UPDATE...

So, since the last entry on the blog...
I recorded a singleton bird at Millquarter Bay, in the Strangford Lough Narrows on
02 September, calling away.
First re-sighting of a ringed bird came in, with a great photo, from..... DORSET!! Chris Patrick observed CLBY at the RSPB Reserve at Lodmoor, Weymouth Bay on 03 September, a bird which was ringed at Dublin in March 2015. Chris thinks the four birds he recorded are the earliest Dorset records by some two weeks.
John Moore recorded "several hundred" geese from Island Hill, Strangford Lough, yesterday, and Frank Eliffe and his wife, Myra, recorded two geese from Laytown Beach, Co. Meath, yesterday, too. He tells me that they keep a note of their first goose record each winter for this location, and this was the earliest.
Kerry Mackie reported this morning that there were now at least1,000 geese at the north end of Strangford Lough, so late this afternoon I have attempted to do a count (not up to Kerry, Hugh Thurgate & Alex Portig's exacting standards, I'm afraid!), and came up with the following:
Greyabbey: 10
North Strangford Lough (out in the middle!): 1,030
Castle Espie South: 128
Castle Espie North: 18
Island Hill North: 200
So, acknowledging that my counting is very far from an exact science, it appears there are now at least 1,400 brent located at the north end of Strangford Lough.
Light wasn't great, but two more sightings added.

AND SO IT ALL BEGINS AGAIN...

First sighting from this winter of brent geese came in this evening from one of our canon-netters, Kerry Mackie, who reports about 30 at Cultra, Co. Down, flying low over the sea towards Belfast Docks.
I am happy to place any of your "first sightings" of brent from your area on the blog during this early period, if you contact me with the details on grahammcelwaine@btinternet.com

INITIAL FINDINGS FROM THE GPS TRACKER BIRDS

Now that it's July and the brent are hopefully enjoying their breeding season up in High Arctic Canada, it's time to provide a quick update for everyone on some of the early results from the GPS tagged birds (see the blog dated 15 February 2016).
We managed to get GPS downloads from six of these birds in Iceland, which gave us some indication of geese movements during this part of the year, as well as what the birds have been up to since being ringed in Ireland. To give a flavour of the data obtained, Ian Cleasby, from the University of Exeter team, has plotted details of locations for two birds that were downloaded in Iceland, SSRB (in red) and 3LLBO (in yellow). The day and month on which GPS locations were taken are also included in the maps showing the migration between Ireland and Iceland, and the location of ground observations / downloads are shown in white on the maps of Iceland. Thanks to everyone who was involved in this year's fieldwork, from fitting collars to re-sighting and downloading birds in both Ireland and Iceland.

SSRB

This bird, which was initially ringed during our 2014 expedition to the Canadian breeding grounds, was downloaded on a saltmarsh at Myrar, a vast, relatively undisturbed and inaccessible area on the west coast of Iceland.


After Ringing:

After ringing this bird was recorded mainly from the North Bull area, adjacent to where its collar had been fitted on 08 April 2016.


Migration:

The GPS data suggest that SSRB began moving north from Dublin on 30 April 2016. By 01 May 2016, it had crossed the north coast of Ireland, reaching Iceland on 02 April 2016.


In Iceland:

When in Iceland, SSRB was recorded as having loitered around Hvalfjordur (Whale Fjord), north of Reykjavik, and east of Akranes, near an immense Aluminium smelter, before moving north to Myrar.

3LLBO

Before the download, 3LLBO had been a bit of a mystery bird. Caught at Malahide on
03 February 2016, it was only re-sighted once from Ireland, the same day, just south at Baldoyle Bay - making where it had been the rest of the winter of particular interest.


After Ringing:

It appears that, at this stage of the winter, Malahide represented the southern limit of 3LLBO's range in Ireland, with most locations being to the north (many at Rogerstown and quite a few from Lambay Island).


Migration:

3LLBO began moving north much earlier than SSRB, probably on 18/20 April 2016. On the morning of 20 April 2016 there was a GPS fix to the west of the Isle of Lewis, and by nightfall (23:13, to be exact) of the same day, the bird had reached the coast of Iceland


In Iceland:

In Iceland, 3LLBO moved more gradually up the coastline from the greater Reykjavik area, passing Hvalfjordur, where SSRB had been lodged, eventually being seen and downloaded at Blautos, just north-east of Akranes

Condition of GPS Collared Birds

Whilst in Iceland, two GPS collared birds were recaptured, providing a valuable opportunity to examine the physical effect of the collars on the birds. It was found that the collars had caused some abrasion to the birds' neck feathers, wearing off the black tips, resulting in the neck looking a bit greyer.
Initially, whilst watching the GPS birds in Ireland, and receiving comments from other observers on the effect of the collars, there was concern that birds may have been plucking feathers from their necks, exposing down or even skin. However, no evidence was found from either of the recaptured birds that any feathers had been plucked, nor was any down or skin exposed around the collars. More broadly, the collared birds did not appear to have lower API's (a measurement of the bird's weight/condition by abdominal profile) than non-collared birds, and no instances of divorce / family break-up involving collared birds was recorded.