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| Busy gull island, note construction in the background |
Quite a few birds on the patch lists but not too many pictures unfortunately. I'll go by patch and throw in the usual scenic views and add in what's about in WOW.
The feeders are down in the garden apart from suet balls as per RSPB advice. Something is eating the suet but as yet I haven't seen any birds? The coastal path added common tern, meadow pipit and gannet. The wind has been north or north east of late and this is keeping things quiet. Migrants are always at a premium on a north facing coast with no lakes or large areas of woodland and a steady northerly isn't helping. I eventually had a flyover swift, again later than usual.
WOW has good water levels and it is starting to drop and expose some mud. There are over 500 black-headed gulls settling to breed as well as 5 pairs of Mediterranean gulls. Teal and wigeon have gone but we still have shoveler, tufted, gadwall, mallard and shelduck. Wader are around in small numbers as most of them have headed north to breed. I have added the expected summer visitors such as sand martin, house martin, swallow and swift. We also had a one day spoonbill, a short staying common sandpiper and an adult little gull. I finally tracked down chiffchaff by song. Sandwich tern numbers have been around the 20-30 mark, common terns peaked last week at over 60 and we also spotted one arctic tern. We await the deployment of the temporary tern island now that the terns have returned and most of the gulls are on nests. There are mallard ducklings and black-headed gull chicks and we "think" the pair of mute swans are sitting on eggs in the reed bed south of Hide 2.
As usual I picked up other birds off patch with a few trips out and about. The annual trip to Glenwherry added the expected cuckoo but also gave a brief sighting of a superb male hen harrier. We also enjoyed lots of singing skylarks, a flyover raven, and a pair of wheatears. A walk to the Commons in Donaghadee produced a very unexpected whimbrel and the first gannet of the year. We also had a walk round the Belfast Waterworks on the Antrim Road where Merlin helped out with a list of common and expected birds including 2 ring-necked parakeets which are still around the area. We also had an interesting sighting of a fisherman in chest waders somewhere out in the middle!!
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| Waterworks scenic view |
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| Yes it's a fisherman! |
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| Oxford Island swallow |
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| WOW shelduck |
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| WOW mallard & Shoveler |
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| WOW gadwall |
NDCP patch
56: Swallow
Belfast RSPB patch
70: Wheatear
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