Better to be lucky than good

Before exciting dipper news, a quick update on the Bolton trip. I was able to get a trip round Elton Reservoir and came up with 29 species including Canada goose and ring-necked parakeet which are "English" ticks and a female kestrel which I should get at home. As most of you will know they are becoming increasingly rare and more difficult to get in Northern Ireland. It is nearly two years since I have seen one at home. 

The following day we were able to visit Pennington Flash which has an excellent bird feeding station and I had hopes of adding to the 2025 list. The Flash delivered with nuthatch, reed bunting, stock dove, willow tit, great spotted woodpecker and goosander. These are all regulars at the reserve, but not always seen in one visit. What was unexpected was not one but two great white egrets which gave excellent views from one of the hides. All in all a good hour's work, 37 species and a nice bowl of leek and potato soup in the café. 

Phone shot at Elton

Phone shot again

Pennington Flash great white egret and grey heron - another phone shot!

Finally got a trip to Burton Mere RSPB before heading home and added 32 species including Egyptian goose and yet another great white egret! 

Burton Mere great white egret

Black-tailed godwits

Burton Mere RSPB

Since our return, the North Down patch has added a soaring sparrowhawk and a singing greenfinch. WOW has also been quiet with nothing to get the pulse racing until this week when the Iceland gull finally had the decency to drop in on a Thursday morning and a whimbrel popped up on the grass bank at the back. As usual too far away for a good image so you are getting my usual "record shot" as well as a nice godwit and a view of the black headed gulls on the island starting in to their whole breeding routine. This week however the team put a stop to that with a deterrent scheme to try and stop the gulls nesting, so that the island is available for the later arriving terns. So far it seems to be working. 

Last week

This week

Nothing in the centre

Blackwit

Spot the Iceland gull

There it is!!

Definite lack of black on the primaries and tail.

A trip to Craigavon gave good views of a ring-necked duck along with 56 pochard all but three of them male!! No photos I'm afraid. The initial sighting was too far away and I didn't fancy lugging the scope round the one and a half mile walk for a closer view. You will have to make do with a nice scenic view of the northern balancing lake. 

I also managed a walk along the Divis trail as well, a walk I have been unable to do for quite some time. We had a sunny day, beautiful views over Belfast and two additions to the 2025 list - skylarks chasing and singing and 4 ravens doing what ravens do when the weather is good - chasing, rolling, playing and calling. As per usual I heard them before I saw them. 

Belfast from Divis viewpoint

The dipper then I hear you ask? After two years of dipping out (groan) with multiple visits to the Sixmilewater at Antrim, the Threemilewater at Mossley and five different spots in and around Bolton where I recorded Dippers in the past, I finally nailed one on the River Tonge ten minutes walk from base in Bolton in a spot I hadn't previously checked. I went back twice to try and get a photograph and it wasn't there!! Typical birding mantra - right place right time or as Gerry Murphy used to say on a Thursday morning at WOW, "Better to be lucky than good" 

NDCP

48: Kingfisher

49: Greenfinch

50: Sparrowhawk

WOW

69: Long-tailed tit

70: Iceland gull

71: Whimbrel

89: Kestrel

90: Canada goose

91: Ring-necked parakeet

92: Nuthatch

93: Stock dove

94: Reed bunting

95: Willow tit

96: Great white egret

97: Goosander

98: Great-spotted woodpecker

99: Dipper

100: Egyptian goose

101: Ring-necked duck

102: Iceland gull

103: Skylark

104: Raven

105: Whimbrel

Local update with Eowyn

We'll have a recap of recent events at WOW and the North Down patch, ready for a report from our first trip to England in 2025.

WOW survived storm Eowyn with a few trees down round the edge, but nothing serious or inconvenient. The main news is that the path to Hide 2 is open and it is bigger and better than we expected. We have got a 4+ metre path all the way down to the back gate with a wide turning circle and a view of the channel. 

View from the top

Turning circle at the bottom

Looking for birds in the channel

Shoveler couple

I added a couple of birds to the patch with the first lesser black-backed gulls and a nice flock of long-tailed tits. the avocet is still appearing off and on. It has been in three times - first for four days, then five and finally it has been back again for over a week. 

