Spring migrants arrive

 As you guys all know April and May are the months to be out and about. Last year I wasn't out and about but this year things are much better. 

Bolton at Easter was a brilliant family time and birding had to take a back seat, however I was able to squeeze in the odd twitch and a few walks.  I finally got to Rochdale and the peregrine falcon  was spotted on the town hall. Unfortunately they are not breeding there this year so it's a bit hit and miss. There is a web site with a camera trained on the nest but mostly it is empty as the falcons are breeding elsewhere in the town but occasionally the male pitches in and you might be lucky. They also have their own Facebook page. 

https://www.rochdaletownhall.co.uk/conservation/falcons

https://www.facebook.com/groups/RochdaleFalcons

Rochdale town hall

Phone shot I'm afraid, peregrine is sitting on the wee buttress down from the top.

Elton Reservoir had singing willow warbler and a nice walk. We went to Formby beach to paddle and build sandcastles and got gannet offshore, and on the way home detoured to Marshside RSPB for common sandpiper and pink-footed goose. (I also managed to miss a little ringed plover and a spoonbill).  A trip to Martin Mere only added a wheatear flying across the road. The reserve itself didn't offer a lot as you know from the previous post. We finally heard a tawny owl on the last night having missed it in February. I am also adding in carrion crow which was seen in February but escaped the list!

Back home and the coastal path finally turned up sandwich tern but also a singing whitethroat. Not an annual event but it was nice to see one again. I also got a swallow one evening hunting over Main Street in Bangor having not seen one at all last year. 

WOW had lots of  interesting birds as the breeding season got underway. The Mediterranean gulls are back in force with at least 4 pairs and possibly five. The little gull was still there into its fifth week. The most interesting observation concerns the sandwich terns. Normally we see the odd one or two early in the season but they don't stay. This year we have had over 30 who look like they are settling to breed (displaying, pair bonding, mutual feeding and mating). This follows on from the 60+ we had roosting at the end of the summer in 2024. We think they have re-located from Cockle Island in Groomsport which has been tern free so far this year. High tides seem to have washed out the nests last year so we think the terns have voted with their wings and moved to WOW. Common and arctic terns have both arrived and we have had the full suite of sand martin, house martin, swallow and swift hunting overhead. The wooded areas are full of singing birds and I added willow warbler and blackcap in the trees behind Hide 2.  Finally we also had a common sandpiper feeding in front of the window plus all the resident birds nesting. 

A trip up to Glenwherry for cuckoo drew a blank but we came back via Capanagh Wood and the Starbog Road and bingo, cuckoo seen and heard. A tidy spring list and there is still three weeks to go. 

Black-tailed godwits are colouring up nicely

Shovelers are sleeping

Mediterranean gulls on the platform

Sandwich terns on the platform

Nesting coot

Common sandpiper

The two shots of the nesting platform are screen shots taken from the camera on the platform as they are too far away for reasonable photographs. The camera is focused on a Mediterranean gull nest and it is giving good views of the pair. Hopefully the sandwich terns will breed as well.

2025
110: Little gull
111: Willow warbler
113: Gannet
114: Pink-footed goose
115: Common sandpiper
116: Wheatear
117: Tawny owl
118: Common tern
119: Swift
120: Whitethroat
121: Arctic tern
122: Cuckoo
123: House martin
124: Carrion crow (from February!!)

NDCP

52: Meadow pipit

53: Whitethroat

54: Sandwich tern

55: Swallow

WOW

75: Little gull

76: Willow warbler

77: Blackcap

78: Common tern

79: Swift

80: Swallow

81: Common sandpiper

82: Arctic tern

83: House martin

Spark bird - what's yours?

 A spark bird is the bird that started you birdwatching. Over Easter we ended up in Martin Mere WWT doing a duck hunt with the grandchildren. Unfortunately the ducks were hidden in the collection area so I was unable to get to any of the hides. I had Merlin on for some of the time and it registered a Cetti's warbler but I failed to hear or see it so it isn't on the list. What did spark my interest was the South American collection which contained some Chiloe wigeons and this was my spark bird back in 1974.

Chiloe wigeons at Martin Mere

The Golden duck!!

We were visiting a friend in Blagdon in Somerset and his dad owned and ran a chemist shop in Weston-Super-Mare. We went to visit him and he was selling binoculars. At that time I did not own a pair and usually borrowed my Dad's extremely heavy 10x50 if I wanted to see anything. I bought a pair of 8x30 binoculars for £13.50 and we went off to Chew Magna reservoir on the following day to try them out.  I saw and recognised a lot of the basic wildfowl - mallard, tufted duck, mute swan coot etc.. but there was one strange looking duck I did not know. Later that day we came across a bookshop which stocked a copy of  The Hamlyn Guide to birds of Britain and Europe by Bertel Bruun and Arthur Singer (which I still have by the way - see below) so I bought that and started looking for the strange duck and was a bit confused to find that the bird wasn't in the book. On returning home I now had binoculars and a book so I started to look for, identify and record birds and that was the start of a lifelong and very enjoyable hobby. It was another 13 years before I finally nailed the odd duck on Chew Magna reservoir - a Chiloe wigeon. It must have been an escape from a local wildfowl collection clearly doing its bit to confuse novice bird watchers.

Interestingly I started looking at birds locally in the autumn/winter of 1974/1975, but the records in my book show that I did not see a redshank until  August 1975 in Ballycastle. How could I have driven from Ards to Greyabbey to visit relatives and not seen a redshank along the shore? I ticked off new birds in the book with a date and a location, and it makes for interesting reading 50 years later.  Magpie is not recorded until February 1975 at Fair head - seems there weren't any in Bangor in those days!! Here's a couple of random pages and a battered cover to bring back birding memories. Doubtless some of you started with this book or owned a copy in the 1970s and 1980s. 

Finch page

Duck page

Working at an update on Bolton over Easter and patch updates since our return.  Listing will resume in the next post. Please feel free to name your spark bird in the comments.