Cockle Island, Groomsport

I went on  a visit  with Anthony McGeehan and Ronnie Doggart to see the arctic tern colony at Groomsport and find out what the National Trust (NT) aren't doing to help the terns. The Cockle Island tern colony has about 80+ nests but lacks an electric fence to deter predators and signs to warn people off. The NT have put a "raft" out to encourage the terns to nest but as you can see from the pictures it doesn't really do a lot.  At a pinch it could hold 6 nests and it is easily accessible to any predator wanting a look at it. Fortunately the terns have no interest in it at all. They have not bred since 2022 and the sandwich terns upped and left last year and nested at Belfast RSPB. It appears that despite being an SSI and hosting a red listed bird species, the NT are not that interested in what happens there although they do talk a good talk they do not follow up with actions. 

Cockle Island and "Tern raft"

Known to locals as the salmon farm!

No terns on it at all and easy access for predators

Tern nesting site 

NT trail cams

Arctic terns currently on eggs

Nice red-breasted merganser (F) in the harbour

If you have any links to the National Trust, Ards and North Down councillors or MLAs please bend their ear to try and get some action to protect the terns.  The biggest help would be an electric fence, but warning signs on the harbour, a rope cordon on the island,  and a few motion activated predator warning lights would also be a great help. Feel free to comment or email me if you think you can offer any help. We will hopefully have breeding success this year but all ideas are useful even though they might be filed away for 2027. 

Rathlin Island (again)

The year gallops on as does the birding calendar.  Rather than do one very long post I will go for a few shorter ones  to keep excitement levels high. First off we had two nights on Rathlin, which gave us two and a half days on the island. This coincided with that wee spell of very heavy rain showers so was not as pleasant as it has been in the past. We made it to the RSPB West Light Seabird Centre but had a very odd convection mist hanging round the stacks. We could see west clearly towards Ballintoy, but not to Ballycastle or to the stacks west of the steps. We couldn't see the peregrine perch or the great skua nest yet when we walked towards the harbour it was bright and sunny at Kebble Cottage. I added corncrake to the list in the usual field behind the pub and we had a nice walk round the Craigmacagan trail. 

What guillemots?

Fulmar nest

Rock pipit fledgling

So close I could have touched it!

No view of birds to the west

What peregrine?

Cleared at Kebble cottage?

Harbour

Corncrake country

Church Bay

East light from Craigmacagan

2026 
149: Puffin
150: Corncrake

Round Rathlin

This post is sponsored by Rafa and John Murdoch who provided a good camera and a 200mm lens. It was the same combination as the trip to Alaska in 2023 (Bangor West Patchwork Challenge: Alaska and the inside passage) when the card corrupted on the penultimate day. This time I was more careful so there are pictures. 

The best part of the trip apart from the birds is the ability to view the three lighthouses from the sea. 

Upside down west light

Lighthouse and stack

East light

East light and cattle

Rue Point

Farewell to Rathlin

Bird wise I managed 14 species - the only passerine was a hooded crow on top of the north cliffs. Clearly we go for quality rather than quantity although there are thousands of auks and gull along the cliffs. Here are a few pictures but if you want to see the good stuff you need to go on this Facebook page and scroll down to see the round Rathlin photos from May 21st. 

(2) JBirds - Birding by Boat | Facebook

Guillemots

Fulmar

Puffin

Razorbills

North cliffs

Kittiwake

Razorbills

Gannet

Grey seal

Herring gull in Ballycastle

Jackdaw seeking food

 in Ballycastle

Rook and Fair Head

One is very small and the other is very far away Dougal (If you know you know!)

I only added two to the 2026 list

148: Kittiwake

149: Puffin

More spring migrants

Busy gull island, note construction in the background

Quite a few birds on the patch lists but not too many pictures unfortunately. I'll go by patch and throw in the usual scenic views and add in what's about in WOW.

The feeders are down in the garden apart from suet balls as per RSPB advice. Something is eating the suet but as yet I haven't seen any birds? The coastal path added common tern, meadow pipit and gannet. The wind has been north or north east of late and this is keeping things quiet. Migrants are always at a premium on a north facing coast with no lakes or large areas of woodland and a steady northerly isn't helping. I eventually had a flyover swift, again later than usual. 

WOW has good water levels and it is starting to drop and expose some mud. There are over 500 black-headed gulls settling to breed as well as 5 pairs of Mediterranean gulls. Teal and wigeon have gone but we still have shoveler, tufted, gadwall, mallard and shelduck. Wader are around in small numbers as most of them have headed north to breed. I have added the expected summer visitors such as sand martin, house martin, swallow and swift. We also had a one day spoonbill, a short staying common sandpiper and an adult little gull. I finally tracked down chiffchaff by song. Sandwich tern numbers have been around the 20-30 mark, common terns peaked last week at over 60 and we also spotted one arctic tern. We await the deployment of the temporary tern island now that the terns have returned and most of the gulls are on nests. There are mallard ducklings and black-headed gull chicks and we "think" the pair of mute swans are sitting on eggs in the reed bed south of Hide 2.

