School of BEES Research Blog

Eurasian Woodcock Satellite Tagging and Tracking Project 2012-2013

Posted on May 14, 2013 by bees

Luke Harman with St. Patrick

by Luke Harman, School of BEES

Over the past six months a research group from the School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences (BEES), UCC, led by Luke Harman, has been working in collaboration with the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT) UK on a satellite tagging project to provide valuable information on the migratory behaviour of Eurasian Woodcock (Scolopax rusticola) which over-winter in the Republic of Ireland.

For those of you who are not “birders”, the woodcock is a wader which does surprisingly little wading and has evolved to a more terrestrial lifestyle spending the majority of its time in woodlands and fields. Their plumage is perfect for life in woodlands where birds can all but disappear as they blend in with their surroundings.

The vast majority of Woodcock breed in Northern Europe. However, as winter sets in large numbers of birds migrate south and west, over-wintering in milder areas of Europe such as the UK and Ireland.

St. Brendan with tag attached

As part of the on-going UK project run by the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT), headed up by Dr Andrew Hoodless, the BEES research group was set-up to satellite tag two birds in Ireland this season. In addition to these birds the GWCT also tagged two birds in the Republic this year. This means that 4 out of a total of 14 birds which were satellite tagged this year were tagged in Ireland. All birds (in Ireland) were tagged in March 2013 and are now well into their migrations back to Northern Europe and beyond. All the birds’ migration routes can be followed on the GWCT Woodcock Watch website.

St. Brendan being measured by Barry O’Mahony

Satellite tagging and tracking of wildlife is not a new phenomenon however; it is a relatively new procedure for smaller species, such as the woodcock, due to the size/weight of the tags available. All tags used in this project were 9.5g in weight (the lightest satellite tag in full production in the world) and were supplied to us by Microwave Telemetry Inc. The birds were caught using a method known as “dazzling”. This involves locating the woodcock at night as they are feeding on open fields/pastures. Once located, the aim is to dazzle the birds in the beam of the spotlight and catch them using a long handled landing net. Once caught the birds are measured, aged and assessed for condition prior to the tags being attached.

St. Brendan being aged by Barry O’Mahony

The Woodcock is a commercially important quarry species that is hunted throughout Europe. With the vast majority of birds being migratory, conservation on a European scale is a very important area. This research would not have been possible without the funding we received from a numbers of sponsors from the shooting community (listed below).

Our two birds, St. Brendan and St. Patrick, are doing really well. Last locations for both birds were Latvia and Russia respectively. Amy and Elissa (the other 2 birds tagged in Ireland) are also doing well and both are also currently in Russia.

At this point I would like to thank Barry O’Mahony for sharing several long, cold and often wet nights in pursuit of these elusive birds. In fact I think, at one point, my wife was wondering if “Barry” was real at all as I headed out several times a week to “meet Barry” for half the night!

Andrew Hoodless and Elissa

Finally I would like to thank everyone who has made this project possible, especially our sponsors and Dr Hoodless for all his professional help and advice. I would also like to thank everyone who offered assistance in any way. It was a great “team” effort and we look forwards to obtaining some invaluable data over the coming months/years.

Amy ready to go

For more information on Woodcock please consult the Woodcock Watch website or contact us on the details below:

BEES Woodcock Research Group,

Luke Harman, Barry O’Mahony, Dr Mark Wilson and Prof. John O’Halloran,

School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences (BEES),

University College Cork,

Distillery Fields,

North Mall,

Ireland.

Tel: 00353 (0)21 490 4668

Email: l.harman@ucc.ie

A Final check before release for St Brendan

Sponsors:

Federation of County Cork Gun Clubs

Monaghan Regional Game Council

Mayo Regional Game Council

Waterford Regional Game Council

Kerry Regional Game Council

National Association of Regional Game Councils

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged birds, ecology, fieldwork, woodcock | Leave a comment

Finding the Falcons

Posted on April 26, 2013 by bees

Helena Jackson, a student on the Diploma in Field Ecology writes about her research work:

Image: Greg Humes (Wiki Commons)

It’s 7.30 am and I’m sitting in my car with the heater on full blast waiting for a quarry manager to allow me entry into a disused quarry in North Cork. I’m researching the use of man made structures (including quarries) by peregrine falcons for my Diploma in Field Ecology. Every waking moment is currently set aside in this pursuit as the weather and passing time unite against me.

