The days start to stretch...........

First a few belated pictures from Round the Lough taken by my pal David. As you know he is a better photographer than I am and has a better camera, enjoy!!

Pied wagtail, stonechat & meadow pipit feeding on seaweed thrown up onto the road

Redshank and 3 greenshanks feeding in a field at high tide!!

Linnets in stubble (if you can see them)

Knot over the lough

Knot banked over

Late roosting egret at Castle Espie

Anyway on we go to last week and it is still light by 5.00 and the RSPB garden birdwatch is kicking in. I help round the local schools with the Big Schools Birdwatch and was at Bangor Central this year. No glaucous gull this year (http://bangorwestndcp.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/ )  but lots of crows and gulls coming to fat balls and bread. At one stage we had black-headed gull, herring gull, wood pigeon, magpie, hooded crow, carrion crow, rook and jackdaw down at the same time. A good opportunity to educate the children about black birds as opposed to blackbirds, which can be confusing to Primary 3. Also confusing is the black-headed gull which doesn't have a black head - why not is the question? I refused to go down the line of enquiry that the head isn't actually black in summer but chocolate brown, we keep that for summer visits to WOW. The highlights were a goldcrest which gave amazing views to one P4 class as it acrobatically worked its way round an alder tree in the eco garden no more than 6 feet above their heads, and 4 long-tailed tits which entertained a P 6 class as they moved through a line of bushes. The attached photos show the odd bird and no pupils - not allowed!!

Compare black-headed gull.......

..... with herring gull

Note ice cream cone bill on rook

Attract grey squirrel with bird seed!!

WOW on Thursday of this week delivered 46 species and seven more for the patch  - knot, great black-backed gull, greenfinch, linnet, wren, goldcrest and siskin. The latter two were 2018 ticks and the goldcrest was a first for the site in around 20 years of visiting!! We had a one legged godwit amongst the millet eaters and good closeups of quite a few birds.

Jake the godwit

Mallard

Dozy wigeon

Moorhen

Can you spot 5 species here?

 Anyway off on my travels again to Bolton, South Yorkshire and Northumberland where we hope to do a dawn to dusk round the Cresswell/Chevington/Hauxley area as per last year. Next post God willing will be mid February when it will almost be spring.

2018

85: Goldcrest
86: Siskin: 
   
Bangor West
48: Redwing

Belfast WOW
54: Knot
55: Great black-backed gull

56: Greenfinch

57: Linnet

58: Goldcrest

59: Wren

60: Siskin

Round the Lough

Wednesday 17th was the big day and it dawned cold and icy BUT ....dry! We were intending to do the north end of Strangford as the roads were iffy after overnight snow but the main roads were clear and the side roads cleared quickly as temperatures rose. Unfortunately we were an hour late starting so we started at the Flood Gates and headed South. I was shooting in colour, not black and white but it does not look like it.

Flood Gates on a rising tide

We kicked off with lapwing, shelduck and an assortment of waders and quickly racked up numbers and species as we drove south.

Scrabo from the Maltings

Probably best to concentrate on what we did get and not on what we missed (goldfinch!!). Kircubbin gave pipits and Bishop's Mill added bullfinch. The ferry crossing was exposed and windy with few birds to see so we drove on to the Quoile Pondage which like previous years held small numbers of duck and with high water levels few waders. The key to Castle Island hide is on my car keys, unfortunately we were in David's car, so we did not delay and simply headed North to Castle Espie with 59 species recorded. Number 60 was stunning, probably the closest I have ever been to a perched kingfisher as we coasted down the lane to the pond and there it was on a branch in the stream below us. So close I nearly missed it but David put me onto it and it was no more than six feet away. It was so close I thought about a photo from the car but of course it moved!! The "hide" added another four species and we finished off with 64 for the day. Ten of these went on the 2018 list. We normally aim for a rising tide but had to make do with low tide, but the views were as good.

