itself....

I am currently working on the 2015 Annual Report, which will hopefully bring the blog back up to date!

In the meantime, a quick post about a lucky encounter at the weekend.

On Sunday afternoon, I took our four-year-old to "feed the ducks" which is code for "check for ringed gulls" at Carrick.

We visited the harbour where I recorded a couple of NI-ringed birds, as well as a bonus in the form of an adult Ring-billed Gull. This bird has been visiting Carrick Harbour for a number of winters now and is always a nice year tick in January.

We moved on to another site in the town and as we were throwing bread into the water for the Mallards and keeping an eye on the pesky swans to make sure they didn't bump into the small boy, the Black-headed Gulls surrounded us. Checking for colour-rings, without success, I noticed a bird land on the railing beside me with a metal ring. I could tell it wasn't a BTO ring and, knowing my ringing gear was in the boot of the car, I started throwing a pile of bread closer to our feet. 

The ringed bird duly obliged and, despite being a bit rusty, I managed to catch it by hand. Upon checking the ring, I recognised the number as a German ringed bird which has been recorded at Carrick for a number of years. 

It has now been fitted with a NI-darvic which will make it much easier to record in the field and hopefully increase the number of reports of the bird...including perhaps back in Germany.