Help and advice has been very forthcoming since I started the project, including guidance from number of experienced raptor conservationists, NPWS rangers, and a wildlife photographer. Local knowledge during field work has been just great. There was the farmer who dragged me knee deep in muck across ‘the spuds’ to show me where ‘them huge fekkers’ were, and who, 5 minutes later, ‘advised me not to look down’ and to ‘aim for the bush’ if I slipped, as we scrambled up the steep slope with me clinging on to him for dear life. He pointed out the barn owl nest and the badger trail.

And then there was the local man who advised me that the best time to catch the farmer was definitely ‘not after a few pints’, who pointed out ‘the bull’ and told me about the bird bones he had seen on a ledge in the castle ruins . There was the greenkeeper who showed me the best view over the quarry from the golf course, and of course yesterday the two farm dogs that lay at my feet in the sun while I surveyed a ruined castle overlooking the Blackwater. I wasn’t sure if they had taken a shine to me, or if they were just keeping an eye on me in case I got up to anything. I didn’t make any sudden moves.

Inactive quarries are desolate, beautiful eerie places with unexpected wildlife including ducks on the quarry lakes, other bird species and badgers. Sitting still, with the sun warm on my back, eyes peeled, binoculars in hand waiting for a peregrine sighting and listening keenly for any alarm calls, all doubts about my decision to tackle year 2 of the Diploma vanish.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged birds, ecology, field ecology, fieldwork, peregrine falcons, zoology | Comments Off

Algarve Field Course (Part 6): BIRD IS THE WORD!!!

Posted on April 19, 2013 by bees

Salgados Brackish Lake

First and foremost, I would like to say a big hello to John Quinn’s mammy…you may refer to her as Maureen. She is absolutely blessed to have such a jolly and witty son. Maureen I would like to ask you though to give out to John for his lack of focus on the road while driving. John has said that the car cuts out when it is not moving as it is suppose to be more economic…..However in the words of Luke: “the car is not economic, that’s just John’s driving”.

John also has a tendency to drive after what he sees (birds) and notices other things on the road at the last minute. So please Maureen if you could give him the wooden spoon when he gets back to you it would be much appreciated as he does not listen to us.

Today my group carried out focal and scan samples to study the behavior of flamingos. Others observed pochards ( a diving duck) and black winged stilts, a beautiful long-legged wader. We all had the amazing pleasure of seeing an osprey grab a fish from the water, the splash was really loud, sooooo amazing! We also saw eagles, shrikes, bee-eaters, hoopoe, stork, a kentish plover and a purple swamp hen (aka Mir lynch) at the lake. On the way to Salgados we saw a little owl on a telephone pole watching over his mate in the chimney pot of an abandoned house. Later in the day we all sat around the pool discussing the projects we conducted during the day.

While carrying out our observations I could hear Laura Tobin say “feeding, feeding, vigilance, feeding, preening”, and then there was a clack-clack-clack, we looked up and saw a group of storks circling the lake. Later a herring gull flew in and frightened off our flamingos. After relocating them they stopped feeding for around 10 minutes and took a nap or preened.
Amy’s ants: Poor Amy Mariga had the misfortune of standing on an ant’s nest and didn’t notice until they had made it half way up her legs! Hope you have recovered from your traumatic experience Amy, my deepest condolences!

All in all the trip has been amazing so far and I can’t wait for our “Last Supper” tonight. It’s a shame this trip has come to an end so fast. =(

Over and out,
Amy Horgan

You can read the previous posts in this series here:

Part 1,2,3,4,5

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged algarve, BEES, birds, ecology, field course, zoology | Comments Off

Algarve Field Course (Part 5)

Posted on April 19, 2013 by bees

Eoghan Griffin continues our series from Portugal.
You can also read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4 of the series.

For 6,000 years the Monchique Mountains have remained relatively untouched from agriculture or industry. The swathes of Cork oak and Canary Oak were harvested with only Cork Oak being replaced. Eucalyptus plantations are now lining the narrow winding roads of the Monchique leading to it’s highest point, Foia, which is 902 meters here and boasts some idyllic views with pictures to prove it

Then on the 13th of April 2013 fifty four BEES students descended into it’s forests to stumble through prickly matos- a mixture of shrubbery and grassland, listen out for the elusive lesser spotted woodpecker and piss off a particularly large orange and black banded centipede.

