Winter lockdown

Happy days are here again with another six weeks of lockdown which will bring us to early March and the spring migrants. Last year I despaired of hearing willow warbler and it looks like the same again this year if it is extended over Easter. I am still out exercising - mainly along the coastal path but I have mopped up all the expected ticks except curlew and lapwing and the list is now on 48. The lapwing flock which was there in early December has legged it somewhere else and I haven't managed a curlew yet. I'm afraid you are getting a selection of garden birds and an update on the Birdwatch Ireland garden bird survey which runs for 13 weeks and wants to know the highest numbers of each species seen in the garden a week at a time. To date I have logged 28 species including a maximum of  3 blackcaps, 4 bullfinches, 11 blackbirds, 11 starlings, 1 goldcrest, 1 house sparrow and 5 linnets.  Today I had a pair of siskins, the first since 2018, they are not annual and not easily seen but today's cold spell might have helped. I have added herring gulls by putting out mince pies which were past their sell by date. I'm not supposed to count flyovers but there hasn't been anything which didn't drop in for a quick bite.  My spring lockdown list ended up at 31 but that had swallow, house martin and swift on, so  I have basically the same species all year round.

 A couple of rays of light to cheer you up, it is light till five o' clock and I have snowdrops and crocuses in flower in small numbers. Also my outside Christmas lights are still on to provide some winter cheer. Apparently you can keep decorations up until Candlemas which is February 1st. Mine will stay until the batteries run out. I will also throw in a few pictures of the garden as I haven't featured it for a few years. 

Fat block, sunflower hearts and suet pellets at the back on the apple tree

Fat balls and chopped nuts at the garage, softbill food on the table below the solar panel and sunflower hearts in the silver birch.

 

I ground feed a softbill mix, raisins and mealworms which pulls in the blackbirds, magpies, woodpigeons and collared doves. The tits, finches and smaller stuff use the feeders and occasionally the ground (dunnock and robin especially). Here is a selection of visitors.

Jackdaw, a pair breed in the neighbour's chimney

Herring gull on the lookout for mince pies

Great tit

Hooded crow

Linnet

Blackcap

Blue tit

Blackcap

Two blackcaps, there was actually another male below the female but I couldn't get all three in at the same time!

Siskin (M)

Siskin (F)

A quick visit to WOW en route to an essential run to Belfast added 7 to the list which has reached 30 - in two visits. The highlight was 300 shelduck and 60+ wigeon as well as rook and jackdaw.

2020  

76: Purple sandpiper

77: Stonechat

78: Lesser black-backed gull

79: Rock pipit

80: Meadow pipit

81: Siskin

NDCP 

32: House sparrow

33: Eider

34: Turnstone

35: Redshank

36: Great black-backed gull

37: Pied wagtail

38: Black guillemot

39: Grey heron

40: Ringed plover

41: Dunlin

42: Brent goose

43: Mistle thrush

44: Sparrowhawk

45: Wren

46: Purple sandpiper

47: Guillemot

48: Siskin

WOW

24: Wigeon 

25: Tufted duck

26: Coot

27: Knot

28: Black-tailed godwit

29: Jackdaw

30: Rook

Early days of 2021

Up and out before dawn for a socially distanced two car birdathon round the northern and western side of Strangford Lough. We went anti-clockwise and kept to minor roads as much as possible but we still hit 68 species. I am not going to list them all, just mention the highlights which were many. We started at the Flood Gates in the NE corner wher we had up to 2000 golden plover in the air, a nice flock of knot and pintail. All photographs of our jaunttaken by David Miller.

Dawn with flying golden plover

Golden plover and green plover

Knot

Islandhill next for tree sparrow and then round to Castle Espie for kingfisher.

Comber river at Islandhill

Egret at Castle Espie

 

Whiterock gave us shag, black guillemot and little grebe as well as snipe and buzzard. 

Teal and snipe if you can find them

Then to Killyleagh which we nearly left out and were glad we didnt as we ticked grey wagtail, red-breasted merganser, guillemot and three overwintering sandwich terns!!

Always check your gulls!!

Terns on New Year's Day

Finally to the Quoile for the overwintering bufflehead, redwings, shoveler, gadwall, goldeneye and sparrowhawk. By that time the light had gone, and we finished there and headed home.

All redwings, not a fieldfare among them.

 

The local patch is ticking over nicely and  the garden added bullfinch, goldcrest and blackcap to the 2021 list as well as all the usual suspects including five linnet. I even managed a buzzard along the coast being mobbed by hoodies. WOW is closed apart from Hide 2 and we are not supposed to leave home except for essential journeys. This rule came in on Friday so on Thursday we drove to Belfast Waterworks for our exercise and happened to see an iceland gull - quelle surprise! All photos from here on in are mine.

 

Waterworks, top pond largely frozen

Iceland gull. We walked past this point five times and only spotted it once.

On the way home we swung round WOW and Kinnegar and added eider, great crested grebe and ringed plover to the list and ticked off 20 other species for the WOW patch. I think there won't be a lot added to WOW until mid-February but the local patch will get a battering over the next four weeks and the garden is always liable to turn up something unexpected. Stay safe and bring your binoculars on your daily exercise even if you are only going to the shops. 

