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

Nearly there

I thought that the next blog would be the 2024 wrap-up, but there has been enough activity in the last four weeks to justify a wee top up before Christmas. 

WOW has been very quiet indeed with varying numbers of ducks and waders. Highlight was two of our "Class of 21" black-tailed godwits popping up again. They have been mainly seen at WOW, but have also been picked up at Kinnegar, Upper Strangford Lough, Whitehouse Lagoon and Dargan Bay. They have not been seen between March and August when presumably they are in Iceland breeding. I also got a millpond day at Kinnegar and was able to add goldeneye, common scoter and red-throated diver to the list. A red-head goosander was also cruising off Kinnegar for about a week- I finally got it on the 4th attempt in a downpour. 

The last three photos are pictures from the camera screen in the centre. If there is an interesting bird on the larger island you can get the staff to focus on them, zoom in and take a phone shot. 

Mallard & teal

Wigeon pair

Ringed godwit

Ringed godwit

Gadwall

Gadwall & mallard - note the size difference.

Shelduck and coot

The North Down patch added lapwing and stonechat to the list. The Irish garden birdwatch started and is now into its fourth week. Highlights in the first week were bullfinch (1),  blackcaps (3), goldcrest (1), song thrush (1) and linnets (2). Another interesting addition was a herring gull which is a regular visitor and is not fazed by someone opening the door and shouting at it. Other than that it is the usual suspects with blackbirds being the commonest species - anything up to eight depending on the time of day.

Blackcap (F)

Blackbird

Linnets & Chaffinch

Finally a few shots from the Bolton trip in October which I forgot about, they were all taken in Richard's garden in what might best be described as challenging light conditions if you are Digi-scoping from the bedroom window.

Sometimes birds are "discouraged"

Goldfinch

Greenfinch

Nuthatch

2024

180: Goosander

NDCP

61: Little egret

62: Lapwing

63: Stonechat

WOW

87: Sanderling

88: Goosander

89: Red-throated diver

90: Common scoter

91: Goldeneye

Post Lesvos inertia

No blog of late as there hasn't been a lot to report. WOW has been very quiet and I have not done a lot of walking along the coastal path. The mild temperatures mean less garden birds and I haven't even put the bulk of the feeders out yet. I will wait until it gets a lot colder.  Having said that the Irish garden bird survey kicks off in 2 weeks. The lists have not moved a lot and like last year I think I will miss my "targets". At present I am in the following position with only 7/8 weeks of the year left.

    WOW target is 100 -  presently on 87

    North Down is 70 -  presently on 61

I added mistle thrush to the North Down patch - the first in nearly two years - but the surprise sighting from a recent walk was a little grebe swimming just off the rocks. This was a totally unexpected tick and the first time I have seen a little grebe on the North Down patch. It is one of those birds I never expected to see as the habitat is all wrong. Clearly the "Anything can turn up anywhere" maxim kicked in here. It also was relevant to the little egret in the Long Hole - another patch first. It has been reported to me, but I kept missing it as I went when the tide was wrong. This week the tide was falling and low, and there it was. That was two new patch ticks on two successive days. 

WOW has remained static but a recent trip to England added ring-necked parakeet and mandarin duck. I again managed to miss dipper despite visiting two sites where I had seen them in the past. I missed dipper last year and a recent amble along the Sixmilewater at Antrim also failed to produce the goods. It is becoming a bogey bird again this year. The attached phone pictures were the best I could do for the parakeets and the mandarin. 

Ring-necked parakeets

Ring-necked parakeets

Mandarins and mallards

The proposed development at D3 has not yet started in earnest so here is a shot from the back gate of WOW looking down the river. Apparently that will not be accessible once the cruise liner terminal is completed, the existing path will only go as far as Hide 2. 

I'll finish with a nice sunset from the coastal path at Stricklands to cheer us all up and a view over the reserve at Castle Espie from the coffee shop! 

2024

177: Wryneck

178: Ring-necked parakeet

179: Mandarin duck

NDCP

58: Rock pipit

59: Mistle thrush

60: Little grebe

61: Little egret

WOW

87: Sanderling

Report from Lesvos Part 2

Time for the second half of the week on Lesvos. Not quite as stunning as the first half as I had seen quite a few of the species I wanted to see on the first part of the week. We were doing more tourist stuff and seeing the sights of Lesvos.

Thursday saw us heading North to the fishing village of Molyvos which is where a lot of tourists end up and where Jet2 were trying to send us before Howard re-directed us to Skalla Kalloni. This involved a drive through pine forest on twisty roads and finding a parking spot before walking into the village which is much more of a tourist trap than Kalloni. Shops, cafes, wee market stalls and locals trying to interest you in buying something before the season ends and they are left with unwanted stock. We then went north along the coast looking across to Turkey which is about 15 miles away, before cutting back on the new road towards Kalloni. We were looking for somewhere to picnic when we came across Limnos Monastery so we stopped off, had our picnic and did the tour. Lovely old monastery but no monks. Some nice birds in the surroundings but nothing startling apart from a pair of ravens overhead. The most interesting thing we learnt was that the main monastery is surrounded by lots of little beehive chapels and apparently visiting monks could come for a retreat and have their own little chapel for prayer and meditation.