The local patch also survived storm Eowyn with minimal damage unless you are a golfer. Carnalea Golf Club lost their fence along the coastal path and over 40 trees, while Stricklands Glen lost three large trees and a smattering of smaller ones. 

200 yards of mesh fence!!

Strickland's tree

The garden has not really had anything strange or exciting except the blackcaps seem to be less belligerent than they were. The song thrush is still around along with bullfinches and long-tailed tits.  The Long Hole finally gave up the kingfisher - on a rising tide in the morning. 

I went to Lurgan Park and picked up a pochard and the long-staying red-crested pochard. It ticks a lot of lists - County Armagh, Northern Ireland, Ireland and 2025. I also went to Victoria Park for a walk and spotted this buzzard sitting along the Connswater at Airport Road - a bit out of its usual haunts, but flew off and seemed okay. 

Red-crested pochard

Red-crested pochard

Connswater buzzard

Off to sunny Bolton and a chance to get a lot of stuff I won't get here. Might even get a bit of heat if we are lucky. 

2025

84: Sparrowhawk

85: Pochard

86: Red-crested pochard

87: Kingfisher

88: Lesser black-backed gull

WOW

66: Dunlin

67: Goldeneye

68: Lesser black-backed gull

69: Long-tailed tit

NDCP

48: Kingfisher

The North Down patch +

Things have been building up nicely on the local patch with a few walks along the coast and a bit of time looking at the back garden. I am now up to 47 with a few nice surprises in the first week. Last year I struggled with a few species and was into the last week of the year before I finally nailed them. Here is a wee table to illustrate this:

      Species                    2024                                    2025

      Lapwing                  November 23rd       January 20th
      
      Mallard                   December 29th        January 4th                      

      Curlew                    December 29th        January 4th

      Grey wagtail           December 31st         January 4th

I have had 3 blackcap, 2 males and a female -  who are vigorously defending their chosen feeders.  All small birds are chased  from the feeders including the robin. Larger birds and ground feeders are ignored. The only small bird which has successfully fed is a male house sparrow who goes on the suet feeder and is left alone by the male. He also struggled to chase a gang of long-tailed tits The male defends the apple tree area, the female defends the rowan tree. Occasionally one or other will make a sortie into the other bird's area and all hell breaks loose for a second or two. It is usually the female who backs down and retreats.  This is affecting the Irish Garden Bird Survey as I am struggling to see tits and finches as no sooner do they turn up at a feeder than they are chased off. I genuinely think they have got the hint and are going elsewhere. Other than that I have seen the following in the garden with the maximum number in brackets: Robin (2), collared dove (1), herring gull (1), dunnock (2), blackbird (11), woodpigeon (2), magpie (3), hooded crow (2), jackdaw (3), goldfinch (3), coal tit (1), blue tit (2), great tit (1), starling (6), song thrush (1), goldcrest (1), rook (1), chaffinch (2), linnet (6) and bullfinch (2).

Blackcap(F)

Long-tailed tit

Blue tit

Linnets

Blackcap

Bullfinch

Linnet and blackcap showing mutual tolerance and respect

 for a change.

The coastal path has added the four mentioned above as well as eider, redshank, turnstone, ringed plover, dunlin, oystercatcher, purple sandpiper, black-headed gull, common gull, brent goose, moorhen, cormorant, shag, red-throated diver, grey heron, pied wagtail, rock pipit, black guillemot, great black-backed gull and wren.  

WOW has also racked up a few species since the last post. At this time of year it would be an odd week if I didn't turn up a new patch tick at WOW. Things will then settle down until the spring rush when I should get a wee boost again. Recent additions include  buzzard, snipe, mute swan, greylag goose, linnet, blue, great and coal tit, brent, greenfinch, dunlin, sparrowhawk and the star of the show an avocet which stayed around for four days. I had no faith in it at all so I went to see it on the Wednesday but Sod's law kicked in and it was still there on Thursday so we were able to get lots of visitors onto it as it fed, preened and roosted on the far side of the reserve. Hide 2 was closed as the contractors were laying down a nice new path as part of the works on D3. The good news is that it was a lot wider than we expected and it will go down to the channel. 

