Winter hangs on

Despite the date of late March winter is still with us as we have had a bit of snow and cold temperatures for Northern Ireland in March. The patch lists are ticking over with a few winter birds still around and some residents which have been missed so far. The local patch added a flyover raven and an offshore guillemot - both expected on the patch  at some stage in the year. WOW keeps turning up a few species which I hadn't managed so far - grey wagtail, little egret, kingfisher, pintail and the first genuine migrant in the shape of a Mediterranean gull. There are now six knocking around so we hope that breeding will occur again this year. There are still winter ducks and waders but they will gradually move on as the black-headed gulls move in to nest. We had around 600+ gulls this week starting the mating/nesting rituals and staking their claim on the two islands. We are rapidly reaching the stage of trying to see what is NOT a black-headed gull. One of the Mediterranean gulls was ringed and it turned out to be a Dutch bird ringed in 2015. It was seen twice in England in 2015 and earlier this year in Munster and it suddenly pops up in WOW and is looking like it might stay and breed. We have also had re-sightings of three black-tailed-godwits ringed at WOW two years ago. We were all terribly excited!!

First Med gull spotted on March  9th

Dutch Med gull

With a friend

There were of course a wide variety of other birds present. so here is a selection. 

Grey wagtail

Teal

Coot

Godwit

Elsewhere I had a trip up to Lough Neagh and finally connected with the male smew at Gawley's Gate. I trust you are not expecting a stunning photograph. It was a long way away and I have attached a "record shot" which is a photographers way of saying, "Here is a rubbish shot of a bird to prove that I saw it" 

There is a small white dot below the second post, that is the smew.

A very pixelated zoom shot of said smew. 

As usual there are better shots on NI birds when it was a lot closer to the shore. In my defence it drifts offshore if there are swimmers around, and there were! We popped down to Reedy Flats and connected with the greylag geese flock which also had 6 Greenland white-fronted geese and two barnacles. No need to go to Islay then. (Spoiler alert!!)

Twite (Ivor Greer)

A trip to Bushmills added kittiwake and glaucous gull along the coastal path between Portrush and Portstewart to the year list and a nice view of a twite at Magheracross viewpoint. Ivor thought it was worth a phone shot through the windscreen, I told him he was wasting his time, but he wasn't!! 

I also felt obliged to visit the Ward Park waxwings which have been around for over a month, not a tick of any description - just a lovely bird or three. 

2023

118: Nuthatch

119: Smew

120: Greenland white-fronted goose

121: Barnacle goose

122: Mediterranean gull

123: Kittiwake

124: Glaucous gull

NDCP

54: Raven

55: Guillemot

WOW

65: Grey wagtail

66: Pintail

67: Kingfisher

68: Little egret

69: Mediterranean gull

Irish garden bird survey

Discrete post to update the Irish bird survey which runs for 13 weeks from December and finished last week. It's not as intensive as you think as you simply note the maximum number of each species observed in the garden in each week.  I usually give it a 30 minute blast early in the week and then every time I am in range I have a look to see if I can add a new bird or update a total. The main differences from last year were as follows:

1. Goldfinch numbers were well down, this year I never had more than 4
2. Linnets vanished after the first two weeks. Last year they were there every week. 
3. Bullfinch, siskin, redpoll and bullfinch were completely absent.
4. I had a song thrush in and out this year. 
5. Two hooded crows were regular visitors.
6. Five house sparrows dropped in once. 
7. Certainly 3 blackcaps - a male and 2 females on one occasion. 

The regular visitors (maximum in brackets) were as follows - Blackbird (9), magpie (2), woodpigeon (5), starlings (8), chaffinch (4), dunnock (3), robin (2), jackdaws (5), rooks (2). I also had all four tit species, a jay, a sparrowhawk, a redwing, a fieldfare, a wren, a goldcrest and one morning walked in and saw a heron standing by the pond looking for frogs no doubt.

I actually quite like doing this exercise as there is always something to look for when you glance down the garden or sit with a coffee to see what is happening.  I have attached a few pictures to brighten the blog up, some old and some new. This week we returned form England to a sea of yellow as the daffodils and tete-e-tete are all in bloom and we still have crocuses and snowdrops. 

Camelia

Past their best snowdrops

Crocuses and tete-a-tete

Tete-a-tete crocuses and daffodils

"Christmas" rhododendron

Blackbird and crocus

Blackcap

Goldfinch

Song thrush

Hooded crow

Chaffinch

Dunnock