2023 round up

I had this up and ready to post when my good friend and fellow birder David told me he had a brambling in his garden, so I hung on till New year's eve and hot footed it up to Carnalea this morning and dipped out. Heading out after lunch and a phone call to say the brambling is showing well so up we went and got number 161 for the year at the second attempt. Thank you David - and it would be churlish of me not to put on some of his recent photographs taken at the feeders in his garden which is where the rustic bunting appeared two years ago. 

Sparrowhawk is a regular visitor!

Chaffinch with brambling

Brambling

Brambling

Tree sparrows every winter

So back to the quick and short round up of 2023 which is coming to an end soon. The totals were as follows

The year list finished on 161 plus the 26 birds seen in Alaska, claiming 187.

The North Down patch ended on 70.

The RSPB/WOW/Kinnegar patch ended on 94.

Both patches notched up one more each since the last post and they were unusual birds. The garden produced a treecreeper and WOW turned up not one but two great spotted woodpeckers - a male and a female. The two woodpeckers were coming to the peanut feeder at WOW and to be honest I am not sure I have had better views anywhere. I have seen them in England but not as close and not for such a prolonged view. Views in Northern Ireland tended to be brief and frustrating, but not any more. These two guys performed and also gave good flight views as they flew in to the feeder and then away. As usual both patch lists had serious omissions as did the 2023 list but let's concentrate on the positives. 

The Irish garden bird survey continues to entertain with numbers and variety. As well as the treecreeper I also had a jay in the garden and two visits from the sparrowhawk. The song thrush is still around and goldfinches and greenfinches have put in appearances. I also have regular visits from house sparrow and linnet. Blackcaps have provided 2 females and a male.

Blue-billed teal is still around WOW

Unseasonal greenshank

Male GSW

Male GSW

Female GSW

The female appeared on a grey wet drizzly day while the male pitched in on a bright sunny day. We have had quite a few of the former recently which has made photographs challenging at times. Some days I have looked out and decided not to bother, just enjoy the birds!! 

Here's hoping for a bird filled 2024 and here's hoping David and I  can kick off with the annual January 1st Round the Lough to kickstart the list. I have pencilled in a trip or two to Bolton as well as Tyneside, and hopefully I will get back to Islay again. A lot of this was will depend on the orthopaedics - but I can always sit in WOW or the back room with a pair of binoculars and as David says - "Anything can turn up anywhere"

2023

160: Willow tit

161: Brambling

+USA/Canada: 26 = 186 for the year

NDCP: 

70: Treecreeper

Belfast RSPB

94: Great spotted woodpecker

Approaching the solstice

 Need a quick update on what has been happening since the last blog as I have been out and about but there are no additions to the lists. 

WOW has been very quiet since the grey phalarope although the blue-billed teal is still around. Cormorant, heron and egret numbers have levelled out as the law of diminishing returns kicks in. We had three ringed godwits. The two black-tailed godwits were returning birds which were ringed here in 2021. The bar-tailed godwit was a Norwegian  bird which has been seen around the area a few times. All three were too far away for pictures. The main news from WOW is that D3 has been fenced off. This is the area beside WOW which has been ear marked for  a new cruise liner terminal. Planning permission runs out next year so they need to be seen to be doing something, so it has been fenced off. We are hoping they will retain the existing shelter belt but the current plans show a 1.6m path to access Hide 2. RSPB and local birders are arguing for a wider belt which would retain the trees, but basically it is the Harbour Commissioners land and they can do what they want. The last photo shows the shelter belt we would like to retain. The existing fence is to the left and as you can see 1.6m isn't very much! If you have time and energy you could write to the Harbour Commissioners about this. 

Unringed black-tailed godwits

Not much room for manoeuvre here

The sight which greets you at the gate

Yes they blocked it all the way down

See explanation above

David and I did the Montgomery hide on a rising tide in November. Usual cracking morning with the highlights being 5 grey plover, 5 greenshank, 500 knot and 600 golden plovers. I had 32 species all told, and all the following photos are David's. Interesting fact is the eider duck in the last photo which neither of us saw on the day!!

Approach along the stream

Teal

Distant knot

Distant knot in flight

Since my last visit they have huge nets over the captive birds to try and prevent bird flu coming in again from the wild birds. Looks like a giant aviary, not a pretty sight and must have cost a fortune. Bird flu forced them to close last year from October to January and they lost all their Halloween and Christmas footfall/income. They are also cutting back on feeders for the same reason so it is not as pleasant a visit as it once was. 

The coastal path highlight was a guided walk with the local Facebook group "For another path" to look at birds we might see along the path. This group has been set up to mobilise local opinion and lobby the council as to what improvements might be in order. It was a pleasant morning with 18 species noted, the highlights were 3 red-throated divers and a very odd plumaged eider duck which caused a bit of debate. 

