• 1st place (104 points): ‘The Southside Swifts’ – Niall T. Keogh, Noel Keogh, Brian Porter & Alan
  Lauder.
• 2nd place (99 points): ‘The Raven Loons’ – Robert Vaughan, Shane Farrell, Conor Foley & Donal
  Foley.
• 3rd place (95 points): ‘The Southern Hawkers’ – Dick Coombes, Christian Osthoff, Gerry Lyons &
  Declan Murphy.
• 4th place (93 points): ‘The Northside Nightjars’ – John Fox, Phillip Clancy, Ger Franck & Mir
  Harris.
• 5th place (86 points): ‘The Stringer’s Quartet’ – Ian Stevenson, Patrick Veale, Jim Bowman &
  Denis Cronin.

Category B

• 1st place (67 points): ‘The Good Old Boys’ – Dave Fox, Maurran Fox, Paul Keating, Killian Keating
  & Jimmy Walsh.
• 2nd place (65 ½ points): ‘The Dublin Dunlins’ – Paul Hillis & Brian Gormley.

Read a full report here:  more

An RTÉ Radio One piece on the 2011 DBR can be found here: The Curious Ear - 2011 Dublin Bird Race.html

From: Jim Wilson
Date: Fri, Sep 30, 2011 at 11:41 AM


Hi All, 
Dr José Alves (J.Alves@uea.ac.uk) has asked me to see if you can help him discover how bad the breeding season has been for the godwits in Iceland. Here is the email he sent and any help would be much appreciated. 


Dear godwitologists, 

Thank you so much for contributing with your observations of colour-ringed godwits to the studies being developed in this consortium of godwit lovers. 

We now come to you in a quest to further understand this fascinating migratory system. Our most recent studies in Iceland, show that the past breeding season was very poor with many pairs unable to fledge a single chick. This has become a rare event during the past two decades! May temperatures were unusually low and the cold spell lasted until the second week of June, with morning frosts occurring throughout. Evidence for delayed and deferred breeding was apparent at our study sites in the southern lowlands (the warmest sites of the breeding range), and productivity has been perceived as low throughout the country. 

In order to record the consequence of such cold summers on breeding productivity we have recorded the proportion of juveniles found in flocks departing from Iceland. However, these juveniles still have to survive their first southwards migration. We would therefore also like to record the proportion of juveniles in godwit flocks throughout the range at the start of the non-breeding season. With this in mind we have decided to launch an appeal to all godwit observers and ask them to record the number of juveniles and adults present at their local godwit sites. This requires no more than a count of the flock size and within that, counting the number of juvenile godwits present (along with date, time and site as usual). 

Juvenile godwits are readily identifiable due to their distinctive first year plumage and for those of you less familiar with such characteristics, please follow the link below for an image of a juvenile godwit in first year plumage: http://www.uea.ac.uk/~b026515/plumage.html (please scroll down to the bottom of the page)

 If indeed we are able to have a good record of productivity throughout the godwit range we are likely to repeat a similar large scale recording of productivity on a “good year”, hopefully in 2012!  We welcome your questions and hope you accept this challenge!  

On the behalf of project Jadrakan, 

José 

PS- Please be patient with the reply time as we’ll also be out looking for them! ;-) 

All the best, Slán go fóill / Bye for now, 

Jim Wilson 
Blanan, 
Rushbrooke, 
Cobh, Co. Cork Ireland 

BirdLife Cyprus reveals online bird trapping death toll counter for the current autumn migration

89,225 birds slaughtered…so far! – Sign the petition to stop it now!

BirdLife Cyprus has just published online (www.birdlifecyprus.org) an estimated death toll from the illegal bird trapping taking place in Cyprus during this autumn migration season. The toll has been estimated on the basis of field data from BirdLife’s ongoing field monitoring of trapping activity with mist nets and limesticks, part of a systematic surveillance programme. This first estimate -89,225 birds- represents the number of birds killed between Thursday 1st September and Sunday 11th September 2011. The estimate will be updated every Monday until the end of October. BirdLife Cyprus is posting this death toll on its website to highlight the urgency of the situation and as a call for action to halt this slaughter!

“We estimate that, so far this autumn, some 89,000 birds have been killed illegally using mist nets and limesticks in Cyprus. We know that the autumn season is the main trapping period and this number is certain to get much bigger over the next 2 months, unless decisive action is taken now to back up enforcement efforts”, said Martin Hellicar, Campaigns Manager of BirdLife Cyprus.

In July, the ‘European Conference on Illegal Killing of Birds’ that took place in Larnaca, concluded with a clear ‘zero tolerance’ message and an urgent call for appropriate measures to stop the bird slaughter. BirdLife Cyprus is now calling for words to be turned into action by all competent authorities at all levels. BirdLife Cyprus is once again calling for decisive action against the restaurants serving the trapped birds, for targeted enforcement against big, organised trapping operations and for tougher sentences for convicted trappers.

