Wednesday 19 December 2018

Ton up at WOW

Surprisingly last week bird number 100 on the WOW patch  was a kestrel which flew over and away. I have seen kestrel there but not for some time although one was spotted in the autumn by one of the regulars over the waste ground to the east. This was one of 29 species including all the regulars plus buzzard, redpoll, snipe and a male pochard. Water levels continue to rise and there has been more rain this week. We are down to two Koniks and they are on their last hurrah as they are to be replaced by Dexter cattle next autumn.

The millet is pulling birds up to the window and one of the eight snipe we saw came over and gave excellent views to a visiting bird group.

Teal

Matching teal

Snipe

Sod's law, best snipe shot photo-bombed by a moorhen.

Common snipe, note central cream stripe on head

Wigeon
Spring shot of Koniks for old times sake.
Heading off to Bolton for a week and hopefully nuthatch and water rail providing I get a morning at Pennington Flash. Should get a post towards the end of the year with summaries and totals. Happy Christmas.  🎅 🎄 🎅

2018  
157: Twite

Bangor West
71: Curlew

Belfast WOW

100: Kestrel

Saturday 1 December 2018

WATER

Now you have the answer to the clue as WOW is now back to normal and water levels are slowly rising to the accepted level. There have been good numbers of birds around the reserve and counts have been 30+ each Thursday morning. First an update on the younger of the two black-tailed godwits mentioned in the last post. This is the eleven year old bird which was ringed in Iceland and has been a regular winter visitor to WOW and also across Belfast Lough in Whitehouse Lagoon.It goes by the quaint title of  GG - ORf  which translates from the Icelandic as green, green (Left leg) - Orange, red flag (right leg)




Here is the sighting history from its ringing in Iceland in July 2007


16.7.2007 Iceland,N Ice,Skagafjarðarsýsla,Fljót,Langhús 66.0610 -19.121
8.9.2007 Northern Ireland,N Ire,Antrim,Belfast,Belfast harbour RSPB 54.6538 -05.909
12.10.2007 Northern Ireland,N Ire,Down,Strangford Lough,Castle Espie 54.5324 -5.6901
12.10.2007 Northern Ireland,N Ire,Down,Strangford Lough,Castle Espie 54.5324 -5.6901
12.10.2007 Northern Ireland,N Ire,Down,Strangford Lough,Castle Espie 54.5324 -5.6901
15.10.2007 Northern Ireland,N Ire,Down,Strangford Lough,Castle Espie 54.5324 -5.6901
17.5.2008 Northern Ireland,N Ire,Antrim,Belfast,Belfast harbour RSPB 54.6538 -05.909
16.4.2009 Northern Ireland,N Ire,Antrim,Belfast,Belfast harbour RSPB 54.6538 -05.909
15.4.2010 Iceland,W Ice,Mýrasýsla,Mýrar,Vogalækur 64.5296 -22.205
16.4.2010 Iceland,W Ice,Mýrasýsla,Mýrar,Vogalækur 64.5296 -22.205
19.4.2010 Iceland,W Ice,Mýrasýsla,Mýrar,Vogalækur 64.5296 -22.205
21.4.2010 Iceland,W Ice,Mýrasýsla,Mýrar,Vogalækur 64.5296 -22.205
23.4.2010 Iceland,W Ice,Mýrasýsla,Mýrar,Vogalækur 64.5296 -22.205
26.4.2010 Iceland,W Ice,Mýrasýsla,Mýrar,Vogalækur 64.5296 -22.205
14.2.2012 Northern Ireland,N Ire,Antrim,Belfast,Belfast harbour RSPB 54.6538 -05.909
25.2.2012 Northern Ireland,N Ire,Antrim,Belfast,Belfast harbour RSPB 54.6538 -05.909
14.4.2012 Northern Ireland,N Ire,Antrim,Belfast,Belfast harbour RSPB 54.6538 -05.909
6.3.2013 Northern Ireland,N Ire,Antrim,Belfast,Belfast harbour RSPB 54.6538 -05.909
17.4.2013 Northern Ireland,N Ire,Antrim,Belfast,Belfast harbour RSPB 54.6538 -05.909
18.4.2013 Northern Ireland,N Ire,Antrim,Belfast,Belfast harbour RSPB 54.6538 -05.909
17.4.2014 Iceland,E Ice,S-Múlasýsla,Álftafjörður,Starmýri 64.5345 -14.552
21.3.2015 Northern Ireland,N Ire,Antrim,Belfast,Belfast harbour RSPB 54.6538 -05.909
25.2.2016 Northern Ireland,N Ire,Antrim,Belfast,Belfast harbour RSPB 54.6538 -05.909
6.3.2016 Northern Ireland,N Ire,Antrim,Belfast,Belfast harbour RSPB 54.6538 -05.909
31.7.2016 Northern Ireland,N Ire,Antrim,Belfast,Belfast harbour RSPB 54.6538 -05.909
5.10.2016 Northern Ireland,N Ire,Antrim,Belfast,Belfast harbour RSPB 54.6538 -05.909
26.10.2016 Northern Ireland,N Ire,Antrim,Belfast,Belfast harbour RSPB 54.6538 -05.909
27.10.2016 Northern Ireland,N Ire,Antrim,Belfast,Belfast harbour RSPB 54.6538 -05.909
10.11.2016 Northern Ireland,N Ire,Antrim,Belfast,Belfast harbour RSPB 54.6538 -05.909
10.12.2016 Northern Ireland,N Ire,Antrim,Belfast,Belfast harbour RSPB 54.6538 -05.909
4.10.2017 Northern Ireland,N Ire,Antrim,Belfast,Belfast harbour RSPB 54.6538 -05.909
4.10.2017 Northern Ireland,N Ire,Antrim,Belfast,Belfast harbour RSPB 54.6538 -05.909
23.12.2017 Northern Ireland,N Ire,Antrim,Belfast,Belfast harbour RSPB 54.6538 -05.909
5.4.2018 Northern Ireland,N Ire,Down,Strangford Lough,Castle Espie 54.5324 -5.6901
17.4.2018 Northern Ireland,N Ire,Down,Strangford Lough,Castle Espie 54.5324 -5.6901
19.8.2018 Northern Ireland,E N-Ire,Antrim,Belfast,Whitehouse Lagoon 54.6538 -05.909
8.11.2018 Northern Ireland,E N-Ire,Antrim,Belfast,Whitehouse Lagoon 54.6538 -05.909
10.11.2018 Northern Ireland,E N-Ire,Antrim,Belfast,Whitehouse Lagoon 54.6538 -05.909
11.11.2018 Northern Ireland,N Ire,Antrim,Belfast,Belfast harbour RSPB 54.6538 -05.909
39 records