The Irish garden bird survey started this week and I have been recording the maximum number of species seen in the garden over a week. A few interesting facts are as follows:

The only finches recorded so far are 2 chaffinches.

The blackcaps are back for the winter.

The coal tits are decimating the feeders and caching their food.

5 linnets turned up at the feeder.

5 house sparrows have also been about.

The sparrowhawk visited briefly.

A single song thrush has been a regular visitor.

It is a sobering thought that the return of this survey means that winter has arrived, a fact which was emphasised by the temperatures suddenly dropping to 3 - 5 degrees here in Bangor. Because we are close to the sea we do not get the colder temperatures recorded inland. However there is no doubt that there are more birds coming in to feed than there were a couple of weeks ago when temperatures were in double figures and there were still insects around. C'est la vie - BUT it is only 3 weeks to the solstice and the nights will be on the turn. 

2023

160: Willow tit

NDCP

69: Lapwing

Belfast RSPB

93: Stonechat

Another lifer (N0T)

Things have been quiet on the birding front as I continue to try and mop up a few species on the patches. I have been over to Bolton and added a willow tit to the list. I also conducted a wild goose chase round Pennington Flash to try and add Egyptian goose to the list but they eluded me. How many flooded horse fields are there round the Flash? Quite a few is the answer but none of them contained the family of four geese. Locally I finally added lapwings to the North Down patch as the wintering flock were spotted by someone else and I was able to go down and see them. What was once 60+ is now down to less than 20, and recently 4 remained so they don't appear to be hanging around. Three recent walks have been largely bird free apart from gulls. 

The most noteworthy bird of late popped up at WOW on October 19th and was still there on November 9th. It is a blue-billed or Hottentot teal a native of Southern Africa. Despite not being ringed it is of doubtful provenance and so cannot be added to any list, hence the title of the blog. Stephen Maxwell described it as a "fence hopper", i.e. a bird which has escaped from a collection - most likely Castle Espie.  We did however have a great morning's entertainment trying to work out what it was. It was with teal, was the right size and it was dabbling. Despite scouring the books we had no idea what it was until someone started googling all types of teal and suddenly there it was in a picture on Google. The pictures give you an idea of our struggles as it did not fit anything we knew and until it flew and showed blue and white wing bars we had no ideas at all

Blue-billed teal

Rear view showing wing bars

Female teal for comparison

Millet seeking moorhens

Little egret

Cormorant

Eurasian teal

Moorhen

Grey heron

We have been getting large numbers of cormorants (20+), herons(16) and little egrets (14), but as water levels drop and the fish are eaten these numbers will fall. Recently we were down to 3, 6 and 4 respectively. The reserve is slowly changing into the winter pattern of ducks and waders, and the feeders are pulling in finches and tits. We live in hope of another megatick like the phalarope, but a redpoll would be nice. 

2023

160: Willow tit

+USA/Canada: 26 = 186 for the year.

NDCP

69: Lapwing

Belfast RSPB

93: Stonechat

Patch Gold lifer

As you can see from the title I found a good bird on Thursday at WOW. Seeing as I have been birding for 40 + years there's not much chance of picking up a lifer in Northern Ireland. Generally it is an overseas trip that adds lifers to the list. Sometimes one pops up elsewhere and I go to see it - cue the rustic bunting in Carnalea in December 2021 -  but I struggle  to remember the last time I had a lifer on either of the patches. The last one was probably the Wilson's phalarope in 2007 at WOW. The difference this time is that I found it, identified it and called it in. Fortunately a couple of experienced birders saw the post on NIBirds and came along to confirm the sighting (Thankyou Bob Watts and Aaron Long). The bird in question was a tiny wader called a grey phalarope, which has a particular method of feeding which involves going round in small circles picking up insects off the water. That's when I decided it wasn't the common tern juvenile I thought it was. The main problem was that I had never seen one before and it took me a while to work out what it was. It was a lot smaller than I expected as well. The said bird then got added to quite a few lists. Regular readers will know that I like lists!! So this one found its way onto the following lists: 2023, WOW, Life, County Down, Northern Ireland, UK. As well as the phalarope we had 40+ species including 9 grey herons, 6 little egrets, 11 cormorants, 2 ruff , 2 common sandpipers and a common tern. I have added my very distant poor photos as well as a link to NI birds where people who have good cameras and know how to use them have posted their much better photos. There are other photos on subsequent days which are worth a look as well.