4.00 pm and still monochrome

The next day saw a morning at WOW and the chance to try the new camera. The old Samsung is past its best so I got an identical camera on E-Bay as it fits the adaptor on the scope. No stunning birds, just the usual 30+ species but I managed a few shots with the new set-up and was pleased with the results and the lack of fiddling about which the old camera needed.they are brighter and there is less vignetting than there was last week. Song thrush was the only new bird on the WOW patch and I also added this to the Bangor West patch along with redwing - 8 perched in a tree behind the garden!!

Green plover

Shelduck

Redshank

Mute swan

Buzzard

2018

73:Canada goose
74: Pintail
75: Pheasant
76: Knot
77: Greenshank
78: Kingfisher
79: Rock pipit
80: Fieldfare
81: Redwing
82: Raven
83: Tree sparrow
84: Golden plover 

Bangor West 
47 Song thrush

48: Redwing

Belfast WOW 
53: Song thrush

Up and walking

Managed to spend January 1st looking to kick start the list, firstly in the garden up to lunch time and then along the NDCP, so everthing was a 2018 and West Bangor tick. It was a breezy cold start to the year with heavy showers but 32 species were duly listed despite the conditions.

Colder and windier than it looks

 The garden produced herring gull, blackbird, collared dove, wood pigeon, dunnock, hooded crow, jackdaw, great, blue and coal tit, greenfinch, goldfinch, chaffinch, house sparrow, robin, blackcap, starling and magpie. The coastal path started off with stonechat and grey wagtail which was a good start especially as the stonechat was a patch first. These were followed by rook, black-headed gull, common gull, shag, eider, carrion crow. oystercatcher, redshank, dunlin, ringed plover, black guillemot and turnstone.

January 2nd and another walk added lapwing, cormorant and purple sandpiper along the coast and moorhen in the Marina plus a sparrowhawk in the garden and a mistle thrush at the Rathmore shops. 

January 4th and the first day at WOW was one of the windiest and wettest to date. The wind was in the NW and blowing straight at the observation room windows so it was actually difficult to see out as the view was blurred by sheets of rain.

Looks better than it was, note high water levels!!

 Between there and Kinnegar I logged 37 species for WOW and 14 of these were added to the 2018 list bringing it to 52. There were grey heron, brent, greylag, shelduck, wigeon, gadwall, teal, mallard, shoveler, tufted, sparrowhawk, moorhen, oystercatcher, lapwing, dunlin, barwit, blackwit, curlew, redshank, turnstone, b-hd, common & herring gull, woodpigeon, robin, blackbird, stonechat, mistle thrush, coal, blue & great tits, magpie, hooded crow, starling, chaffinch, goldfinch and redpoll. Tomorrow's trip round the Lough is off due to circumstances beyond our control so birding will be very much ad hoc over the next week or so. This gave another chance to watch the garden and add bullfinch, linnet and long-tailed tit to the lists.

January 8th and a nice cold walk along the Lagan towpath from Lambeg to Shaw's Bridge did not produce the hoped for kingfisher but did add buzzard, little grebe, mute swan, wren, jay and song thrush to the 2018 list.

January 10th was very foggy but it cleared for an hour and I was able to walk the Seacliff Road end of the patch to Ballyholme and back.

50+ brent

Can't see Carrick.

  This added great black-backed gull*, great-crested grebe*, pied wagtail*, brent goose, guillemot* and grey heron to the patch list and four of these (*) to the 2018 list. An afternoon trip to Groomsport added black-throated diver and little egret to the 2018 total. 

Finally before I post, a second day at WOW/Kinnegar produced 43 species and upped the patch list and the 2018 list. WOW added meadow pipit*, pied wagtail, buzzard, mute swan, coot*, peregrine*, dunnock, eider, grest-crested grebe, goldeneye*, cormorant, red-breasted merganser* guillemot, black guillemot and ringed plover. 2018 birds are starred. Highlights were a plump of moorhen - over 80 of them, stonechat,  and 2 peregrine.

A plump of morhens

A spring of teal

A wigeon

Distant buzzard

2018

72: Red-breasted merganser

Bangor West  

46: Guillemot

Belfast WOW

52: Black guillemot