Coast at Molyvos

Greek Orthodox chapel at Limnos

....and the ceiling

Cloisters

Overview of Limnos

Small chapel in the grounds

Lots of small chapels dotted around 

We returned to Kalloni to chill out and took an evening walk towards the mouth of the Tsikinas river. Beautiful walk but along soft sand which did not do my recovering hips a lot of good, offset however by red-backed shrike, willow warbler and spotted flycatcher in the bushes behind the beach, a jay on the way back and the usual stunning Greek sunset. This happened every evening, but if you have too many stunning sunsets they sort of lose their impact. 

Friday started with a 0600 alarm and a drive to the Kalloni salt pans for a sunrise spectacular with Howard and Colin (from Wales). We had good views of a variety of birds and with three scopes going I think we saw everything there was to see. Interesting fact was that my travel scope is not in the same league as Howard's Swarovski or Colin's £20 e-bay scope he takes with him when he goes abroad. Here is what we saw and heard, plus a few sunrise photos and a link to Howard's account of the same outing. Dalmatian pelican, black stork, spoonbill, teal, kingfisher, curlew, ringed plover, grey plover, greenshank, redshank, black-necked grebe, cormorant, little egret, great white egret, grey heron, greater flamingo, buzzard, avocet, black-headed gull, yellow-legged gull, sandwich tern, stonechat, crested lark and corn bunting - all before an 0830 breakfast. 

Sunrise

Kalloni salt pans

Moonset

Link to Howard's blog is here:

https://blueeyedbirding.blogspot.com/2024/09/lesvos-day-6-20th-september-2024.html

Post breakfast saw us back to being tourists again and calling at Ipsolos Monastery which has monks, the petrified forest, Sigri, and Faneromani beach. We stopped quite a bit on the new road but every interesting bird was a raven (or 12) , the monastery is on a hilltop with fantastic views  and the petrified forest was a real eye opener in terms of the variety of trees which have been petrified. The Sigri museum was also well worth a visit and the drive back via Erosos caused shredded nerves as the wee orange light came on in the middle of the mountains. All the common species were noted but we also saw wheatear, whinchat, sand martin drinking from the hotel pool, 25+ yellow wagtails behind the beach at Faneromani and bird of the day a stunning Eleanora's falcon which flew over us at the petrified forest. 

Ipsolos monastery

Turkey in the distance

Stunning location

Petrified tree stump and roots - it is actually solid rock!!

Looks wooden but it is solid rock

Self with petrified trees - no funny comments please!

Tree stump and fallen tree

Faneromani beach

And so to Saturday and another tourist trip to the Roman aqueduct, Moria and Mytilene which is the capital. We had an amble around, bought a few gifts and had lunch in a seafront cafe. The aqueduct is  very impressive considering it is only a vestige of its former self. It was a tad warm and it also involved an interesting drive through very narrow streets some of which were one way (whoops!!). Mytilene is a large town and ferry port but it has a nice little pedestrian area with narrow streets and interesting shops for wandering tourists. Nice touristy day out but not much birding. Some aqueduct views below, I didn't take any photos in Mytilene and back we drove to Kalloni for a break. 

The streets of Moria

After a rest and a drink I took off to look for two little reservoirs within 10 minutes drive of the hotel. I found them both using Google and was quite impressed. Lake Metochi had water and one spotted flycatcher, Periana reservoir had water and no birds BUT en route home through olive groves a small flock of birds flew up into the trees so I stopped and looked. It was a great tit flock of 10/12 birds so always worth a look to see if anything else is in the flock. I found a willow warbler and then noticed an odd brown bird feeding in the grass and bingo it is a wryneck. Only the second time I have seen one, the first time was on a French camp site in 1985 - 39 years ago. I was quite excited as I had picked it up  myself ( It had been reported earlier in the week) and it might even make bird of the week even though I had three lifers on Monday. Anyway a nice way to finish and here is a celebratory sunset. 

Final sunset from the hotel balcony

Sunday was basically, breakfast, pack, checkout and drive to the airport. Unlike Howard I didn't pick up any final species en route and we checked in and flew out to Belfast via Manchester going from 30C to 13C and from Greek hooded crows to Irish hooded crows. C'est la vie.

No change obviously to the patch lists but the 2024 list took a bit of a boost as follows:

2024

152: Sanderling

153: Greater flamingo

154: Dalmatian pelican    LIFER  😎

|155: Black-necked grebe

156: Black stork

157: Montague's harrier

158: Osprey

159: Kentish plover

160: Yellow-legged gull

161: Slender-billed gull   LIFER 😎

162: Scops owl                LIFER  😎

163: Crested lark

164: Red-rumped swallow

165: Yellow wagtail

166: Whinchat

167: Spotted flycatcher

168: Red-backed shrike

169: Jay

170: Hoopoe

171: Bee-eater

172: Ruddy shelduck

173: Corn bunting

174: Spoonbill

175: Woodchat shrike

176: Eleanora's falcon

177: Wryneck