Bits and bobs, WOW and Cockle Island

A few bits and bobs from the trip to England. Glastonbury has breeding peregrine falcons on the church tower. Heard a juvenile screaming one evening and two nights later saw two adults and two juveniles playing chasies round the town centre - awesome. Also had good views of red kites at various locations including two over a National Trust property near Bristol.

Phone shot!!

Egyptian geese at Pennington Flash

Great tit at the Flash - no feeders!

Woodpigeon at the Flash

Pied wagtail at Lytes Manor (NT)

Chilean and lesser flamingos at Slimbridge

Chilean flamingos at Slimbridge

Back to a much cooler Northern Ireland and WOW. All the usual suspects including 3 ringed common terns. Ronnie chased these up and they were all ringed in June 2024 in Dublin Port. Apparently second year terns visit breeding colonies but don't breed. One was a first resighting, one had been seen in  Hafan y Môr, Gwynned in Wales in September 2024 and one was seen in Seaforth, Lancashire last month.

Gadwall pair

Unringed common tern

Starling pretending to be a tern

A trip on the Strangford Lough ferry and a chance to check out two house martin nests on the ferry. The fact that the ferry is constantly crossing the narrows doesn't annoy the house martins who are successfully raising young. Not competent enough to put arrows on the pictures, but the two nests are above the window under the ledge.

House martin nests

Close up.

Finally an update from the arctic tern colony on Cockle Island Groomsport. Despite the National Trust mismanagement the terns have bred successfully and there are flying young for the first time since 2022. There were around 80 nesting pairs so fingers crossed we have a good number of fledged young. 

2026 list

161: Little ringed plover

162: Egyptian goose

NDCP patch

61: Manx shearwater

Belfast RSPB patch

81: Pochard

Patch update and a LIFER

It says patch update but it is mainly WOW with one bird on the North Down patch, an update on Cockle Island (again) and a stunning lifer in the Cooley Mountains.

We'll start local with an expected Manx shearwater  - or ten - off the coast near Bangor. 

WOW continues to deliver 30+ species of a morning. At present it has several hundred black-headed gulls, 150+ common terns and 80+ sandwich terns which are all in the process of breeding. We have confirmed breeding as well from coot, moorhen, mallard, tufted duck and shelduck. We also had a visiting roseate tern which gave quite good views if a bit distant and a male pochard also dropped in.  Ronnie got a "record shot" of the roseate so he gets the credit for that one. The temporary tern island is in place and work continues on D3. 

Roseate tern  (Ronnie Doggart)

Shelduck family, nest boxes, temporary island and piles on D3

Black-tailed godwit

Arctic tern

Shelducklings

Common tern

Mediterranean gull

Sandwich tern

The sandwich tern was ringed on Blue Circle Island in Larne Lough in June 2021 and this is the first re-sighting. An amble round Castle Espie added a singing reed warbler, a bird I normally get in England. 

A female red-footed falcon was showing well in County Louth in late May/early June. It's about 75 minutes away and I don't normally twitch birds, but it hung around and eventually I was tempted and I fell. We followed a google pin up into the Cooley Mountains, drove round a bend and there were a group of birders with scopes and cameras filling their SD cards as the bird moved between a fairy thorn, a fence and the ground. My problem was I had left my SD card in the laptop so after six shots the camera was full!! Apologies for  another record shot but it was a stunning bird.

A quick update on the Cockle Island arctic terns has good news and bad news. The good news is that there are chicks but the bad news is that the electric fence had fallen down in places and the NT chose to fix it in the middle of the breeding season. It was put up far too late in a bit of a hurry so it hasn't done the job. We live in hope!! Another two photos from Ronnie Doggart  show arctic tern chicks including one in a box kindly sponsored by Anthony McGeehan. 

Chick appreciating the shade from Anthony's box

Chick wishing Anthony had bought a second box. 

2026

152: Peregrine falcon

153: Red-footed falcon - Lifer  😎

154: Roseate tern

155: Reed warbler

NDCP patch
60: Swift

61: Manx shearwater

Belfast RSPB patch

79: House martin

80: Roseate tern

81: Pochard

Gobbins boat trip

A late evening run to the Gobbins with Brian Meharg gave a lot of birds and a lot of scenic views. Despite a lack of sunshine it was good weatherwise, mainly dry and not too lumpy. This trip  is never "as expected". I have done it quite a few times and no two trips are ever the same. This year we saw all the usual species but added Manx shearwater and peregrine which are not guaranteed. Only one gannet but 25+ puffins. We also noticed two dead auks which were lifted from the water and brought back for scientific analysis to see why they died. They were not underweight and had no obvious injuries. It was fascinating to get a close up view of both birds in terms of shape, colour, bill etc.. I had the good camera but only a  55mm lens this time, but I am quite pleased with the results. Just for clarification the first shot was taken on a Gobbins trip in 2009, just to illustrate the varying weather conditions this trip can produce!! It is better than any of the 2026 shots.

There is a wee update on Cockle Island as of June 17th at the end.

2009 sunset with gannet

Blackhead lighthouse

Lesser black-backed gull

Setting sun over Islandmahee

Minesweeper off Bangor

Auks for Science

Razorbill

Guillemot

Puffin ledge, you need 600mm for this one

Herring gull

Guillemot

Muck Island

Muck Island

Cockle Island arctic tern update.

Things moved quickly since the last post and I will try and summarise it briefly.

• An otter was spotted on the trail cam.
• The Trust sent a team to erect a two strand electric fence and keep off notices (for humans, not the otter!). This caused major disturbance as the terns left their nests. Two cockle pickers were observed after the notices were erected and again this disturbed the colony.
• It is probable that some nests were lost.
• Good news is that the terns settled and chicks have been seen. 
• I'll update on future posts and do a wrap at the end of the breeding season.

2026

150: Corncrake

151: Manx shearwater

152: Peregrine falcon