Sam Bayley

Few gull sightings. 534:C and 02U:C were nestlings from West Cork in 2021 and 2024 respectively and in Faro and Cadiz. Whilst 2 rehabs from Wildlife Rescue Cork - 18U:C was in Portugal for winter and now in Limerick and 28H:C already in Kinsale from Cork City 3 weeks ago @btobirds.bsky.social 🪶

Cork boys have different plans. Inchy quickly moved from very hot central Spain to north coast, on 24th departed to Africa via Murcia. Glen in contrast did direct route to Croatia and likely to depart any day. Once leave we won’t know where they have been until back in Europe 2/2 🪶

Irish Cuckoo Update - after spending a number of weeks on the French/Italian border Cores has now jumped the Mediterranean and Sahara and on the Sudan/Chad border. Living up to the tradition of migrating furthest east of @btobirds.bsky.social. @npwsireland.bsky.social 1/2 🪶

Great opportunity to catch and ring a juvenile Little Grebe at Native Species weekend @fotawildlife.bsky.social and share its amazing features with visitors. A common species with almost nothing known about their movements or longevity in Ireland! @btobirds.bsky.social @npwsireland.bsky.social

Another successful Storm Petrel catching session at Galley Head, Cork. 286 in total including 4 controls over 3 1/2 hours. Never tire of these wonderful little birds about the size of a Robin but live out on the open sea! @btobirds.bsky.social @npwsireland.bsky.social @theseabirdgroup.bsky.social

First Swallow roost catch of the year at Clogheen Marsh last night. About 300 birds came into roost and we caught 114 inc a retrap adult from last year plus 2 Sand Martin. Surprised to get so many this early, but migration seems early @npwsireland.bsky.social @btobirds.bsky.social

Great weekend at @ccbowarden.bsky.social for the Lavender Festival. Ringing Demo with a good mix of passerines, 163 Stormies caught at night inc 3 controls (1 we caught at Galley Head on Wednesday night) and 20 Rock Doves for RAS project inc 9 new! @btobirds.bsky.social @willjsmith.bsky.social

A rather quiet Clogheen CES 8 with virtually no bird song. Felt rather like some adult birds have already left! Still managed to catch 49 birds. Highlights were two very contrasting male Swallow, 3 juvenile Bullfinch, a Mallard and a Water Rail @npwsireland.bsky.social @btobirds.bsky.social 🪶

Great clear full moon night at Galley Head catching Storm Petrels with a good team. 264 caught including 3 controls from elsewhere in 3 hours @npwsireland.bsky.social @btobirds.bsky.social

Rather quiet Killarney NP CES 7 yesterday with just 25 birds from 13 species. Although adult female and a very dark juv G-s Woodpecker and a juv Reed Bunting can’t be sniffed at. Also did the two Barn Owl nest sites with broods of 4 and 3 chicks @npwsireland.bsky.social @btobirds.bsky.social

Lesser Black-backed Gull project work today in Roaringwater Bay. 204 colour ringed from 3 islands including @ccbowarden.bsky.social and 14 Herring Gull. Seems to be a productive season here and a fabulous day to be island hopping! @npwsireland.bsky.social @btobirds.bsky.social 🪶

CES 7 at Clogheen Marsh was steady with 54 birds of 15 species. Highlight was the first bird of the morning - a retrap Long-eared Owl from last November. Over 2/3 of the rest was warblers including the first juvenile Sedge @npwsireland.bsky.social @btobirds.bsky.social 🪶

Wonderful day giving budding Canadian ringer Adam Ross a flavour of some Cork projects. Firstly, Rook ringing as part of a RAS, ringing 99 Common Tern chicks as part of @portofcork.bsky.social project and lastly a nest of 3 Buzzard chicks @npwsireland.bsky.social @btobirds.bsky.social

Our last Peregrine nest site of the year, followed by our first few West Cork Barn Owl nest sites checked this week. Seems to be a decent year with a good number of healthy chicks, also a pair of Stock Dove chicks @npwsireland.bsky.social @btobirds.bsky.social @birdwatchireland.bsky.social