As usual I picked up other birds off patch with a few trips out and about. The annual trip to Glenwherry added the expected cuckoo but also gave a brief sighting of a superb male hen harrier. We also enjoyed lots of singing skylarks, a flyover raven,  and a pair of wheatears.  A walk to the Commons  in Donaghadee produced a very unexpected whimbrel and the first gannet of the year. We also had a walk round the Belfast Waterworks on the Antrim Road where Merlin helped out with a list of common and expected birds including 2 ring-necked parakeets which are still around the area. We also had an interesting sighting of a fisherman in chest waders somewhere out in the middle!!

Waterworks scenic view

Yes it's a fisherman!

Oxford Island swallow

WOW shelduck

WOW mallard & Shoveler

WOW gadwall

2026

138: House martin

139: Spoonbill

140: Common tern

141: Little gull

142: Cuckoo

143: Hen harrier

144: Whimbrel

145: Gannet

146: Swift

147: Arctic tern

NDCP patch
56: Swallow

57: Meadow pipit

58: Common tern

59: Gannet

60: Swift

Belfast RSPB patch

70: Wheatear

71: Spoonbill

72: Chiffchaff

73: Swallow

74: Common tern

75: Little gull

76: Sand martin

77: Swift

78: Arctic tern

79: House martin

The grand tour

 A bit like Victorian nobility jaunting round Europe, Tanya and I jaunted round Northern England. Not a lot of bird pictures, some scenic shots but lots of year ticks. 

We will just go chronologically starting with a red kite along the A69 near Castle Douglas. Northumberland was very family orientated but I was still following the local WhatsApp group and the spotted redshank was still at Bothal Pond. Nice little spot which also added two early swallows (April 4th). Following family stuff we had an afternoon at Washington WWT. I have not been there for a long time so it was basically a new adventure and we did the circuit of the wild bit away from the captive birds. Spring was in the air and Merlin was greatly in use as there was a lot of birdsong. We saw over 40 species including multiple chiffchaffs, 3 goosander, a self found spotted redshank, singing blackcaps, 5 stock doves at the feeders, 12 avocet on the wader lake and a nice comma butterfly. 

Cowslips were rampant at Brockholes LWT reserve

Comma

Visits to Hadrian's Wall and Alnwick Castle were basically bird free apart from a falconry display at Alnwick where Harris hawks and a Lanner falcon were the main attraction. I am ambivalent about captive birds of prey but the Lanner falcon could seriously shift!

Wall at Housesteads

Inner Bailey at Alnwick

The next stop was south to Bawtry to catch up with friends and we had a morning in the Idle Valley Country Park. I had not been there since 2019 but it was a warm sunny morning, birdsong was rampant and we listed 35 species including 5 cattle egrets, multiple chiffchaffs and blackcaps, first willow warblers of the year, a singing whitethroat which popped up nicely for a view  and a singing garden warbler which I actually picked up myself from the song, saw briefly and had  confirmed by Merlin. Oh happy day! Then on to Bolton via a birdless M62 and finally heard the local tawny owl from the bedroom window. Next day we had a frustrating walk with the dog as we heard three calling nuthatches but failed to get a good view of any of them. I next spent over an hour at the Elton Reservoir feeders with a brief walk between showers. This gave all the usual suspects at the feeders  including parakeets plus 2 jays hanging on to the suet feeder AND a heard and seen nuthatch. I have never seen jays at any feeders before and their feeding method seemed to be to hammer the suet as much as possible before they fell off and hopefully knock some suet to the ground for eating. A second visit to Elton for an evening walk gave sand martins, swallow and a nice reed bunting but not the hoped for swifts seen there earlier in the day. That was that, as family duties meant there were no more bird trips and no more year firsts.

Now guaranteed at Elton

Lurking jay

Awful photo on the phone through the windscreen but it is a jay trying to eat suet!

Back home  and a morning at WOW added wheatear, common sandpiper, willow warbler and blackcap to the lists. There were also at least ten Mediterranean gulls around and a recent count produced around 400 black-headed gulls and 30+ lesser black backs who are already predating mallard chicks. Surprisingly we found all of our seven wintering ducks including a couple of teal, but it is getting to the stage of finding something that is not a BHG. Finally a swallow over Bangor and a church walk round Ballymacormick Point added a singing sedge warbler in the gorse and a couple of house martins over Groomsport. 

Moorhen

Black-headed gull

Passing shoveler

Spot the Med gull

Spot the kestrel in Lancashire

Ballymacormick Point - somewhere in there was a sedge warbler.

2026 

124: Dipper

125: Red kite

126: Spotted redshank

127: Swallow

128: Avocet

129: Garden warbler

130: Whitethroat

131: Willow warbler

132: Cattle egret

133: Tawny owl

134: Nuthatch

135: Common sandpiper

136: Wheatear

137: Sedge warbler

138: House martin

NDCP patch

55: Lesser black-backed gull

56: Swallow

Belfast RSPB patch

66: Dunnock 

67: Willow warbler

68: Blackcap

69: Common sandpiper

70: Wheatear