As you can see it is a much travelled bird with a good sighting history and we were delighted to be able to help in scientific research and can only imagine the delight of the ringer when they get a sighting. Other than that not a lot to report, but birds are closer in.

Moorhen
Teal
The rising water levels at WOW meant that the staff decided to float the tern islands back to their winter quarters.This disturbed a young female peregrine which was snacking near the swift tower. It hung around  and gave good views especially when it had a go at the local buzzard.They also shifted about 600 wigeon, 60 moorhen, 60+ wigeon and 40+mallard. The second tern island re-location took an interesting "turn" with a hint of a Rod Stewart number about it. 


Clear the furniture
Wait for the assistant to return
Pretend we are on the Cam punting
Suddenly realise there is a brisk westerly wind, so open the sails and cruise across the lagoon to a Rod Stewart soundtrack, "We are sailing"
It actually worked very well and they made good progress before they had to down sails and head north to winter quarters with the poles and a bit of a push. As you can see WOW is still stuck on 99 and has been since early October, I need a diver or a sea duck and I need it soon. Keep looking!!

2018  
157: Twite

Bangor West
71: Curlew

Belfast WOW

99: Jay

Tuesday 13 November 2018

1 Across: HIJKLMNO (5)

The title is a cryptic crossword clue which hopefully you will get by the end of this post. If not the answer will be on the subsequent post. Please feel free to post the answer in the comments section plus any other observations you may have.

First a quick trip to Castle Espie on November 6th on a rising tide in the hope of  nice pictures. Unfortunately heavy rain put paid to that and by the time it cleared the tide was well in and the birds had moved on. We did seee grey plover, little egret, greenshank, kingfisher, golden plover and 46 whoopers at Islandhill as well as all the regulars. Bonus was a flock of twite from the Limestone Observatory which we decided were redpoll rather than linnet. We never considered twite as they are relatively rare here, but closer examination of the photographs and a bit of help from NI birds gave us an unexpected bonus tick.

Wet and cloudy
Willow brent at Castle Espie

Wader roost on the saltmarsh with brent behind

Twite
Twite
The Greater Belfast area had serious rain on three days in the last week and at last water levels rose significantly at WOW. From nowhere we suddenly had water and birds - there were over 500 teal, 60 wigeon, 200 curlew, 60 knot, 20 dunlin, 200 lapwing, 150 black-tailed godwit, a snipe  and a shelduck!! This plus the usuals gave us over 30 species for the first time in about 5 months. Added to the excitement of counting we had three birds with rings. The first was a greylag goose with a white 212 on the right leg. We suspect this was one of the geese ringed and collared as part of the study to see where the geese go and how they impact on the Harbour Airport. The other two ringed birds were black-tailed godwit and these were much more exciting.

Ringed godwit GG-ORf
This bird has been seen regularly here since it was first ringed in Iceland in July 2007. We saw it in May of this year and it was seen in Whitehouse Lagoon in August this year, now it is back at WOW at the age of 11. In many ways it was like welcoming back an old friend. I'll post a full history next time. 




The second bird was new to the reserve  so we forwarded the description to the relevant authorities and this is what came up!!