CES 6 at Clogheen Marsh was only just manageable between the various weather fronts, but a decent session with 61 birds of 15 species. Lots of fledglings including the first juvenile Reed Warbler @npwsireland.bsky.social @btobirds.bsky.social

Our second new Cuckoo is ‘Cuach Inchi’, a 2nd year male that was tagged at Inchi More above Ballingeary on 2nd June. Inchi has already moved over 1600km firstly to Pembrokeshire in Wales 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿, then through France 🇫🇷 before arriving east of Madrid, Spain 🇪🇸 on Wednesday @npwsireland.bsky.social 3/3 🪶

The first new Cuckoo is ‘Cuach Glen’, an adult male who was tagged in the hills above Glengarriff on 23rd May. Glen has already started his migration and by Sunday was at Rame Head near Plymouth, England 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 @npwsireland.bsky.social @btobirds.bsky.social 2/3 🪶

Irish Cuckoo Update - Cores has now moved to near Limoges in central France, but the big news is that there are now two extra tagged Cuckoos out there both from Cork. These two are wearing a different device that send data via mobile phone network @npwsireland.bsky.social @btobirds.bsky.social 1/3🪶

CES session 5 at Killarney NP was rather quiet, but a couple of notable individuals amongst the 22 birds. Our first ever juvenile Reed Bunting, seem to get flooded out most years and a retrap Reed Bunting originally ringed in 2022! @npwsireland.bsky.social @btobirds.bsky.social 🪶

Irish Cuckoo Tagging Project Update - after just over 6 weeks on breeding grounds in Killarney NP, Cores is on migration! Brief stop on Kerry side of Beara peninsula on 10th before quick departure to SW Wales 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 BIG NEWS NEXT WEEK! @npwsireland.bsky.social @btobirds.bsky.social🪶

Irish Cuckoo Tagging Project Update - after just over 6 weeks on breeding grounds in Killarney NP, Cores is on migration! Brief stop on Kerry side of Beara peninsula on 10th before quick departure to SW Wales 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 BIG NEWS NEXT WEEK! @npwsireland.bsky.social @btobirds.bsky.social

That was my thoughts too!

If you mean the Kestrel, yes 4 chicks!

Great day out doing raptor nests. Another 2 Peregrines sites ringed in Cork as well as a Kestrel nest right in Cork City! But the most amazing find was amongst mostly corvid remains was the remains of a HOOPOE in one of the Peregrine nests!! @npwsireland.bsky.social @btobirds.bsky.social 🪶

Clogheen Marsh CES session 4 produced the first 5 juveniles of the year in amongst the 54 birds of 18 species. A good mix including our first Kingfisher of the year, a retrap adult from 2024, also a side catch of 3 Mallard and a Moorhen @npwsireland.bsky.social @btobirds.bsky.social 🪶

CES session 4 at Lake Hotel, Killarney NP produced 53 birds of 13 species. It was heavily dominated by juvenile birds in particular Blue Tits and Long-tailed Tits, but also Treecreeper and 2 Kingfisher @npwsireland.bsky.social @btobirds.bsky.social 🪶

A couple of our ongoing RAS projects. Rooks in our Enniskeane garden now getting busy inc birds from 2019. Rock Doves @ccbowarden.bsky.social getting some great survival data including BH that was ringed in 2016 which keeps breaking @btobirds.bsky.social longevity records! @euring.bsky.social

Nice resighting of one of the juvenile Lesser Black-backed Gulls rehabbed by Wildlife Rescue Cork last year. 04J:C is alive and well sunning itself on a beach near Porto, Portugal last week doing the normal migration it should be doing @npwsireland.bsky.social @btobirds.bsky.social 🪶

Monitoring Cork Peregrine nest sites today. 6 sites in total, 3 of which had chicks still too small and 3 which were ringed with broods of 2, 2 and 4. Corvids seemed to be exclusively on the menu! @npwsireland.bsky.social @btobirds.bsky.social

CES 3 at Killarney NP was fairly decent with 35 birds of 12 species. Highlights being a pair of Siskin, 4 Treecreeper and a new occurrence for this site an adult Chiffchaff! Lots of juvs now around too @npwsireland.bsky.social @btobirds.bsky.social