Great to catch a 19-year old #ManxShearwater control from Copeland Bird Obs.. This bird originally ringed as a fledgling in Sep 2002, was previously recorded here in 2007 and again last night. It is likely that this is one of the early birds that helped to recolonise the Calf.

It’s been a busy spring, having assisted (incl luckily in the field) with #seabirdcounts of cliff-nesters on Rathlin (several 00,000 birds!) & Manxies on the Copelands - the gems of NI seabird colonies @MarPAMM_project SEUPB Copeland Bird Obs. RSPB NI DAERA BTO Northern Ireland

Fantastic day birding and ringing at NI’s only bird observatory Copeland Bird Obs. in Co.Down.

And black guillemot fieldwork for @MarPAMM_project is officially complete! The deployment of 23 tags has left us brimming with excitement (and data!), final nest checks Copeland Bird Obs. have left us brimming with excrement (and data too). Now for the analysis #MarPAMMSeabirds!

A glorious #SeabirdSaturday & weekend on Copeland Bird Obs. resulted in the team ringing 18 Black Guillemot chicks, 39 Herring & 31 Lesser Black-backed Gull chicks, 14 Manx Shearwaters & 8 Storm Petrels. Great work by duty officer Roisin Kearney leading the charge. #Seabirds

.BTO Northern Ireland .ArdsandNorthDown .National Trust NI .Seb Coe .Shakin' Stevens when Manx shearwater EJ13537 was ringed in Aug 1981 Maggie T was PM, Shakin’ Stevens was charting with Green Door, and Coe & Ovett breaking world mile record. Re-trapped on CBO on 24th July- almost 40 yrs on!

I always love getting my copy of Wings but even more so this issue with a wee interview with me about our work on Copeland Bird Obs. & our long term study on #ManxShearwaters. Delighted to have been asked to contribute

Last week a group of us visited Copeland Bird Obs. to ring #Manx #shearwater fledglings as they emerge from their nest before heading on their first migration. Breeding Manxies can’t be aged by plumage or morphology so the aim is to provide demographic info for future studies. 1/4

Thanks to a super enthusiastic crew including Thomas Miller Joe Wynn @KatBoothJones @animal__alice @P_Lewin26 and others we managed to ring more than 1,880 shearwaters in 9 days-a considerable proportion of those that will fledge this year. Some were still pretty fluffy! 2/4

Manx shearwaters are clearly the highlight, but our eager team put some effort into mist netting and seawatching from the old lighthouse too, with good numbers and fantastic diversity of birds caught which was brilliant all-round experience for our trainees Copeland Bird Obs. 3/4

Seawatching produced all four skuas, little gull and a surprise hobby-thanks Thomas Miller, who spent hrs on the old lighthouse spotting skuas and getting us onto them by radio! My own highlight was this buzzard- the 2nd ringed on CBO. Thanks to Copeland Bird Obs.-we’ll be back! 4/4

A young grey seal peacefully sleeping ! Had a gd number of young pups hiding among the rocks on the copleland islands yesterday Copeland Bird Obs. #WexMondays #fsprintmonday

The hoped for rarity didn't materialise at Copeland Bird Obs. over the weekend but a trickle of migrants (32 birds ringed inc. 14 L Redpoll, 4 Goldcrest, 3 Blackbird), nice sunsets/rises, balmy October nights & a record count of 55 Grey Seal pups made for another great trip

The BTO NI Birdwatchers' Conference 2021 is to be held online on 5th & 6th November. The lineup looks great this year, including a talk from Niamh Esmonde/QUBEcology on her work w/ Copeland Bird Obs. For more details and to book a place, please see: bto.org/community/even…

Want the latest on what @BTO_NI has been up to this year? Our very own Stephen Hewitt and @KatBoothJones will be talking about just that on day 2 of next month's BTO Northern Ireland Birdwatchers' Conference. Tickets here 👉 bto.org/events

Current exhibitor, Adele Pound, has a very distinctive style, using graphic stories to express her passion for birds. Here is an extract from her Shearwater story, as the young bird emerges alone from the nest. Show runs until 7 Nov. Full story here: the-soc.org.uk/files/docs/Ade…

Join Niamh Esmonde from Queen's University Belfast 🎓 at next week's BTO Northern Ireland Birdwatchers' Conference to learn more about the Copeland Islands' colony of Manx Shearwaters, the UK's longest-lived birds bto.org/events NI Birds

Another interesting read to ease us gently back in to the New Year of work - the Copeland Bird Obs. newsletter. Grateful to the volunteer #biosecurity team who carried out a 3month incursion response in 2021 when a headless rat was discovered-thankfully no other signs of stowaways!