Ringed godwit - one of our regular visitors ringed at the reserve in April 2021

Usual blurry record shot

And again

Snipe

Snipe

Spot the avocet among the shelduck

New path to Hide 2

2025

78: Purple sandpiper
79: Rock pipit
80: Greenfinch
81: Avocet

82: Whooper swan 

83: Tree sparrow

84: Sparrowhawk

WOW

54: Buzzard

55: Linnet

56: Blue tit

57: Coal tit

58: Great tit

59: Brent goose

60: Greylag goose

61: Greenfinch

62: Avocet

63: Snipe

64: Mute swan

65: Sparrowhawk

66: Dunlin

NDCP

47 as outlined above

2025 Round the Lough

Daffodil on January 1st, same as two years ago!! 

Usual start to the new year with a yomp round Strangford Lough starting at the Flood gates outside Ards and heading south to the ferry at Portaferry. It was a fine cold clear morning with a brisk wind as we waited for the light to improve. First birds were black headed gulls closely followed by oystercatcher, curlew,  little egret, redshank, lapwing, pied wagtail, herring gull, greater black-backed gull, magpie, hooded crow, and blackbird.  We moved south and picked up shelduck, brent geese, woodpigeon, rook and jackdaw but like last year saw no pintail at all in their usual spot at the Maltings. The next stop at Anne's Point added teal, wigeon, shoveler  greenshank and black-tailed godwit in the saltmarsh followed by a flock of greylag geese in a field nearby. Kircubbin added house sparrow, meadow pipit  starlings, stonechat and eider duck before we continued south towards Bishop's Mill and a gentle stroll for collared dove, chaffinch, bullfinch and a common gull on the salt marshes. We continued round the shore aiming for the 1115 ferry and only added cormorant to the list followed by shag, black guillemot, turnstone and two northern Atlantic common dolphins which hang out around the slipway. David got a good photo off the ferry as it pulled out.

Coffee stop (and loo) in Strangford and then to Castleward Bay for gadwall and shoveler, Great Dam for linnet and tufted duck and finally to the Quoile Pondage nature reserve which involves lunch in the hide and an amble towards the yacht club - no bufflehead or barrow's goldeneye this year!! 

View from the hide (David Miller)

View from the Coal Quay (David Miller)

When we opened the shutters in the hide we were pleasantly surprised as there were birds everywhere in large numbers. It was a nice change from previous years when we struggled to find birds, possibly the high tide on the Lough (it was full in by this stage) had pushed stuff onto the reserve but we stopped speculating and started eating and looking. In no particular order we had mallard, wigeon, teal, goldeneye, 60+ pintail, little grebe,  great-crested grebe, greylag geese, mute swan, little egret, grey heron and then two large flocks of waders lifted - lapwing and golden plover. We also had redwing in a nearby field, so all in all a nice lunch break, especially when a jay flew across the road in front of the car and we spooked a suicidal pheasant by the side of the road. Then round to the Castle and the feeders which added blue, great and coal tit, chaffinch, goldfinch, robin, wren, dunnock  and moorhen.  By this time it was 2.30 and we reckoned we would have light till after 4 so we cracked on north to Killyleagh and the set-aside field which had been so productive in the previous two years. Unfortunately it had been ploughed up and sown in grass so no finch flocks. By now we were struggling to add new species and we headed to Whiterock where we had four thrush species in one field - blackbird, redwing, mistle thrush and song thrush plus snipe hiding in the seaweed. North again to Castle Espie (flyover buzzard) and a falling tide with lots of ducks, waders and geese including a large flock of knot. By now the light was dropping fast and we cut out and drove for home resigned to a day with no coot. David was inspired to drop in to Kiltonga en route and there was a coot round the viewing platform - bringing the grand total to 64 for the day. 

