England and Covid

Just returned form a child-minding trip to England, where we contracted Covid after two years of avoiding the beast. This clearly limited birding as we had to self isolate in Bolton and also on our return home. We managed a couple of strolls around Elton  Reservoir  before we locked down, but were unable to do planned visits to Pennington Flash and Leighton Moss for mouth-watering goodies. The Bolton garden was well watched as it was pleasant enough to sit outside and watch the resident birds go about their business. I saw blue tit, great tit, long-tailed tit, chaffinch, goldfinch, greenfinch, bullfinch, dunnock, wren, robin, blackbird, song thrush, blackcap, woodpigeon, house sparrow, collared dove, carrion crow, jackdaw, magpie, jay, black headed gull, lesser black backed gull, herring gull and great spotted woodpecker. There was some lovely bird song as well, a couple of timed I dozed off in the garden to the song of multiple blackbirds. 

The two walks at Elton early on gave swallow, little ringed plover common sandpiper and willow warbler for the list as well as blackcaps and chiffchaffs singing. On a cold blustery Friday a circuit produced no singing warblers, Six days later they were everywhere. I could have justified a solo early morning walk last weekend but unfortunately I was just too tired and washed out to make an early start. What I did get during a restless night was a calling tawny owl close to the house.

I'm going to use the absence of photos to try and add in a couple of videos from the trail cam as we now have hedgehogs back and  badger and fox passing through. If the videos do not load I will repost the links.

On a more positive note I was back at WOW for the first time in three weeks and we had a good number of birds including a few year firsts and patch firsts listed below. At least there are a few bird pictures.

Common sandpiper

Shelduck

Med gull being photo-bombed by black-headed gulls

2022

120: Swallow

121:Common sandpiper

122: Little ringed plover

123: Willow warbler

124: Tawny owl

125: Sand martin

126: Whimbrel

127: Common tern

North Down

52: Grey wagtail

Belfast RSPB

62: Mediterranean gull

63: Sand martin

64: Sandwich tern

65: Common tern

66: Common sandpiper

67: Whimbrel

Back to earth and the mainland

After the excitement of three islands in two weeks it is time to settle back to patch birding and WOW. The North Down coastal path has settled into its summer torpor with very little new to be seen. The number of walkers, joggers and cyclists doesn't help and the foreshore is full of rock poolers and stone throwers - such is the delight of an Irish summer. I did manage a jay flying across the road and a gannet and two shelduck flying up the lough. A late evening scope turned up a Manx shearwater. Birdsong has dropped off and passerines are well hidden and moulting. The garden has few visitors although the trail cam shows that the garden is well visited in early light i.e. 4.30 am onwards. Magpies, woodpigeon and blackbirds are common. The magpies are looking for hedgehog food left behind by the nocturnal visitors.  Here's a wee hedgehog video.

WOW is full of nesting terns and fledging gulls and it is also drying out as high temperatures and low rainfall kick in. There is usually something of interest to see, a passage ruff, a hunting buzzard or a family of new moorhens being helped by young from the first brood so as you get three generations of moorhens at the one time. There are a lot of swifts and sand martins around, but only occasional swallows and house martins. The mute swans still have their  four cygnets and lapwing numbers are building up to 30+. With falling water and a large fence the swans are going to struggle to leave the reserve and the cygnets cannot fly, or walk out. It does not look good for them at present and we await developments. A couple of photos attached from John Mason who visited recently. He has a good camera and knows how to use it so enjoy  his pictures. The little egret was an unexpected visitor, they turn up now and again. I also added a black guillemot in the channel.

Lapwing

Bee orchid

Sandwich tern

Sandwich tern, common tern and black-headed gull

Ruff

Ruff

Young woodpigeon (no white collar)

Evaporating fast

Tufted duck (John Mason)

Juvenile little egret (John Mason)

No water from Hide 2 but the plants are doing well!!

2021

131: Rose-coloured starling

132: Spotted flycatcher

133: Peregrine falcon

134: Great northern diver

135: Barnacle goose

136: Ruff

137: Storm petrel

138: Sea eagle 

139: Common sandpiper

140: Roseate tern

NDCP

63: Jay

64: Shelduck

65: Gannet

66: Manx shearwater

WOW

65: Swallow

66: Ruff

67: Sandwich tern

68: Common sandpiper

69: Little egret

70: Black guillemot

Autumn kicks in

 I wandered lonely as a cloud 

That floats on high o'er vales and hills

When all at once I saw a crowd

A host of golden narrow leaved ragwort.  

At least that is what Wordsworth would have written if he'd lived on Airport Road as opposed to the Lake District. He may even have tried to work the bearded milkcaps into verse two as they were everywhere, a feat I am not even going to think about.

As you can tell there is not a lot to report birdwise over the last few weeks. The lists remain static despite visits to WOW and walks along the coastal path. Winter visitors are drifting in but most of them made the lists before lockdown. It was nice to see sandwich terns and brent geese on the beach at Kinnegar, one preparing to head to West Africa and the other fresh in from Greenland via Iceland. There are still a few late common  terns on the planks at WOW but realistically only Hide 2 is giving any photo opportunities and even this often has rain, condensation, poor light and photobombing reeds and grasses. My attempt with the trail-cam in daylight focused on the feeders has produced over 700 photos of the feeder moving in the wind. To quote my 4 year old grand-daughter re one of her gymnastic moves, "I'm working on it". The place to be is Myroe Levels which has a host of goodies or else one of the sea-watching points such as Ramore Head, Malin Head or Fanad Head. Carnalea and Airport Road are not yet on the must-see places for migrating birds. 

