More nice migrants

Birding has been confined to WOW recently with a couple of walks along the costal path. New ticks are hard to get but the high tide roost at Seacliff Road produced nice numbers of winter waders - redshank, oystercatcher, turnstone, ringed plover, dunlin and 2 purple sandpiper. There were also large numbers of birds feeding in Belfast Lough  - eider, gannet, black-headed gulls, herring gulls, lesser black-backed gulls, razorbill and guillemot. Other observers picked up skuas off Helen's Bay - well off my patch - but try as I might I could never see anything out of the ordinary. I didn't do a count but there were close to 1000 herring gulls between  Carnalea and Bangor as well as 500+ razorbills. I tried very hard to spot a kittiwake but failed.

WOW came up with some nice stuff in the last two or three weeks. There were over 70 red-breasted merganser off Kinnegar as well as three little egrets on the beach fishing on a dropping tide. I also saw my first brent geese of the winter - a family party of four. The reserve turned up a spotted redshank which has been about for over nearly two weeks and a pectoral sandpiper which stayed for a day or two. We also have had a few visits from a kingfisher and I was lucky enough to connect. There have been up to 9 ruff and 4 curlew sandpiper and the winter ducks are drifting back in. Only shelduck are missing. Coot numbers are dropping fast as they move to their winter quarters and there were still a couple of common tern about on the 19th. Last week there were none but I saw small parties with young birds along the coastal path and resting on the rocks. Kinnegar turned up a few bar-tailed godwit and half a dozen knot as well as chiffchaff  in the trees behind Hide 2. All in all an autumny feel to the area with linnet and jay in the garden and leaves on the lawn. Here is a selection of recent images including a large visitor to the harbour.

Feeding redshank

Lapwing

Spotted redshank

Lapwing

Spotted redshank

Redshank front and spotshank behind

MSC Meraviglia which is bigger than Titanic and holds 6500 passengers and crew, it was hard to miss!!

2019
152: Pectoral sandpiper
153: Spotted redshank

Bangor West
65: Wheatear

Belfast WOW
94: Pectoral sandpiper
65: Spotted redshank
96: Razorbill
97: Kingfisher 

WOW delivers..........again......and again.

As the autumn migration started in earnest we were hoping for a few nice waders as the water levels were spot on - especially compared to August 2018. Tern numbers remain high despite predation by lesser black-backed gulls. Roseate terns have drifted north from the Rockabill colony and we have breeding success from shelduck, shoveler, mallard, coot, moorhen and mute swan. We also have had regular sightings of swallows, sand martins, house martins and swift all hunting over the reserve at the same time. The following photographs give a flavour of what we have had recently starting with the complete and utter patch gold megatick - a cattle egret - which appeared one Thursday and was gone by Friday.

Initial call was "Oh look there is a little egret between two herons beside Hide 2".

Max zoom did not help much as it roosted with it's back to us.

 Only when it started to preen did we realise that it did not have a thin black bill and it did not look right for a little egret. We called it in as a possible cattle egret and about 30 minutes later changed this to definite as it started to move about. There followed a rush to Hide 2 for better shots,

No doubt, check the head and neck plumage.

Always struggled to see the feet, but hey you can't have everything.

The nice ruff up at the window was sort of overlooked!!

We have also had little stint, up to seven ruff, roseate terns and three curlew sandpipers. Thursday September 12th provided two late swift, my latest ever as well as knot, whimbrel, sandwich tern and still up to 50 common terns. A smattering of images gives a flavour of the return wader migration over the last month as well as a stunning wheatear on a walk up Divis - one of four we saw very close together. Add to that one on the North Down Coastal Path and it was a good autumn for wheatears.

Little egret for comparision

Lapwing and curlew sandpiper

Common tern and black-headed gull, I didn't think they were that different in size.

Curlew sandpiper

Curlew sandpiper photobombing a lapwing

Sandwich tern

Ruff

Dunlin and little stint in setting sun

Little stint

Wheatear on Divis walk

Wheatear on Divis walk

Wheatear by David Miller - he of the better camera than mine!!

Small tortoiseshell on Divis walk

Along the coastal path today there were large numbers of gannets, razorbills, eider, gulls and terns all feeding frantically just off shore with one ot two guillemot as well, quite a spectacle. All in all autumn has well and truly kicked in and hopefully there will be a few more nice birds before things settle down for the winter.

2019
148: Cattle egret
149: Roseate tern
150: Little stint
151: Curlew sandpiper

Bangor West
65: Wheatear

Belfast WOW
90: Cattle egret
91: Roseate tern
92: Little stint
93: Curlew sandpiper