Saturday 20 July 2019

Garden birds

Heading off to England to child mind tomorrow so nothing scheduled today, so a chance to tidy, chill, pack and watch the feeders which are being emptied faster this month than they are in the depths of winter. The fact that I was about meant that magpies, flying rats and squirrels were chased, so the smaller stuff got a chance to feed. I only missed chaffinch and linnet from the regular visitors. Some a little blurry as the feeders were swinging in the wind. I also had collared dove, jackdaw, magpie, hooded crow, robin and dunnock. Herring gull and lesser black backed gull flew overhead.  Enjoy.

Mr sparrow
Mrs Sparrow
Long-tailed tit family -  up to six
With a great tit
Young blackbird, we have three feeding.
Posy pigeon
Great tit
Blue tit
Coal tit
Goldfinch
There is a queue
The niger feeder is emptied daily at present. Also used by linnets, but not today!!

Mr bully, mum was there as well, but is camera shy.
Still I wait for redpoll at the niger feeder. The only addition to the list is a great skua on Rathlin where we had 29 species on a day trip. Nothing unexpected and being a dull wet day in July we missed quite a few regulars. Need to go in May/June when they are singing. WOW had 28 this week including the long-billed dowitcher which re-appeared briefly. We also had a common sandpiper, 5 ravens and a brood of shoveler - mum and five young.

England here we come and hopefully a two owl day like I had a couple of years ago.

2019
146: Great skua

Bangor West
64: Razorbill

Belfast WOW

89: Bullfinch

Friday 12 July 2019

Good news and bad news

No point in beating about the bush here, like a demented whitethroat. The good news was the rose-coloured starling which turned up in a housing estate in Dundrum. The bad news is that the arctic tern nest in front of the observation room at WOW has failed. The terns were off the nest and looking puzzled, then they were not sitting/changing and a quick check revealed no eggs or no chicks. They are still hanging round the area and we hope they will lay a second clutch. We have no idea what happened. There are four hours of daylight before anyone comes in and five hours after we lock up so they could have been predated by a magpie, crow or gull. Definitely not a fox. Despite the pall of gloom over the volunteers WOW still has lots to see and last week turned up dunlin, greenshank, common sandpiper and a roseate tern which I have yet to connect with. Kinnegar shore had two sandwich terns as well as all the usual birds. I spent some time two weeks ago at the feeders as the lagoon was only giving good views of black-headed gulls.

Linnet (F)
Young linnet ??
Chaffinch (F)
Goldfinch with redpoll
Linnet (M)
Out on the lagoon this week we had some nice birds, including the obligatory tern on the plank shot.

One of the arctic terns from the nest
Large visitor
Common tern
Attentive coot parents
Arctic tern on the marker stone
Young lapwing, hopefully one of ours from the reserve but who can tell?

Bee orchid
The rose-coloured starling hit the headlines midweek so we went off on Friday to see if we could find it. Fortunately it was one of those occasions where it was not a hard job. Find the street, walk down and hope for a man with a large camera pointing over a fence at  a feeder and bingo there it was, very little effort involved and the chance to take a few pictures. We had a chat with the finder and that was that, duly ticked and recorded. A celebratory lunch in Newcastle was followed by a walk from Dundrum along the old railway line to Ardilea and Dundrum Inner Bay north. This produced lapwing, curlew, shelduck, grey heron, cormorant, mallard, three species of gull and 11 little egrets roosting right in the north of the bay near the inflow. The Shimna River had a pair of grey wagtails but I was unable to find any mandarin ducks at the boating pond.

The coastal path finally produced a few goodies in the late evening on a calm millpond sea. I took the scope down to a vantage point and was able to see quite far out. Gannet, manx shearwater and razorbill were supplemented by guillemot, black guillemot, eider duck, oystercatcher, cormorant, sandwich tern leser black- backed, black-headed and herring gull. Singing blackbirds and wood pigeons plus hunting house martins made for a very pleasant thirty minutes.

Finally the pictures you have all been waiting for, the star of the show all the way from Asia via eastern Europe..........roll of drums..............rose-coloured starling!!






2019
144: Manx shearwater
145: Rose-coloured starling - LIFER  😎

Bangor West
61: House martin
62: Gannet
63: Manx shearwater
64: Razorbill

Belfast WOW

87:Sandwich tern
88: Common sandpiper
89: Bullfinch

2019

144: Manx shearwater
1

Sunday 7 July 2019

Peregrine watch and the north coast boat trip

Fair Head from Ballycaastle Bay
We signed up for a long awaited boat trip along the North Coast from Cushendall to Carrick-a-rede, and then to Bull point and round the north coast of Rathlin, down the east coast, into Church Bay and back to Fair Head and Cushendall - seven and a half hours at sea on a 12 seater RIB.  The aim was to check nesting peregrine falcon sites from the sea and we did get good views of nests, chicks and flying adults. Where and how many must remain a secret. The trip turned up 29 species including fabulous views of auks off Bull Point, Carrick-a-rede from a boat and and stunning views of all three of the Rathlin lighthouses from the sea. Throw in a millpond sea, the odd rock dove, blue sky and the chance to see parts of the coast inaccessible from the land and you have some idea of what a perfect day would be like. Thanks to Jim Wells and Charlie Stewart for organising a trip I have long wanted to do.

Fair Head from the sea is just stunning
Grey Man's path, and since you ask, yes I have climbed it.



Kenbane Head
Port More, inaccessible from the land without serious effort

Different viewpoint from below

Scary/not scary, delete where applicable
Amazing colours
West light and Bull Point
Auks at Bull Point

East light
South light at Rue Point
The RIB at Cushendall, we detached the tractor before setting out.