Teal

Shoveler

Common tern adult & chick

Camouflaged curlew

Mute swans, two of four young cobs which turned up.

Late tern chick from October 1st

 

Stop press:  On Tuesday  a coastal walk turned up a couple of stonechats and a female sparrowhawk rock hopping at high tide. For a split second I was thinking kestrel or peregrine, but it turned out to be a sprawk giving lovely views but not a tick!! Anyway lets have a hedgehog video to cheer us all up.

2020

154: White wagtail

NDCP

69: Buzzard

70: Stonechat

WOW

90: White wagtail

150 up

 Quite an enjoyable and productive trip to England with some birding squeezed in between family comittments. We managed a quick trip to Cresswell and Druridge Pools in Northumberland, a couple of hours at Leighton Moss RSPB near Lancaster , a quick round of Martin Mere WWT in Lancs  and a few walks in Leverhulme, Tonge and Elton Reservoir around the Bolton/Bury area. The weather was kind and the 2020 list crawled up. The local lists have not changed despite a couple of local walks and a quick trip to WOW. 

Richard's garden in Bolton gave a good variety of birds including nuthatch as a regular visitor. He has had a great spotted woodpecker but not while I was there. Here's a selection taken whilst waiting to see if the nuthatch would drop in - it did - but only briefly and the shots are what we poor photographers call "record shots".  I have nicknamed him "Lightning" as he is in and out in a flash. Hopefully the regular food supply will attract both nuthatch and woodpecker regularly over the winter. Bolton also provided a calling tawny owl on more than one occasion and an early walk at Elton finally added great spotted woodpecker to the list and I also learned to listen for the contact call.

Red admiral

Christmas robin

There is rainwater in the gutter, so it's bathtime.

Lightning the nuthatch

.....and again

Goldfinch are regular, up to six at a time, greenfinch a bit rarer

Mrs chaffinch

Long-tailed tits were also regular at the sunflower hearts as well as the fat feeder.

Great tit trying to get peanuts which were wedged in the bark to attract the nuthatch.

Druridge and Cresswell added avocet, barnacle goose, whimbrel and sedge warbler. There was also a nice ruff which had me thinking mega wader!

Lapwing, ruff and dunlin

Common sandpiper, ruff and dunlin

Avocet

Ruff and common sandpiper

Leighton Moss added hobby and marsh tit, two birds which are virtually impossible to get at home, so all in all it was a good trip. I managed to get back in time to find the spotted sandpiper at Castle Espie - a five mnute sighting in a two and a half hour wait, plus an earlier one and a half hour no show. I suppose that 4 hours is worth it for getting a lifer. Unfortunately I could not get a shot of it but there are quite a few on the NI Birds website.  Also managed a lucky wheatear in the Antrim Hills, it flew across the road in front of the car!!

I have borrowed a trailcamera to see what happens in the garden as I have posted a couple of photos of hedgehogs previously. Here we have hedgehog cam showing two hogs, one on the grass and one at the back near the edging. I am now experimenting with different foods. Unfortunately the bird-killing cat seems to think that the food is for him.

2020

141: Tawny owl

142: Avocet

143: Barnacle goose

144: Sedge warbler

145: Whimbrel

146: Hobby

147: Marsh tit

148: Great spotted woodpecker

149: Spotted sandpiper - LIFER 😎

150: Wheatear

Bangor West

68: Manx shearwater

Belfast WOW

82: Chiffchaff

83: Gannet

84: Little egret

WOW, WOW and thrice WOW

With apologies to Frankie Howard and Up Pompeii we have no further truck with lockdown editions. WOW is again accessible with the two "free" hides open although the centre is still locked. No toilets and no coffee/tea, bring a flask and an empty bladder. Despite this it was great to be back (twice) and I managed 39 species between WOW and Kinnegar. Highlights were mute swans and 5 cygnets, sand martin, whitethroat, lapwings, black-headed gulls and hatched chicks, common terns, 80+ black-tailed godwits, singing blackcaps, greenfinches and willow warbler, a small blue butterfly and a knot in winter plumage??

Large tern island and gull chicks

Common tern

Common terns and a coot

Grey heron

Knot and black-headed gull

Elsewhere we have branched out with walks to Orlock, Portavoe, Ballymacormick Point and Clandeboye Wood. House martin has been added to the list and we have enjoyed some stunning sunsets and views over the North Down coast and Belfast Lough.

Orlock Point with a flock of starlings

Smelt Mill Bay near Bangor

Take 2

Take 3

Ballymacormick Point

The garden lockdown list is now at 31, with a flyover swallow, and the garden continues to provide views of common species and a few fledglings. I suppose the standout bird was the chiffchaff. We also finally managed to see two hedgehogs late one evening. I have long suspected they were around but late one night I went out to hunt for snails on the hostas and there they were on the lawn. One legged it but the other one sat long enough for a poor photo

Daily visitors

Hedgehog!!

House sparrow

Dunnock

2020

131: House martin

132: Sand martin

Bangor West

66: House martin

Belfast WOW

71: Whitethroat

72: Sand martin

73: Greylag goose