L-GW//W
09.09.02
Holbeach, the Wash estuary, Lincolnshire, E England
25.10.15
Rahasane Turlough, Co. Galway, W Ireland
29.07.16
Snettisham, the Wash estuary, Norfolk, E England
21.08.16
Snettisham, the Wash estuary, Norfolk, E England
23.08.16
Snettisham, the Wash estuary, Norfolk, E England
24.11.16
Dee estuary, Cheshire, NW England
20.08.17
Frampton Marsh, the Wash estuary, Lincolnshire, E England
13.07.18
Snettisham, the Wash estuary, Norfolk, E England
08.11.18
Belfast Lough, Co Antrim, N Ireland
         
Having been ringed in The Wash in 2002 it was not seen for 13 years, suddenly it popped up in Galway and has been regularly sighted since and is now 16 years old. How cool is that for a godwit. This sort of staggering feedback shows us how important ringing programmes are in building up a picture of bird migration and we were well chuffed - to coin a phrase.

As well as bringing in birds to the reserve the rising water levels pushed the birds towards the observation room and gave better photo opportunities than we have had recently.

Redshank

Mallard pair

Black-tailed godwits
Three photos to finish with showing that WOW is back in business and perhaps you can now solve the clue.

November 8th

November 11th

November 11th
2018  
157: Twite

Bangor West
71: Curlew

Belfast WOW

99: Jay


Monday 5 November 2018

Patch Gold curlew

After several weeks of walking to and from Bangor I finally nailed a curlew on the patch. That should be it for the year unless I get really lucky with a diver or sea duck close in. Reed bunting was a spring absentee and is unlikely now, redpoll also missing but could turn up on the feeders in the garden. I will keep walking the patch anyway - at this time of year it is a pleasant walk with less people to disturb the birds. The other notable sighting was 3 razorbill offshore at Carnalea.  I also managed to get to Seacliff Road high tide roost on a sunny afternoon and was happy to get a few shots. There were 5 black-headed and 3 herring gulls, 3 oystercatcher, 3 redshank, 6 turnstone, 4 dunlin, 5 purple sandpiper and over 60 ringed plover. Offshore there were eider, black guillemot, cormorant and shag. All in all a very pleasant 30 minutes and I was able to point out birds to some passing walkers who were totally oblivious to the avian riches on display

Ringed plover

Redshank
Ringed plover & dunlin
Pied wagtail
Gulls & waders
Ringed plover, purple sandpiper & turnstone

Ringed plover & purple sandpiper
WOW finally received some water as you can see from the following photographs taken on October 18. A shelduck, two shoveler and 19 golden plover were highlights of the day as well as a few teal.

Water!!

Shelduck reflected in water!!

Golden plover reflections as well.


Look Chris has built a second hide.
Unfortunately there has been little or no rain since, so by November 1 it was still damp but had dried out considerably. Apart from the teal and a few lapwing everthing else had moved on. There were however 18 snipe on the mud in Kinnegar Lagoon and up to 5 little grebe in the pool.  These may be  the ones which breed in WOW and hopefully they will return once we have water. Offshore there were black guillemot, eider and merganser. This week has been wet and it is forecast to be very wet over the next two days so fingers crossed.

2018  
156: Sooty Shearwater - LIFER 😎

Bangor West
71: Curlew

Belfast WOW

99: Jay




Sunday 14 October 2018

Still no water

Not a lot to report really as the lists are stuck where they were and there has not been a lot of rain. We managed 21 species at WOW including two buzzards and two ravens. Kinnegar added a few more including a count of over 170 red-breasted mergansers. Mallard and shelduck both flew over the reserve, had a look, and flew on.There was the usual curlew roost which contained some oystercatchers and a few black-tailed godwit, otherwise it was same old, same old as the following photos show.

Buzzard eating a meal, possibly a moorhen.

Curlew and oystercatchers

Resident hooded crow

Raven

Raven with magpies in attendance

Flotilla of moorhens on the mud

Every dot is a moorhen

Sometimes there are no moorhens to see and then gradually they appear out of the reeds and spread over the mud. We still have 80+ around the reserve, but then they get spooked and dive for cover. These 40+ are down to the right of the observation room. There are another 40+ over to the left and quite a few on the far side where Hide 2 is. A visit at the minute guarantees moorhens, hooded crows, magpies and wood pigeons, anything else is a bonus or a flyover. If the feeders are operational we can add goldfinch, greenfinch, chaffinch, plus blue, coal and great tit. As usual it is worth checking Kinnegar lagoon and shore, this week we had knot, 2 sandwich tern, bar-tailed godwit and teal. It has been a trifle damp of late so hopefully water levels will start to rise - watch this space!!

The coastal path has not produced much, but then there isn't much left to add. The high tide roost at Seacliff Road gave good views of waders but I decided not to bring the scope and camera as I could
not be bothered carrying it - bad decision - as high tide and bright sun behind me made conditions perfect for pictures. The following are taken with an ipod, think what a good camera wuld have done with ringed plover, turnstone, purple sandpiper, redshank, and oystercatcher all perched up on the rocks. Throw in a great-crested grebe close in at Strickland's Bay and I could have had a field day. This was the first time I have ever seen a grebe here and the first time I have seen one so close in. Normally they are scoped somewhere in Ballyholme Bay at the outer limits of the patch. Note to self is to look for a high tide and a good day and bring the equipment!!


Ringed plovers

Ringed plovers and turnstone

Redshank

There's the grebe

GCG
GCG  

Nice gannet, very close in to the shore.