Bangor West Patchwork Challenge: The North Down patch +

Friday, 24 January 2025

The North Down patch +

Things have been building up nicely on the local patch with a few walks along the coast and a bit of time looking at the back garden. I am now up to 47 with a few nice surprises in the first week. Last year I struggled with a few species and was into the last week of the year before I finally nailed them. Here is a wee table to illustrate this:

Species 2024 2025

      Lapwing                  November 23rd     January 20th

      Mallard                  December 29th       January 4th

Curlew December 29th January 4th

Grey wagtail December 31st January 4th

I have had 3 blackcap, 2 males and a female - who are vigorously defending their chosen feeders. All small birds are chased from the feeders including the robin. Larger birds and ground feeders are ignored. The only small bird which has successfully fed is a male house sparrow who goes on the suet feeder and is left alone by the male. He also struggled to chase a gang of long-tailed tits The male defends the apple tree area, the female defends the rowan tree. Occasionally one or other will make a sortie into the other bird's area and all hell breaks loose for a second or two. It is usually the female who backs down and retreats. This is affecting the Irish Garden Bird Survey as I am struggling to see tits and finches as no sooner do they turn up at a feeder than they are chased off. I genuinely think they have got the hint and are going elsewhere. Other than that I have seen the following in the garden with the maximum number in brackets: Robin (2), collared dove (1), herring gull (1), dunnock (2), blackbird (11), woodpigeon (2), magpie (3), hooded crow (2), jackdaw (3), goldfinch (3), coal tit (1), blue tit (2), great tit (1), starling (6), song thrush (1), goldcrest (1), rook (1), chaffinch (2), linnet (6) and bullfinch (2).

Blackcap(F)

Long-tailed tit

Blue tit

Linnets

Blackcap

Bullfinch

Linnet and blackcap showing mutual tolerance and respect

for a change.

The coastal path has added the four mentioned above as well as eider, redshank, turnstone, ringed plover, dunlin, oystercatcher, purple sandpiper, black-headed gull, common gull, brent goose, moorhen, cormorant, shag, red-throated diver, grey heron, pied wagtail, rock pipit, black guillemot, great black-backed gull and wren.

WOW has also racked up a few species since the last post. At this time of year it would be an odd week if I didn't turn up a new patch tick at WOW. Things will then settle down until the spring rush when I should get a wee boost again. Recent additions include buzzard, snipe, mute swan, greylag goose, linnet, blue, great and coal tit, brent, greenfinch, dunlin, sparrowhawk and the star of the show an avocet which stayed around for four days. I had no faith in it at all so I went to see it on the Wednesday but Sod's law kicked in and it was still there on Thursday so we were able to get lots of visitors onto it as it fed, preened and roosted on the far side of the reserve. Hide 2 was closed as the contractors were laying down a nice new path as part of the works on D3. The good news is that it was a lot wider than we expected and it will go down to the channel.