Steady work and progress

WOW is still very dry and giving around 20 species with a bit of effort, add in Kinnegar and you get up and around the 30 mark. Unfortunately we are struggling to find wintering wildfowl and waders at WOW and are relying on Kinnegar shore and the lagoon. Teal and mallard are common but so far we are missing out on shelduck, gadwall, shoveler and wigeon. Either they have not yet arrived or they have moved elsewhere. Any interesting birds are usually on the far side of the reserve and well out of range for pictures.

Close up magpie

Lets look at the tern islands

........ could do with a drop of water!

Since I last posted I have observed over 20 meadow pipits, ravens, swallows and house martins (Sept 24). We also have had a pair of stonechat and wheatear briefly a well as a fly through jay. Kinnegar turned up a little egret and a kingfisher while there were razorbills offshore and sanderling on the beach.

Walks to Kearney and Ballyquinton Point turned up all the usual suspects including my final swallow on September 30th and a mixed flock of about 150 finches feeding in stubble. The coastal path has been well walked this week to try and add curlew which is a major omission on the NDCP patch. Still three months to go however so all is not lost. The gannets have gone as have the terns and the brent geese have arived in numbers. They have been seen at Kinnegar and eleven flew over WOW last week.

2018  
156: Sooty Shearwater - LIFER 😎

Bangor West

70: Common tern

Belfast WOW
94: Sanderling
65: Razorbill
96: Wheatear
97: Little egret
98: Kingfisher
99: Jay