With wonderfully informative interesting lectures from Prof. Matthijs Schouten still ringing in our ears we headed to Cape St. Vincent, the most south westerly point of Portugal, fondly known as the End of the World. Typical of the End of the World the Bird population is slightly lacking. No certain reason for this is known though it may be due to the warmed waters with little nutrients and therefore the food sources for sea birds might not be of the adequate level.

It was a glorious day either way with some amazing finds, some exquisite views and the promise of a good meal and a little swim before debriefing inviting us home.

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Algarve Field Course (Part 4)

Posted on April 16, 2013 by bees

Rebecca Prangnell writes from Portugal. You can catch up with the earlier installements of this series here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.

We started the group projects on Sunday and myself and 11 others were in Ruth Ramsay and Emer Rogan’s group studying marine sediment and fouling. We split into four different groups to study the different substrates – rock, concrete and filings.

Three of us studied the concrete slip-way. The biomass here was not as great here as it was in other areas but there was a good few Balanus sp. and M. galloprovinialis. A few crabs were spotted as well and we even saved one from a fishing net and returned it back to the sea.

Of course one of us was bound to slip and fall on the algae and it was me, much to the amusement of the local fishermen.

Unfortunately for the two groups surveying the rocks there were three grey water outlets surrounded by the rock and a number of very old looking dead fish. They somehow managed to tolerate it and get the results taken down without ruining their shoes too much.

The last 3 then where looking at the pilings, they had a bit of wading to do and there was some confusion as to how many quadrants needed to be counted so they were more thorough than the rest of us.

Overall it was a lovely sunny day and we had the afternoon free then to spend by the pool!

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Algarve Field Course (Part 3)

Posted on April 15, 2013 by bees

Liam Murphy writes from the Algarve for the third part in our series from the field. You can also read Part 1 and Part 2 of the series.

It has been only three full days here in the Algarve but it has flown past in what seems like a blink of an eye.

With the fatigue of the past two long days setting in, it was a real struggle to get out of bed this morning and get ready for another early bus journey; however my enthusiasm levels jumped as we arrived once again in the Salgados. I had been looking forward to today’s first exercise of identifying and counting birds on the lake and wetlands before observing the birds¹ behaviours since the beginning of the trip. As a self-confessed birdwatcher, I can only guess why someone could describe this as work.
Once the group got moving down the lush lakeside, the variety of birds became apparent with purple heron skulking in the emergent vegetation alongside moorhen while pochard and the shrill calling little grebes dived in the deeper open waters. From the beautiful vantage point of a raised platform we counted all the observable birds on the main part of the lake.

Soon after getting back onto the boardwalk, the really exciting twitches started to be made. From afar, I had seen the rather striking purple gallinule but it was a real surprise to have one pop up only metres away from the entire group. This was followed by a basking stripe necked terrapin on an island (the first native terrapin seen in the lake by the resident reptile expert Dr. Ruth Ramsey in all the years she had been to the area). Not more than ten minutes later, I spotted a real jewel in the form of the elusive little bittern perched on nearby reeds.
After finishing our focal sampling of the flamingos on the lake, a small group of us were treated to the fantastic sight of ten spoonbills circling the lake for a couple of minutes before disappearing.
In the afternoon we moved on to Faro and the Rio Formosa Park to apply our focal skills on fiddler crabs. Luckily I was part of a first group that was whisked away to visit an aquaculture lab run by the local university. As well as being a welcome break to hide from the intense early afternoon sun, we got the chance to finally see such a lab and hatchery in action. We got unique views of rare seahorses, endearing cuttlefish and a plethora of fish species that can regularly been seen on a restaurant menu.

Once back on the shore side, we settled into doing instantaneous scans (noting what all the individuals are doing at one time) and focal sampling (recording how long an individual carries out certain behaviours).
In the bright sun and cosy heat, this exercise became very soothing and therapeutic almost. Although they are extremely shy, the fiddler crabs are great to watch with their easily identifiable behaviours such as courting (the males wave their over-sized claws to
attract a mate) and combat. Along with a couple of lizards in the undergrowth, it was a thoroughly interesting afternoon session.
Back at the hotel,the course work is all the more bearable when it’s done poolside in the sun. For anyone considering zoology/ecology, this really is the good life.

Watch Prof. Gavin Burnell talk about Fiddler Crabs and the Algarve Field Course:

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Algarve Field Course (Part 2)

Posted on April 15, 2013 by bees

You can see the first part of the 2013 Algarve Blog here.

Greetings from the Algarve!

