- About
- News
- Current Projects
- The evolutionary ecology of cognition across a heterogeneous landscape
- ObSERVE aerial surveys
- SeabirdWatch
- The distribution, diet, vulnerability of far-ranging pelagic-foraging seabirds to oil spills
- EIRwind – Understanding seabird vulnerability to offshore windfarms
- MarPAMM - Marine Protected Area Management and Monitoring
- The development of robust predictors of seabird behaviour at sea
- The Ecology of a Cryptic Game Species
- Dipper Ecology
- Developing a tool to predict the distribution of seabirds
- Developing and assessing a monitoring strategy for burrow nesting seabirds in Ireland
- How Wintering Waterbirds use Dublin Bay
- Eurasian Woodcock Satellite Tagging and Tracking Project 2012-2016
- Modelling the impacts of fossils and renewable energy industries on internationally protected seabird populations around Ireland
- The evolutionary ecology of individual variation in cognitive performance
- ADAPT - Avian Diversity and Afforestation Planning Tool
- Interactions between Hen Harriers and Wind Turbines
- People
- Friends
- Teaching
- Gallery
- Opportunities
- How to Find Us
Helen Boland
Biography
Helen has been working full-time with BirdWatch Ireland since 2003 on a range of projects but her main interest is wintering waterbirds, particularly waders. She is currently the National Organiser of the Irish Wetland Bird Survey (I-WeBS), funded by the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS). Aside from the set-up of the colour-marking of waders in Dublin Bay, she has been involved in several other bird tracking and marking projects including a study using geolocators to discover the breeding origins of Purple Sandpipers, the marking of Greylag Geese in Donegal (NPWS, BWI & Inch Wildfowling Club), and GPS-tagging of seabirds on the East coast (FAME).
Publications
- Summers R.W., Boland H., Colhoun K., Elkins N., Etheridge B., Foster S., Fox J.W., Mackie K., Quinn L.R. & Swann R.L. Contrasting trans-Atlantic migratory routes of Nearctic Purple Sandpipers Calidris maritima associated with low pressure systems in spring and winter. 2014. Ardea 102: 139–152.
- Crowe, O., Boland, H., Walsh, A.J. & Tierney. T.D. Barnacle Geese Branta leucopsis in Ireland: a report on the 2013 census, and long-term trends. 2014. Irish Birds 10: 11–18
- Boland, H., Tierney, N., & Crowe, O. Irish Wetland Bird Survey: Results of Waterbird Monitoring in Ireland in 2012/13. BirdWatch Ireland report.
- Boland, H. and Crowe, O. Irish Wetland Bird Survey: waterbird status and distribution 2001/02 – 2008/09. BirdWatch Ireland, Kilcoole, Co. Wicklow.
- Crowe, O., Austen, G. & Boland, H. Waterbird populations on non-estuarine coasts in Ireland: results of the 2006/07 Non-Estuarine Coastal Waterbird Survey (NEWS). 2012. Irish Birds 9: 385-396
- Tománková, I., Boland, H., Reid, N. and Fox, A. D. 2012. Assessing the extent to which temporal changes in waterbird community composition are driven by either local, regional or global factors. Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems 23: 343-355
- Boland, H,G. McElwaine, G. Henderson, C. Hall, A. Walsh and O. Crowe. Whooper Cygnus cygnus and Bewick’s C. Columbianus bewickii Swans in Ireland: results of the international census, January 2010. 2010. Irish Birds 9, 1-10.
- Foster, S., Boland, H., Colhoun, K., Etheridge, B., Summers, R. Flock composition of Purple Sandpipers Calidris maritima in the west of Ireland. 2010. Irish Birds 9, 31-34.
- Hall, C., Glanville, J.R., Boland, H., Einarsson, Ó., McElwaine, G., Holt, C.A., Spray, C.J. & Rees, E.C. 2012. Population size and breeding success of Icelandic Whooper Swans Cygnus cygnus: results of the 2010 international census. Wildfowl 62: 73–96.
- Reneerkens, J., Benhoussa, A., Boland, H., Collier, M., Grond, K., Günther, K., Hallgrimsson, G.T., Hansen, J.,Meissner, W., de Meulenaer, B., Ntiamoa-Baidu, Y., Piersma, T., Poot, M., van Roomen, M., Summers, R.W., Tomkovich, P.S. & Underhill, L.G. 2009. Sanderlings using African–Eurasian Flyways: a review of current knowledge. Wader Study Group Bulletin 116(1): 2–20.
Professional Activity
Colour Ringed Oystercatcher
Colour Ringed Bar-Tailed Godwit