January 2nd saw a cold clear day at WOW and I was able to get out and do three hours birding with Ronnie Doggart a fully paid up member of the Thursday club. We started at Kinnegar then scoped the Lough from the Concentrix car park before visiting Hide 1, Hide 2, down to the channel and then back to base. Got off to a good start with 53 species including a few hard to get/unexpected species and 9 2025 ticks I missed the day before. The 9 additions to the 2025 list are in red.  All the usual suspects were present and correct on the reserve - little grebe, shelduck, shoveler, wigeon, gadwall, teal, mallard, curlew, lapwing, redshank, black-tailed godwit, coot, moorhen, magpie, hooded crow, woodpigeon, black-headed gull, herring gull, meadow pipit, pied wagtail, stonechat, wren, dunnock, robin, chaffinch, goldfinch, blackbird, and starling, Unexpected additions were goldcrest, mistle thrush, song thrush, fieldfare and redwing on the far bank and two chiffchaff feeding behind Hide 2. Scoping the lough added red-throated diver, red-breasted merganser, eider, great-crested grebe, cormorant,  black guillemot, guillemot and three razorbill.  Kinnegar added oystercatcher, bar-tailed godwit, knot, grey heron, ringed plover, turnstone, rook, jackdaw, common gull, and great black-backed gull while tufted duck were on the sewage works. 

The North Down patch including the garden got off to a slow start as I was out and about as you can see. To date there are 16 garden birds and 16 from the coastal path. I'll do a write up on that next time as I think there are enough ramblings and lists to go through - and a distinct lack of pictures to break up the text. 

2025
64 on 1st January from round the lough
9 on 2nd January from WOW
74: Blackcap in the garden
75: Dunlin along the Seacliff Road

76: Grey wagtail on the seaweed at Strickland's bay

77: Long-tailed tit in the garden

78: Purple sandpiper along the Seacliff Road

WOW

53 as outlined above

NDCP

32 - details soon!

2024 wrap up

Christmas was spent in Bolton which gave the chance of a dipper - again!! Four walks at four sites which have dipper yielded nothing. There was a Caspian gull only five minutes drive away at Moses Gate Country Park. I visited four times but failed to see it. There were two reasons for this, firstly there were up to 60 large gulls, mainly herring gulls and a smattering of lesser black-backed and secondly I really wasn't sure what I was looking for. I thought I had it but thanks to Howard Vaughan (ace birder from Lesvos - remember?) it turned out to be a first year herring gull. I did see a nice kingfisher and some goosanders however so all was not lost.  It eventually moved on so I didn't have to visit on Christmas Day. A walk along the Irwell at Elton reservoir failed to find a dipper but did turn up a water rail preening out in the open along the canal. Not an easy bird to see as you all know but hey - right place right time! That pushed me up to 181 for the year. Richard's garden had treecreeper, nuthatch and two goldcrests in the same sycamore tree which augurs well for 2025. 

Withins reservoir in the mist

First year herring gull at Moses gate

....and again!!

Goosanders at Moses Gate

.... and again.

The two local patches stayed where they were in late November, well below the target.  However two late December strolls down Stricklands and west to Carnalea finally delivered mallard and curlew on the 29th and grey wagtail on the 31st.  My lack of mobility in the spring contributed to some missed birds but other seem to be the result of changing circumstances. The Bangor patch missed out on swallow and house martin - they simply weren't about in the places I expect to see them.  Swallows bred in Abbey Street in Bangor and house martins along Princetown Road but both have not bred this year. I haven't seen jays in Stricklands this year and I have not had a flyover raven. I think reed bunting and whitethroat have gone as well from the coastal path and the mild winter put the kibosh on redwing and fieldfare appearing in gardens. 

There were no reported curlew sandpipers in WOW this year and I have also missed out on redpoll, siskin, reed bunting and bullfinch on the feeders at WOW. I also failed to find willow warbler, chiffchaff and sedge warbler at WOW - mainly due to lack of mobility in the spring.

I genuinely think there are fewer migrants around and they have a harder time travelling with human interference and changing climate. A blogger from the South coast of England used to see thousands of migrants crossing from France in the 1970s and 1980s, now he is recording hundreds. All in all a bit depressing and I hope the trend can be reversed for future generations of birders. Then again who thought we would see little egret in Rathmore Road and have buzzard as a garden tick or expect to see great spotted woodpeckers in Castle Park?

Next year kicks off with the annual "Round the Lough" on New Years Day and a visit to WOW on January 2nd. That will kick start 2025 with the ongoing Irish garden birdwatch to start the local patch from the comfort of the house. Have a happy and prosperous New Year and a bird filled 2025.

2024

181: Water rail

NDCP

63; Stonechat

64: Mallard

65: Curlew

66: Grey wagtail

91: Goldeneye