Day 2 saw us spending the day at the Salgados sand dunes carrying out habitat surveys and mapping. A haven for avid bird watchers and botanists alike, this area is currently of concern due to a proposed golf course development, which would result in widespread habitat destruction and pollution of the brackish lake nearby.

We began the day on the boardwalk, a vantage point overlooking the whole site, which included an abandoned orchard. From here we mapped our way through many habitats and to our delight our guide Monique, an expert botanist, told us all about the rare and fantastic plant species along the way including the Bermuda Buttercup (Oxalis pes-caprae).

Bermuda Buttercup (Oxalis pes-caprae)

This is a small sour- tasting, yellow flower that is an invasive species from Africa, which can cause death in livestock when consumed in large quantity. After just one day in the field we were already able to identify plants which we had seen the day before-it’s amazing how fast you pick things up in the field!

Plants are cool and, as a zoologist, I wasn’t expecting to find them so interesting. After today, hopefully I am well on the way to becoming a good field botanist!

Traipsing through the unusually luscious vegetation for this time of year, some were lucky enough to catch a glimpse of a lizard with “a head the size of your fist” in temperatures of 19 Celcius.

After our day in the field fighting ants for our ham and cheese sandwiches, we had a splash about in the pool, before our pool side lecture on tomorrow’s activities. I’m looking forward to getting a better look at some of the birds we saw today including Black Winged Stilts, Zitting Cisticola and FLAMINGOS of all things!!

Aimee Mariga

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged algarve, BEES, botany, ecology, field course, plant science | Comments Off

BEES Algarve Field Work 2013 (Part 1)

Posted on April 11, 2013 by bees

This week, BEES 3rd year students are completing field-work in the Algarve, Portugal. We’ll have regular updates from them. Here’s the first from Rachel Francoeur:

We arrived at Alvor in the beautiful Algarve for our field ecology course on Tuesday. An early morning start on Wednesday brought us to Park Vincentina at Armoreira on the west coast of Portugal. At this protected nature reserve we surveyed rocky shores and were delighted to find species that we normally do not see in Ireland including fish, sea anemone, crabs, rare starfish (my particular favourite), and there was even one reported sighting of a swift octopus evading our fish nets.

The afternoon brought us sunny skies as we surveyed colourful sand dune vegetation in the park. After completing our sampling in the salt marsh relevé, we had to move quickly up the dune as the incoming tide nipped at our heels.

The most notable discovery, besides the sheer abundance of species and fragrant smell of the flowering and herbal vegetation, was the endemic Linaria mumbyana. This little yellow flowering plant is found at only two sites in the world, and causes botanists around the globe to get quite excited.

Linaria mumbyana

An honorary mention of the evasive Psammodromus algirus must be made here as well. These little lizards had students scrambling through sharp scrub hands ready for their capture. Ireland only has one species of lizard, the common lizard, while Portugal boasts several species that are very common.

With the skies shining on our pale sun starved skin we returned to the hotel for our debriefing session exhausted, sporting red noses and smiles on our faces.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged algarve, BEES, ecology, field course, plant science, zoology | Comments Off

Birding in Africa: Week 4

Posted on March 21, 2013 by bees

More from Mark Wilson’s African Diary:

Read his previous extracts here, here and here.

Bearded Barbet and me: The odd expression on my face is equal parts happiness, fear and pain. Allegedly Bearded Barbets eat figs, but from the power of its bite I judge that this species probably evolved to feed on bones, or rock, or something encased in titanium.

Sunday 10^th March

The past couple of mornings I have got up early and gone wandering in the reserve, trying to make the most of this place before I leave. As a result, I managed to see several of the birds that I had been hearing a lot, but had not got a good look at.

These included Tropical Boubou, Yellow-throated Leaflove, Common Wattle-eye, and Brown Babbler. The latter bird I saw two of, wild-eyed and dishevelled, ‘duetting’ on a branch (if that word can be applied to a pair of birds making noises like they are being strangled while gargling with Listerine).

In addition, I saw some birds that I had only heard briefly while out on point counts with Manu, or which were entirely new to me. These included African Blue and Paradise Flycatchers, Yellow White-eye, and a very nice Grey-winged Robin Chat.

Stone Partridges. They look like cute little bantam chickens, but they will make your ears bleed!

I also managed to interject myself into a large group of Stone Partridges, which assaulted me from all sides with a barrage of their calls. These sound like escalating outrage being vented by gossiping old women into a microphone attached to stadium-quality speakers.

Mr. and Mrs. Red-cheeked Cordon Bleu. The female looks like a less embarrassed version of the male.

