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| 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.
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| View from the hide (David Miller) |
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| 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.
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
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