Well blogs are a bit like buses - you get none for ages and then two come along at once. Clearly there is a reason for this as I am a bit OCD about lists and this is the easiest way to record how the year has started. (It could be worse I could be CDO which is worse than OCD because the letters have to be in the right order!! )
As I hoped David Miller and I kicked off 2024 with our traditional dawn to dusk birdathon round Strangford Lough. We started at the Flood Gates in Newtownards to watch the sunrise and started off the list with brent goose, oystercatcher, shelduck, lapwing, dunlin, knot, curlew, blackbird, woodpigeon, robin, starling, magpie, hooded crow, black-headed gull, herring gull, common gull, teal and little egret. We were disappointed not to find any pintail at all in an area where they have wintered for the last 30 years. A stop at Barr's Bay added a cacophony of rooks and jackdaws, a feeding greenshank and a pied wagtail, plus cormorant and shag perched on offshore rocks. The saltmarsh near Anne's Point was full of wigeon, teal and mallard plus a passing grey heron and Greyabbey bay south added mute swan, goldeneye, red-breasted merganser, great black-backed gull and great crested grebe. A stop at Kircubbin had rock and meadow pipit and a nice pair of stonechats near the yacht club as well as a mistle thrush perched up on the wires. House sparrows chirped in the bushes and eider ducks called offshore. We diverted to Abbacy and Bishop's Mill for our first walk. There is always a good mix of waders and passerines and we hit paydirt while looking for snipe with 2 snow buntings and a passing sparrowhawk. We then added dunnock, song thrush, collared dove, great tit, blue tit and chaffinch. Having said how good the river was for grey wagtail, one popped up to preen on a rock. The drive along the shore to the ferry added fieldfare and carrion crow. We crossed the ferry and added guillemot and black guillemot from the ferry and stopped at Castleward Bay for gadwall and another greenshank. The Great Dam added greylag geese, coot and tufted duck as well as a nice wigeon flock. By this time bright sunlight had been replaced by lowering cloud and poorer light and lunch at the Castle Island hide was a welcome break. Unfortunately the Quoile has not as many birds as it once had. There were only 2 goldeneye, no tufted and no pochard, but we did get a lonely whooper swan, 5 redwings, buzzard, pheasant, a pair of ravens, little grebe, pintail and shoveler. A walk to the Yacht Club added bullfinch, goldcrest and wren before we drove round to Quoile Castle. The feeders added goldfinch and coal tit and then we were extremely fortunate to see the long-staying long-tailed duck at the Steamboat Quay We had looked for it down towards Castle Island, couldn't see it and decided it wasn't about and on heading off met three other birders along the path. I was getting ready to tell them it was not around when the following happened.
Me: "Are you looking for the long-tailed duck?"
Birder "Yes it's diving here in front of us"
It was showing well with a load of black-headed gulls and we had totally missed it. As the light was dropping fast we headed for Shore Road and the chance of a mixed finch flock on the set-aside field. This turned up 15 yellowhammer, with house sparrows and chaffinches By the time we reached Killyleagh we had run out of light as the rain set in and the tide had pushed in to the Lough so there wasn't a lot of dry areas to look for birds. As in previous years we missed a few we should have got and found a few surprises - snow bunting, yellowhammer and long-tailed duck. I ended up with 71 species for the day. The most notable omissions were moorhen, both godwits, greenfinch, linnet and tree sparrow. Anyway a fine day and some good stories and memories and three photos from David Miller
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| From the ferry as the warm front moves east over us. |
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| Long-tailed duck |
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| Long-tailed duck |
Since then I have added long-tailed tit, blackcap and linnet in the garden as well as a trip to Islandmagee to see waxwings. There have been large flocks in that area and we found 15 near Ballycarry Bridge. A quick trip up to David's feeders in Carnalea added tree sparrows. The first morning at WOW in 2024 started the WOW patch with 40 and also added a few ticks to the year list - turnstone, black-tailed godwit, bar-tailed godwit, 30 snipe, moorhen, great spotted woodpecker and greenfinch.
WOW also had a female sparrowhawk, a female red-breasted merganser as well as all the usual suspects - teal, shelduck, mallard, shoveler, lapwing, curlew, redshank, coot, woodpigeon, hooded crow, starling, great, coal and blue tit, goldfinch, chaffinch, little grebe, black-headed common and herring gull, blackbird, magpie, grey heron, while Kinnegar added oystercatcher, cormorant, greylag goose, tufted duck, mute swan, black guillemot, great crested grebe and brent goose.
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| Returning woodpecker |
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| Returning ringed black-tailed godwit* |
Finally the Irish Garden Bird Survey continues and this year has put 21 birds on the North Down patch list - Blackbird, song thrush, hooded crow, woodpigeon, collared dove, jackdaw, magpie, starling, herring gull, blackcap, goldfinch, chaffinch, linnet, house sparrow, dunnock, robin, long-tailed, blue, great and coal tit and sparrowhawk (twice!!)
An amble along the coastal path added a few species which I expected to see - oystercatcher, redshank, turnstone, moorhen, rook, eider, black-headed and great black-backed gull, brent goose, shag, black guillemot, grey heron and cormorant but there was also a fly by red-throated diver which is a bit harder to get. That leaves the NDCP patch at 35
* I'll add a note about the ringed godwit on the next blog.
71 species from the trip round the Lough as outlined above, followed by
72: Blackcap
73: Long-tailed tit
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