This morning, instead of going for another walk, I opened a couple of nets outside the guesthouse, to see if any interesting birds could be convinced to spend a little time with us. I was rewarded with two of the less common sunbirds, (including a stunning male Pygmy Sunbird), a beautiful male Rock Firefinch (one of the this region’s endemic species), a couple of Yellow-fronted Tinkerbirds (like tiny, stubby little woodpeckers), a few bitey Village Weavers, a beautiful White-eye and a pair of Red-cheeked Cordon Bleus.

Pygmy Sunbird, complete with improbably long tail streamers. One student last week told me that many Nigerians consider it important to dress modestly, but nobody’s told the birds here!

However, the best bird of the day was the last one. Bearded Barbet is a close relative of the Tinkerbird, but maybe 10 times the size, with a disproportionately large and fearsome bill. I saw one of these shortly after I arrived, and hoped I would get to see one in the hand. My wish came thoroughly true, as while I held it and Emma took photos, I got to see the bird in my hand, and various uncomfortable portions of my hand in the bird’s massive bill.

Bearded Barbet, displaying its awesome mouthparts. The photo is slightly out of focus, partly because Emma isn’t used to using my camera, and partly because she was laughing too hard to hold the camera steady.

The last week of my stay will be a week of presentations for (and from) the students. Tomorrow I will give them a talk on oral presentations, an intentionally self-referential exercise that, if I do it well enough, can serve as both explanation and example. On Tuesday each of the students will be giving 5 minute presentations on their project proposals, which they have already worked up in quite a lot of detail.

A young female Green-headed Sunbird, just coming into adult plumage. I’m sure that iridescent turquoise and olive green would be considered an unwise combination in human colour schemes, but this bird makes them work for her!

On Thursday the students will be presenting the results of the Distance/Multivariate Stats project they’ve been working on for the past few weeks. And I’ve also told them that I’m hoping to teach them all a Scottish dance before I leave. There’s the right number of them for either an Eightsome Reel or a Strip the Willow, but I haven’t decided which of these would suit best!

Yellow White-eye. Does what it says on the tin, but the bird itself is far more elegant than the prosaically descriptive name.

To end with, here are some more pics of birds we caught in today’s nets. Enjoy!

Bronze Mannikin

Male Rock Firefinch

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged africa, BEES, birds, MarkWilson, people, zoology | Comments Off

Excerpt from the Journal of an MSc Student

Posted on March 13, 2013 by bees

MSc Marine Biology Fieldcourse to the University Marine Biological Station Millport, Scotland

2^nd March to 7^th March 2013

Day 5:

We have been on the island of Millport for 5 days. The locals have accepted us as one of their own, and we have been learning their ways. Life on the island requires a lot of hard work, performing intertidal surveys in the morning, combined with beam trawls in the afternoon, followed by sorting, quantifying, and identifying the species caught.

The work is gruelling, and many in our group were compelled to drown their sorrows every night in a thing the locals refer to as “the pub”. Our admittedly already formidable knowledge of the marine environment has been bolstered significantly by our experiences on the island, with its vast array of available habitat types, biodiversity, and facilities, without which we could not have accomplished as much as we did.

The accommodation the locals deemed fit for us has suited our purposes on the island well, providing the essentials, such as warm beds, showers, and lasagne. Morale in our expeditionary force has remained surprisingly high, thanks in no small part to the sing-alongs organised by the esteemed Dr. Ramsay and McAllen, whose deviation into the biological sciences have left the musical world deprived.

The end of our pursuit is fast approaching, and the Millport experience has changed all of us inexorably. I fear many will not be able to re-accustom themselves with life on the mainland, where things move too fast, and you are not rocked softly to sleep by the gentle snoring of your roommates.

Oh Millport, we will pine for your barnacle filled beaches, and write sonnets devoted to the biodiversity of your benthos until the day that we are granted the privilege of returning to this biological wonderland.

Colm Murphy (Class rep)

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged BEES, field course, marine, Millport | Comments Off

Eurasian Woodcock Satellite Tagging and Tracking Project 2012-2013

Finding the Falcons

Algarve Field Course (Part 6): BIRD IS THE WORD!!!

Algarve Field Course (Part 5)

Algarve Field Course (Part 4)

Algarve Field Course (Part 3)

Algarve Field Course (Part 2)

BEES Algarve Field Work 2013 (Part 1)

Birding in Africa: Week 4

Excerpt from the Journal of an MSc Student

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