Little egret

Common sandpiper

Grey heron

A siege of herons

1

2

3

4

1 - Initial view sitting on a spit on the far side, mainly white black head pattern looked like a juvenile tern which have used this spit before

2 - Moving and feeding by picking insects off the water, terns don't do this so alarm bells start ringing. 

3 - We are now thinking grey phalarope, consulting books and calling in a possible sighting. Note the size compared to the moorhen, a really dinky wee bird. 

4 - Zoom in from photo 1

The oracle that is NIBirds is found at this link:

https://nibirds.blogspot.com/2023/09/bird-news-friday-29th-september.html

Elsewhere things have been slow as we enter the last 3 months of 2023 and try to mop up a few missing species on both patches. Firstly I looked through the lists to identify what I need to be looking for between now and Christmas.  This led to me adding a few birds I had seen earlier in the year and forgotten to add to the lists. (Yes I am as shocked as you are!). So I was able to add skylark seen on Islay in March, a jay which flew across the garden in March and greylag geese which flew over the house about two weeks ago. WOW also added a Bonaparte's gull and a black tern both found on the beach at Kinnegar as well as gannet and razorbill offshore in the lough. There was also a distant pair of stonechats now that the taller vegetation has been trimmed. In terms of what I need to see the main omissions are dipper, redpoll, siskin and reed bunting. Hopefully the feeders at WOW will do the trick there but I might need  a visit to Mossley Mill for the dipper. I'll finish off with  photos of last years Bonaparte's gull as this years one was even further away than the phalarope!!

2023

155: Curlew sandpiper

156: Bonaparte's gull

157: Black tern

158: Skylark

159:Grey phalarope. Lifer 😎

+ USA/Canada: 26 = 185 for the year.

NDCP

67: Greylag goose

68: Jay

Belfast RSPB

87: Bullfinch

88: Gannet

89: Bonaparte's gull

90: Black tern

91: Razorbill

92: Grey Phalarope 😎

93: Stonechat

Autumn update

 Another week in Bolton with few birding opportunities as we reach the end of summer and migrants are on the move. My last swift of the year was at WOW on August 4th. Swallows are still around but starting to gather on the wires. The first brent geese of the year appeared on cue at Kinnegar, so we are slowly moving into autumn. 

We did however manage a day to ourselves and decided to look at Marshside RSPB near Southport. It is a marsh area bordering the Ribble estuary with two hides (one of which was closed for repair) and three walks. We had hoped to visit in early July but the forecast wind and rain and the lack of any cover meant we put it off. This time we were hit by temperatures of 26-28C which meant we were walking in full sun with no cover at all. We switched to Plan B with a shorter walk, more time in the hide and lunch eaten there as well. The highlights of the visit were at least 30 little egrets, one great white egret, 4 grey herons and 5 spoonbills. It also had a common sandpiper and about 60 lapwing. The downside was the huge numbers of greylag and Canada geese. We were playing the "Try and find something that isn't a goose" game and fortunately the herons and egrets stood out. This was an initial visit to see if it is worth returning to. Pennington Flash and Elton are much closer and usually have good birds - Pennington turned up a nuthatch this time. Now we know the layout we know a few things for future reference - bring a scope, apart from hides there are no facilities, so bring supplies from Southport, if the weather is bad it is wide open. Hopefully we will get back there as it looks to be a good winter spot for ducks and geese, but Leighton Moss and Martin Mere have better facilities and can also provide a nice list of different birds. However the spoonbills gave good views and were well worth the trip. 

Water, marsh, ducks and geese.

The white blobs are spoonbills, honest!

Marshside RSPB, 2 hides and three walks, no cover whatsoever.

The garden is bird free as I have removed all the feeders for cleaning and I have not managed a walk along the coastal path since we got back from Bolton. The neighbour photographed a sparrowhawk in his garden, no idea where I was at the time. 

WOW still has lots of common terns and quite a few young chicks at various stages of growth. The deeper water (and fish) has encouraged cormorants to come in to the reserve. We have had up to 20 present whereas previously we would have had the odd bird which didn't hang about. The difference this year is that they are catching enough small fish to make it worth their while. Here's a selection of pictures from the last couple of visits. The curlew sandpipers were too far away for a photograph. The site bullfinch tick flew across the Airport Road in front of the car!!

Two of the 18 cormorants outside Hide 2

I survived bird flu

Closer in to the Ops room

Moorhen and daisies.

Return of the Koniks

20 little egrets at Kinnegar

Common tern

Adult and chick

Common tern

2 on the reserve

2023
154: Spoonbill

155: Curlew sandpiper (USA/Canada: 26 = 181 for the year)

NDCP

66: Manx shearwater

Belfast RSPB

85: Kestrel

86: Curlew sandpiper

87: Bullfinch