Decided to leave this post until I had been this week in case I got any nice pictures. So sod's law kicked in and we had a mega day with two kingfishers which stayed for an hour or more. I decided not to butcher this so they are getting their own post. So enjoy the blog and wait eagerly for the next one - the kingfisher edition. Here is a picture to whet your appetite.
Feel constrained to keep the blog ticking over but don't really have a lot to report. I have been to WOW quite a bit but it is very quiet at the minute as the autumn migration hasn't really kicked in yet. I have had a couple of walks along the coastal path, but again very quiet apart from a passing common tern. I also had a few days in Co Donegal and added chough to the year list but could not find a dipper at all despite checking out a few likely rivers. We are due over in England for a couple of weeks of essential child care so there is always a chance of the odd tick around Elton, by the end of the month the return migration will be well under way and WOW and the North Down Coastal Path might throw up a few goodies.
The work at D3 has finished for the present and the gate is complete. The following photos show that the new road points straight at the trees so we can expect them to go in the winter. The plans show a 3 metre wide path to Hide 2. There is some hope that some trees behind Hide 2 might survive to provide a shelter belt there but it is all down to the harbour Commissioners. RSPB have been translocating some rarer plant species which have colonised the site in the last 30 years, so it is not all bad news.
Here are a few of the birds spotted recently, others were too far away!! The little egret is a first year bird which stayed briefly until it decided there wasn't enough to eat. There are at least two pairs of arctic terns but they are difficult to find at times. Common sandpipers have been around for about three weeks. There have been as many as four, I only ever saw one but I also added a passing ruff and a grey wagtail dropped in briefly. We still managed over 30 species last week despite not having feeders up, so no tits or finches. However still recorded house martin, sand martin, swallow and swift and three tern species - arctic, common and sandwich. Little tern and roseate have been recorded this summer, but not by me.
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| Arctic tern |
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| Common sandpiper |
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| Little egret |
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| Little egret |
2024
145: Ruff
146: Chough
NDCP
57: Common tern
WOW
76: Ruff
77: Grey wagtail
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