University College Cork, November 23rd & 24th 2013

We are pleased to announce the 6th Ornithological Research Conference to be held at University College Cork in November 2013. This event will comprise a day of oral and poster presentations at the Western Gateway Building, UCC on Saturday November 23rd, followed by the Annual Irish Ringers Meeting on Sunday November 24th at UCC's Campus at Distillery Fields, North Mall, Cork.

For directions please see map.

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Photos by Nick McCarthy

This one-day event will bring together Irish ornithological researchers to review their work and catalogue the projects on birds currently underway in Ireland. It is five years since the last meeting in this series was held, and since then a number of projects have been completed, others started and some long-term studies are on-going and there have been enormous changes to our knowledge and approaches to collecting data. A milestone conference and book published in 2012 Bird Habitats in Ireland provided an opportunity to synthesise current knowledge. As with previous conferences, all known workers in Irish ornithology, at the universities, institutes of technology, government departments, conservation organizations, other non-governmental organisations and ecological and environmental consultants are invited to submit abstracts ahead of this conference detailing their current research activities.

Since the last meeting Greater Spotted Woodpecker have colonised, Cattle Egret have been recorded close to Little Egret colonies into the start (at least) of the breeding season, but without evidence of breeding. The diet of the Barn Owl in Ireland was found to have a new prey item, the Greater White-toothed in the winter of 2007/08. There are three re-introduction programs underway involving birds of prey in Ireland and there have been significant developments during the period under review.

Having first been introduced into Donegal from Scotland in June 2001, the first Golden Eagles have now successfully bred, and this represents the first step in establishing a sustainable population in Ireland for the first time in over 100 years. In addition to Red Kites, the Golden Eagle Trust have also commenced a re-introduction of the White-tailed Eagle. White-tailed Eagles were re-introduced in to southwest Ireland in 2007 after an absence of over a century. In the first year, 2007, 15 birds were released, with a further 20 birds released in 2008 and 2009.

One of the most significant and important projects underway in Ireland since the last review is the Bird Atlas 2007-2011. The Bird atlas is a joint project to map all of the birds of Ireland and Britain during both the winter and the breeding season. It is hoped that some data might be available to the meeting.

Photos by Nick McCarthy

CORC 2013 - Scientific Committee

• John O'Halloran
• Tom Kelly
• John Quinn
• Sandra Irwin
• Mark Wilson
• Pat Smiddy