Friday 24 July 2020

Still waiting for waders

Another visit to WOW on July 16th saw much of the same birds with no tern chicks as yet. It is still a bit wet but not flooded and evaporation is kicking in. The following selection gives a flavour of a July reserve and a July garden with finches and tits still raiding the sunflower hearts. No additions to the lists except a Mediterranean gull at Whitehead which was a first for Co Antrim.

July 16th

Arctic tern

Curlew

Godwit & curlew

Moorhen

Common sandpiper

Chaffinch

Goldfinch

Bullfinch

Nice pair of tits

A further visit to WOW this week (July 23rd) and a couple of pictures showing that the water situation is slightly better and  common terns are posing on posts. The tern situation is worrying as this time last year we had fledged chicks and this year we have not seen any at all and the terns appear to still be sitting on eggs. If we do the math we should have had fledged chicks around the week of July 19th providing they laid eggs around the end of May. That plus a lot fewer terns/nests than last year is ringing alarm bells. There are so many variables outside our control especially on the wintering grounds and at sea it is hard to work out what has happened, but clearly something has upset the balance somewhere. On the up side I added gannet, chiffchaff and little egret but am still missing a lot of waders which I should have added in the spring.There was a common sandpiper around as well as swallows and sand martins No more WOW for a couple of weeks as we are off to Bolton on a long overdue visit to the family. Hopefully a bit of birding will be squeezed in.

July 23rd

Common tern

2020
140: Common sandpiper

Bangor West
68: Manx shearwater

Belfast WOW
82: Chiffchaff
83: Gannet
84: Little egret

Sunday 19 July 2020

Autumn passage!

Apparently autumn waders are on the move. I am still hoping for a few late spring migrants like sedge warbler and cuckoo!! I did connect with a family of spotted flycatchers in the Antrim Hills having given up on them. The last time I saw one in Northern Ireland was in June 2013 along the Newry Canal so it was nice to see them again. WOW was wetter than it has been on July 9 and I came up with  arctic tern and common sandpiper. Unfortunately I had a camera malfunction so the photos were all on the phone and digiscoping was not good. The garden is not a lot different than it has been over lockdown and the coastal path has also been fairly quiet. Walks in local areas have also been quiet, birds are harder to see and apart from blackcaps there is very little singing. Autumn in the world of birds is indeed on the way as birds go quiet, hide and moult. Hopefuly WOW will open soon and we have half  a chance of some wader passage from the observation room. Oh to be back with the Thursday club again and arguing over biscuits.

July 9


Arctic tern

Arctic tern
Black guillemots in Bangor

2020
136: Peregrine falcon
137: Puffin
138: Kittiwake
139: Spotted flycatcher
140: Common sandpiper

Bangor West
66: House martin
67: Common tern
68: Manx shearwater

Belfast WOW
77: Manx shearwater
78: Peregrine falcon
79: Sandwich tern
80: Arctic tern
81: Common sandpiper

Sunday 12 July 2020

Rathlin by sea

Probably the best way to do it, but this year it is the only way to do it as the island was Covid free and they were determined to keep it like that. Until recently it was forbidden to land and even when things eased up there was nowhere to go and nowhere to shelter. People were advised to bring their own food and if it rained eat it in the bus shelter. Things are slightly better now as I think the pub has opened but the seabird centre is still closed and the staff are furloughed. The word on the cliffs is that it will probably remain closed this year as the climb to and from the platform makes social distancing very difficult. So off we went with Redbay Powerboating and the Kintra ably skippered by Charlie Stewart. Due to tide and wind we did the trip anti-clockwise and started off with a pod of bottle-nosed dolphins coming out of Ballycastle. Unfortunately I discovered that my camera was still clamped to the scope which was in the house so all photos were taken on the phone. The list included all that was expected including peregrine, raven, manx shearwater, gannet and all the gulls except black-headed. We dipped on great skua - they were following the wrong boat!  All in all a cracking thre hours with the usual stunning views of Rathlin from the sea, highly recommended. Here are two sites with photos taken from the Kintra.



The first site is the boat page which has some nice photos, the second one is the RSPB page and some of the punters put their photos up on the site, scroll down and look for Gary Gray and Brian Fullerton.  Even if I had brought my camera I could not have bettered the shots by Brian and Gary.

Kittiwakes

Razorbill

Guillemots

Puffins

East light

Seals

Rue Point


Stacks at Bull Point

Auks at sea

West light

Wednesday 8 July 2020

The nights are on the turn!

June is gone and the nights are on the turn! The autumn waders are on the move and the lockdown eases in time for the rain and gales. It has been wet enough to put a bit of water into WOW and a visit on July 2  was a pleasant surprise.

July 2

Terns still sitting

Ringed black-tailed godwit

Common tern

Lapwing

Sandwich tern

Lesser black back looking for a snack of duckling

The highlights were 2 sandwich terns, a passing peregrine which raised everything and a ringed godwit which was ringed as an adult in Cork in 2014 and has only ever been spotted in the Cork area until it turned up at WOW.  There were also 70+ Manx shearwaters off the rough car park at Airport Road West. I totalled 27 species and the gull chicks are all over the place but the terns still seem to be sitting on eggs. There were good numbers of curlew, black-tailed godwit and oystercatcher but no swans, cygnets or shelduck. The only duck spotted was a mallard family at Hide 2 in the reeds. I added common tern and manx shearwater to the North Down patch and the garden is ticking over with regular visits from the bullfinch pair. I even had a bullfinch fledgling as well as fledglings of all 4 tits, dunnock, blackbird, goldfinch, chaffinch and robin. A trip to Rathlin was next on the list and I will do a separate post for that .

2020
136: Peregrine falcon
137: Puffin
138: Kittiwake
139: Spotted flycatcher

Bangor West
66: House martin
67: Common tern
68: Manx shearwater

Belfast WOW
77: Manx shearwater
78: Peregrine falcon
79: Sandwich tern