Early birds may catch the worm - but it’s the early volunteers who catch the birds.

And the ones that get caught in the 18-metre long, fine-mist nets strung high across a reed bed at Killycolpy, on the County Tyrone shores of Lough Neagh, will help researchers learn more about how wildlife on the lough is faring.

It is one of three Constant Effort Sites (CES) around the shores of the lough and a fourth in the Belfast Hills.

These sites are places where identical studies are carried out - the same number of studies, for the same length of time, in the same location over the same period of time each year.