The Equinox edition

Atmospheric WOW

The year marches on and there's enough to put up a short summary of the transition from summer to autumn. You'll be glad to hear that there are no further trips to England until Christmas and the boat trips are easing off. 

WOW has been drying out slowly and the increasing amounts of mud have been good for waders. We are regularly scanning for winter visitors coming south, as well as waving farewell to  our summer visitors who are heading to Africa. Throw in the passage migrants and there is always something to look for. We recently have had the first returning shelduck and on the same day, all four summer hirundines - swallow, house martin, sand martin and even a very late single September swift. Unfortunately most of the exciting birds are either flying too fast or over on far side as far away from the observation room as possible. I have added curlew sandpiper and peregrine falcon to the list and a few photos of slow birds close to the ops room. 

What low water levels?

Teal

Trio de teal

The coastal path has also been quiet as I have mopped up most of the expected birds for the patch. However I did add house martin - no longer a patch regular. I think these birds hunting over Strickland's Glen were moving south. I thought it was time for a few scenic views from one of Bangor's prime attractions - The North Down Coastal Path (NDCP)

Smelt Mill Bay looking west

Oystercatcher

Looking West up Belfast Lough

Basking grey seal

Grey wagtail

Painted lady 

Small tortoiseshell

Your bonus YouTube video this time is "The Rock and Roll birder. This is his latest video and it is well worth eleven minutes of your time. 

2026 list
163: Osprey

164: Curlew sandpiper

NDCP patch
61: Manx shearwater
62: House martin

Belfast RSPB patch
85: Gannet
86: Curlew sandpiper
87: Peregrine falcon

Lough Beg boat trip

Another Lough Beg boat trip kick started autumn birding with the highlight being an osprey which has been present for a few days giving good views. Initially seen sitting on a dead tree it sprang into life as we headed south and did a flyover the boat!! Other birds included 5 great white egrets, 2 green sandpipers, multiple kingfishers, 20+ whooper swans including several families and a common sandpiper. Thanks to Anthony McGeehan for the osprey photograph, I am afraid my  osprey images are not seeing the light of day. I recorded 24 species. The March trip recorded 22 if I take off the passerines seen on a walk along the canal. There are lots more image on the JBirds Facebook page, including 5 glossy ibis which were seen on the morning trip. Here is a link.

(1) JBirds - Birding by Boat | Facebook

Osprey by Anthony McGeehan

Great white egret in flight

Kingfisher 

Whoopers in flight

Church Island

Mainly mallard

Grey heron (1)

Mute swan

Grey heron (2)

I got a Cockle Island update from Anthony as well as an osprey photo. There were still one or two arctic terns around in late August feeding chicks -  possibly pairs which had re-laid a second clutch when the first one was destroyed during the electric fence fiasco.  Between 80 - 100 pairs bred and all of these were inside the electric fence. Anything attempting to build outside the fence (common terns and oystercatchers) was probably predated by the otters. An oystercatcher which failed to breed twice was also seen feeding a nearly fledged arctic tern chick with lugworms, crab and cockles. This is most unusual behaviour and there does not appear to be any records of cross species feeding of any kind in the literature. Hopefully the National Trust will learn lessons from the breeding season and put their electric fence up properly and on time in 2027. 

I walked the coastal path and forgot to put the SD card back into the camera so only a scenic phone shot and no new birds either. 

WOW has been a bit same old, same old. I was away for three weeks and came back to much lower water levels and the same late summer birds as when I left. I have added greenshank, ruff and sanderling to the list plus a gannet off Kinnegar. The sanderling pitched up at Kinnegar when I took a visiting American birder there to look for ringed plover. Unfortunately we dipped on them as the tide was too high, but two sanderling landed briefly and got added to the list. Other than that the wee fish have attracted 11 herons and two little egrets and there are the usual waders - curlew, dunlin, redshank, lapwing, and black-tailed godwit. 

Exposed mud

Lapwing

Black-tailed godwit  x 2

Redshank

Time for another YouTube offering. This time it's a birder called Harry Boorman who is doing a big year. Seeing as he is on 269 birds the pace has slowed a bit but he does shoot some nice footage. In this video he is on the Scilly Islands doing pelagics, If you go back to videos posted in early 2026 you will see him getting more common stuff. 

The UK's ultimate seabird adventure

2026 list

162: Egyptian goose

163: Osprey

NDCP Patch

61: Manx shearwater

Belfast RSPB patch

81: Pochard

82: Sanderling

83: Greenshank

84: Ruff

85: Gannet

Birding hiatus

Now is the time to service your optics or switch to butterflies, flowers and dragonflies. I have not done much of late but there is enough to warrant a wee catch up before the autumn passage hits WOW. Waders are already on the move in England, swifts have gone and so has the heat. 

I had a run to the Copeland Islands on a JBirds trip. The highlight was seeing a Manx shearwater chick and watching the team ring two willow warblers which were in the mist net. My bird list was short (25) with the standouts being Manx shearwaters, a couple of puffins and a stock dove. Some photos from me (DP), David Miller (DM) and Mo Rainey (MR). 

Mist net (DM)

LBBgull and Scrabo (DM)

Brian's boat and Brian! (DM)

Red admiral (DM)

Weighing a willow warbler (MR)

Willow warbler (MR)

Manx shearwater chick (MR)

Au revoir (DP)

Mew Island (DP)

Before I headed to England WOW was deserted by the terns. There on a Monday, gone by Wednesday. They have not returned en masse, but there has been the odd one or two dropping in. I had these shots in the camera from a week or two back and a wee explanatory video.

Compare black-headed gull and Med gull above and below

Lapwing

Spot the roosting common sandpiper

Here is a link to the video as I am never confident the downloading always works!

Gulls and tern at WOW

The Liverpool boat gave a chance to see the progress on the new Cruise liner terminal, plus a view of WOW from the channel. You can see how they have pushed out the shoreline about 50m but have used the existing boulders to soften the look. 

Downstream view

Substantial progress

Tern's eye view of WOW

A weekend trip up to Northumberland gave us a chance to check out Cresswell pond and Druridge Pools which I was expecting to have dried up. In fact they had water and a good selection of waders including snipe, ruff, curlew, lapwing, dunlin and black-tailed godwits. We had a walk up to a ruined Preceptory at Chibburn which isn't on the traditional February route in the hope of picking up little owl which may or may not be breeding there. Needless to say we didn't see it but did pick up a pair of tree sparrows. 

Druridge Pools phone shot with three ruff

Surprisingly wet

Chibburn Preceptory x 3

Chibburn looked good for little owl, but not on a dull breezy day at 4.00 in the afternoon. Might need a dusk visit? I spotted a birder with a scope at Cresswell and a brief chat cheered me up no end as I had missed a marsh harrier by ten minutes, a hobby and a wood sandpiper that morning and yellow wagtails which were  around last week.  Unsurprisingly the lists haven't changed - isn't birding fun?!?!

Back to WOW next week, plus a Cockle Island update and a link to a YouTube birding site. I follow four of these and am not making any comments as they all follow this blog and I have met two of them.  I will feature them one at a time. This link is to Adam's most recent post and I am sure you all know how to access previous videos. Adam birds around Cheshire and Norfolk and takes stunning photos as well, best viewed on his blog.

Stunning Summer Birds

The Early Birder

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