In autumn 2010 BirdLife Cyprus estimated that 1.4 million birds were killed by trappers in the Famagusta and Larnaca Districts, an unprecedented death toll resulting in the highest trapping levels recorded since 2002, when BirdLife Cyprus begun its systematic monitoring of trapping activity.

“Such levels of trapping constitute an ecological disaster. Non-selective trapping is taking place on a large scale to feed the demand for banned ambelopoulia delicacies. We want to communicate the scale of this slaughter to the generally indifferent public in order to make them more aware of the issue and its ecological impact”, Hellicar added.

The details of the death toll estimation and the methodology can be found on BirdLife Cyprus’ website, together with information on why bird trapping with mist nets and limesticks is such a big ecological issue.

TO SIGN THE PETITION PLEASE CLICK HERE!

• @ECoastBirdNews  - for the the east coast (incorporating Louth, Meath, Dublin and Wicklow);
  
  
• @WexfordBirdNews  - for County Wexford

People can sign up to twitter or text "FOLLOW ECoastBirdNews" to 51210, and follow the twitter feed to receive FREE texts of news of rare and scarce birds coming out of those counties. 

So, if you have any news of rare and scarce birds then just text the information to Mark.  

If you don't have Mark's number just email him at Mark Carmody <dr.carmo@gmail.com> giving your full name and your number and he will set up a contact for you.

Jan 2011

22 Jan. 2011

Irish Wildlife Matters (IWM) has three aims:

• To give useful and easy to follow information and instruction to members of the public who find a wildlife casualty
  
• To provide detailed information to the rehabilitator who will take responsibility for long term rehabilitation of the casualty
  
• To provide a reference tool for veterinary surgeons for the treatment of wildlife casualties

IWM is intended as a reference tool not a comprehensive guide to wildlife rehabilitation. Anyone undertaking wildlife rehabilitation must seek professional guidance as soon as possible.

27 Dec, 2010 

Helpful advice from An Garda Siochana, Crime Prevention Unit, in response to our warning note of two reports of binoculars  and camera equipment having been stolen from cars on the North Bull Island.

"It is never advisable to keep valuables in cars in the first place but people have a habit of placing property in the boot of a car when they arrive at the destination before going for a walk/birdwatching etc. This is a sure sign to the opportunist thief of something worth stealing. Classic example would be a woman putting her handbag in the boot and walking off. The thief, if he is around, will see this and know there is a bag in the boot of that car. If you need to put property in the boot, do so before you arrive at your destination so you are not observed putting it in.

Never leave property on view in your car when un-attended. Do not leave a coat on the seat either, because it may look as if you are trying to cover up property on the seat - (even if there isn't any). Your window may just get smashed or your door damaged.

Sat Navs are popular to steal. Wipe the ring that the sucker leaves on the inside of your windscreen so the thief doesn't see the obvious sign of a sat nav in a car."

Please click this link to check 

out the helpful Crime Prevention 

Information Sheet 

02 Dec, 2010 

Appeal from BirdLife International, a global Partnership of conservation organisations that strives to conserve birds, their habitats and global biodiversity, working with people towards sustainability in the use of natural resources.....

The Critically Endangered Spoon-billed Sandpiper may be down to as few as 400 birds.

I’m delighted to announce that BirdLife’s work to save two key resting and feeding sites in China, used by one of the world’s oddest and most appealing waterbirds is to receive support from Disney’s Friends for Change initiative. The project, ’Saving Spoony’s Chinese Wetlands’ will receive at least $25,000. But if children around the world decide to give it their vote, that support could rise to $50,000, or even $100,000.

We’ve just published a story on our website asking people to “vote for Spoony” on Disney’s Friends for Change website, and I’m writing to ask if you could also help us to promote the story and the need to vote.

Please check out the full story...Click here

To watch an amazing video of an adult Spoon-billed Sandpiper calling...Click here

Chris Honan would be grateful if birders would look out for gulls wearing blue rings. Great Black-backed, Lesser Black-backed and Herring Gulls were ringed on Ireland’s Eye during the summer months of 2009 and 2010 as part of a continuing study. 

The birds have  blue rings with white codes on their left legs and BTO metal rings on the right.  Reports can be sent directly to gulls@eircom.net. A related website will be available soon at www.gulls.ie that will include a report submission form. Recent sightings include a Lesser Black-backed Gull in Cadiz, Spain that was ringed on Ireland’s Eye in 2009 and regular reports from Howth (up to 10 birds in two hours), Bullock Harbour and other locations along the Dublin coast. 

Details of most European colour ringing projects can be found at http://www.cr-birding.be/