Dundalk Bay bird tagging initiative seeks community involvement

The local community is being asked by the Marine Institute, the State agency responsible for marine research, technology development and innovation in Ireland, to take part in a bird tagging and monitoring initiative in Dundalk Bay.

Every winter, tens of thousands of birds travel all the way from northern Europe to Dundalk Bay. Birds, like the oystercatcher, are an iconic part of our shoreline, and they are also early warning indicators of the Bay’s health.

Because they migrate long distances and rely on very specific habitats, even small changes in Dundalk Bay’s environment show up in their behaviour and numbers.

Dundalk Bay is a Special Area of Conservation and a Special Protected Area under EU law.

Its mudflats, salt marshes and eelgrass beds support rich marine life, including shellfish, worms and small crabs, which in turn feed wintering waterbirds and support local shellfisheries such as cockles.

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Right now, scientists from the Marine Institute are studying how oystercatchers use the Bay and how their feeding overlaps with the cockle fishery.

This research will help protect vital food sources for wildlife while supporting sustainable shellfishing for local communities.

To do this, the researchers from the Marine Institute’s Fisheries Ecosystems Advisory Services (FEAS) have fitted lightweight GPS trackers to 25 oystercatchers and added colour rings to another 50 birds.

The trackers show, hour by hour, how these birds move across the Bay, but the colour rings depend on people spotting and reporting them.

The Marine Institute is inviting local residents to get involved. If you see an oystercatcher with a coloured leg ring, please log your sighting on the European Colour-ring Birding platform, https://cr-birding.org/, or email Natasha Murphy, Scientific Technical Officer at the Marine Institute: natasha.murphy@marine.ie.

Every report helps build the scientific picture needed to protect Dundalk Bay and local livelihoods.