Bullfinch

Long-tailed tit

Blackcap

Greenfinch pair

2020  

1 - 68 round the lough on January 1st

69: Blackcap

70: Bullfinch

71: Goldcrest

72: Iceland gull

73: Eider

74: Great-crested grebe

75: Ringed plover

NDCP 

30: Goldcrest 

31: Dunnock

 

WOW

23: Ringed plover

The obligatory review of the year

Glad to seee the end of that one then. Tanya and I sat up till midnight not so much as to welcome in 2021 but more to make sure that 2020 actually left and didn't hang around. There were no last minute additions to the lists despite a few socially distanced walks along the coast. Spent quite a bit of time watching the garden so here is a selection of garden visitors to round off an interesting year.

Goldfinch

Male linnet wating in the queue for the feeder

Chaffinch

Female linnet

Oi, fill the feeder!!

Annual blackcap appeared on December 22nd

Hoover at work

Below the feeders

The 2020 total of 157 was pretty good seeing as I didn't get on holiday and only had a February trip to Bolton and Northumberland. Other than that everything was local. Mind you there were two lifers on the list in bufflehead and spottted sandpiper. WOW finished on 92 well shy of the 100 target but the observation room has been closed for the guts of nine months so some spring and autumn migrants were missed. Unfortunately it looks like it will not re-open until early February. Stand out birds were the manx shearwaters right up at the Stena terminal and white wagtail on the adjacent waste ground. The North Down patch hit a record equalling 74 and this is undoubtedly due to the fact that in lockdowns (we've had three) it was the default walk so it was better covered this year than any other. Stand out birds were the pheasant in the garden and the 7 shelduck flying along the coast on one of our early walks in May. It all kicked off again on January 1st so I'll do a quick New Year's Day roundup to start 2021.

 

2020  

157: American wigeon

NDCP

74: Mute swan

WOW

92: Stonechat

 

Two stunning yanks

And I dont mean Donald Trump and Joe Biden, I am talking about a bufflehead and an American wigeon. Just when you think that the year is meandering to a close and there will not be too many birds to add to lists these two turn up. The bufflehead was a first for Northern Ireland and a fourth for all Ireland and it was spotted on the River Quoile about two weeks ago. Initially it was out in the open but recently it has moved upstream and has to be viewed through a screen of sallow, willow ivy etc.. This makes it hard to get any decent photographs and the nearby Castle Island hide which would give excellent views has beeen locked since March. This link will show you a nice picture the finder took on the day it was discovered out in the open section. http://nibirds.blogspot.com/2020/12/bird-news-saturday-5th-december.html 

 The great and good of Northern Ireland birdwatching were there on Sunday in our own version of a socially distanced mass twitch.

Apparently the bird is still around and will hopefully stay for the winter like the Barrow's goldeneye of legend. It has drifted back to where you can get good views and also drifted upstream where you can get clear views from a long way away!! Nevertheless it is on my life list.

The American wigeon popped up at the river mouth at Glynn with a small flock of wigeon and is indeed showing well. Glynn station has a nice platform, good access and a shelter to sit while you wait for a train. I have been there several times and there is usually something good to look at plus dipper in the Glynn river. This week there were the usual ducks and waders plus the American wigeon and a female goosander. This is not a common bird in Northern Ireland but we do get a few every winter. 

Apart from these exotic visitors things have been fairly slow. WOW opened for two weeks but will be locked down from Christmas Eve until mid February. Hopefully at least one of the hides will stay open. On my volunteering day I had a bright sunny morning and distant birds apart from mallard and teal. I did my usual list and noted that my two previous visits were on March 19th and October 15th. That is three Thursdays in nine months with a six week lockdown into the new year. I'll keep you posted as to how things pan out next week. I had 26 species including the buzzard. The warden cut down the "buzzard tree" as it was a predator perch according to the RSPB! It now sits on the tallest bush just outside the fence secure in the knowledge that the warden cannot cut it down - clever buzzard.

Teal

Distant buzzard on a tree just outside the reserve.

One-legged mallard

Snoozing mallard

Rainbow reflection

There are birds there but they are small and far away Dougal!

No additions to the WOW patch recently but I managed to add redpoll and mute swan to the Bangor West total. The redpoll arrived on the feeder - first in the garden since 2016. The mute swans flew over while we were out for a walk along the coastal path, only the second time I have ever seen them on the patch. Garden birding is interesting as I am trying to do the Birdwatch Ireland garden bird survey. This involves counting the maximum number of species in the garden in a week and then doing this for 13 weeks. First week I had a maximum of 13 goldfinches, next week 7, this week 6. Hardest bit was trying to count coal tits which are everywhere and never sit still. I'll keep you posted in 2021 as with lockdown I may spend more time looking at the garden. I can even compare my spring garden lockdown list with my winter one - how OCD is that?

I have discovered that magpies will eat out of date mince pies, so don't throw them in the bin, leave them on the lawn. Have a safe Christmas and make the best of whatever way it falls. I'll hopefully have a wrap of 2020 at some stage as there isn't much else to do. Before you ask, yes, I am planning to get out birding on New Years Day, for the good of my mental health. Just me in a car with binoculars testing my eyesight!!

2020   

155: Great white egret 

157: Bufflehead Lifer!! 😎

157: American wigeon

NDCP 

72: Lapwing 

73: redpoll 

74: Mute swan

WOW

92: Stonechat