Lough Beg boat trip

Another Lough Beg boat trip kick started autumn birding with the highlight being an osprey which has been present for a few days giving good views. Initially seen sitting on a dead tree it sprang into life as we headed south and did a flyover the boat!! Other birds included 5 great white egrets, 2 green sandpipers, multiple kingfishers, 20+ whooper swans including several families and a common sandpiper. Thanks to Anthony McGeehan for the osprey photograph, I am afraid my  osprey images are not seeing the light of day. I recorded 24 species. The March trip recorded 22 if I take off the passerines seen on a walk along the canal. There are lots more image on the JBirds Facebook page, including 5 glossy ibis which were seen on the morning trip. Here is a link.

(1) JBirds - Birding by Boat | Facebook

Osprey by Anthony McGeehan

Great white egret in flight

Kingfisher 

Whoopers in flight

Church Island

Mainly mallard

Grey heron (1)

Mute swan

Grey heron (2)

I got a Cockle Island update from Anthony as well as an osprey photo. There were still one or two arctic terns around in late August feeding chicks -  possibly pairs which had re-laid a second clutch when the first one was destroyed during the electric fence fiasco.  Between 80 - 100 pairs bred and all of these were inside the electric fence. Anything attempting to build outside the fence (common terns and oystercatchers) was probably predated by the otters. An oystercatcher which failed to breed twice was also seen feeding a nearly fledged arctic tern chick with lugworms, crab and cockles. This is most unusual behaviour and there does not appear to be any records of cross species feeding of any kind in the literature. Hopefully the National Trust will learn lessons from the breeding season and put their electric fence up properly and on time in 2027. 

I walked the coastal path and forgot to put the SD card back into the camera so only a scenic phone shot and no new birds either. 

WOW has been a bit same old, same old. I was away for three weeks and came back to much lower water levels and the same late summer birds as when I left. I have added greenshank, ruff and sanderling to the list plus a gannet off Kinnegar. The sanderling pitched up at Kinnegar when I took a visiting American birder there to look for ringed plover. Unfortunately we dipped on them as the tide was too high, but two sanderling landed briefly and got added to the list. Other than that the wee fish have attracted 11 herons and two little egrets and there are the usual waders - curlew, dunlin, redshank, lapwing, and black-tailed godwit. 

Exposed mud

Lapwing

Black-tailed godwit  x 2

Redshank

Time for another YouTube offering. This time it's a birder called Harry Boorman who is doing a big year. Seeing as he is on 269 birds the pace has slowed a bit but he does shoot some nice footage. In this video he is on the Scilly Islands doing pelagics, If you go back to videos posted in early 2026 you will see him getting more common stuff. 

The UK's ultimate seabird adventure

2026 list

162: Egyptian goose

163: Osprey

NDCP Patch

61: Manx shearwater

Belfast RSPB patch

81: Pochard

82: Sanderling

83: Greenshank

84: Ruff

85: Gannet

Bits and bobs, WOW and Cockle Island

A few bits and bobs from the trip to England. Glastonbury has breeding peregrine falcons on the church tower. Heard a juvenile screaming one evening and two nights later saw two adults and two juveniles playing chasies round the town centre - awesome. Also had good views of red kites at various locations including two over a National Trust property near Bristol.

Phone shot!!

Egyptian geese at Pennington Flash

Great tit at the Flash - no feeders!

Woodpigeon at the Flash

Pied wagtail at Lytes Manor (NT)

Chilean and lesser flamingos at Slimbridge

Chilean flamingos at Slimbridge

Back to a much cooler Northern Ireland and WOW. All the usual suspects including 3 ringed common terns. Ronnie chased these up and they were all ringed in June 2024 in Dublin Port. Apparently second year terns visit breeding colonies but don't breed. One was a first resighting, one had been seen in  Hafan y Môr, Gwynned in Wales in September 2024 and one was seen in Seaforth, Lancashire last month.

Gadwall pair

Unringed common tern

Starling pretending to be a tern

A trip on the Strangford Lough ferry and a chance to check out two house martin nests on the ferry. The fact that the ferry is constantly crossing the narrows doesn't annoy the house martins who are successfully raising young. Not competent enough to put arrows on the pictures, but the two nests are above the window under the ledge.

House martin nests

Close up.

Finally an update from the arctic tern colony on Cockle Island Groomsport. Despite the National Trust mismanagement the terns have bred successfully and there are flying young for the first time since 2022. There were around 80 nesting pairs so fingers crossed we have a good number of fledged young. 

2026 list

161: Little ringed plover

162: Egyptian goose

NDCP patch

61: Manx shearwater

Belfast RSPB patch

81: Pochard

Patch update and a LIFER

It says patch update but it is mainly WOW with one bird on the North Down patch, an update on Cockle Island (again) and a stunning lifer in the Cooley Mountains.

We'll start local with an expected Manx shearwater  - or ten - off the coast near Bangor. 

WOW continues to deliver 30+ species of a morning. At present it has several hundred black-headed gulls, 150+ common terns and 80+ sandwich terns which are all in the process of breeding. We have confirmed breeding as well from coot, moorhen, mallard, tufted duck and shelduck. We also had a visiting roseate tern which gave quite good views if a bit distant and a male pochard also dropped in.  Ronnie got a "record shot" of the roseate so he gets the credit for that one. The temporary tern island is in place and work continues on D3. 

Roseate tern  (Ronnie Doggart)

Shelduck family, nest boxes, temporary island and piles on D3

Black-tailed godwit

Arctic tern

Shelducklings

Common tern

Mediterranean gull

Sandwich tern

The sandwich tern was ringed on Blue Circle Island in Larne Lough in June 2021 and this is the first re-sighting. An amble round Castle Espie added a singing reed warbler, a bird I normally get in England. 

A female red-footed falcon was showing well in County Louth in late May/early June. It's about 75 minutes away and I don't normally twitch birds, but it hung around and eventually I was tempted and I fell. We followed a google pin up into the Cooley Mountains, drove round a bend and there were a group of birders with scopes and cameras filling their SD cards as the bird moved between a fairy thorn, a fence and the ground. My problem was I had left my SD card in the laptop so after six shots the camera was full!! Apologies for  another record shot but it was a stunning bird.

A quick update on the Cockle Island arctic terns has good news and bad news. The good news is that there are chicks but the bad news is that the electric fence had fallen down in places and the NT chose to fix it in the middle of the breeding season. It was put up far too late in a bit of a hurry so it hasn't done the job. We live in hope!! Another two photos from Ronnie Doggart  show arctic tern chicks including one in a box kindly sponsored by Anthony McGeehan. 

Chick appreciating the shade from Anthony's box

Chick wishing Anthony had bought a second box. 

2026

152: Peregrine falcon

153: Red-footed falcon - Lifer  😎

154: Roseate tern

155: Reed warbler

NDCP patch
60: Swift

61: Manx shearwater

Belfast RSPB patch

79: House martin

80: Roseate tern

81: Pochard

It's April

 We are only home  six weeks from exotic foreign adventures (Northumberland and Bolton) and we are off again to the same places!! Easter in Geordie land and then a bit of child care in Bolton. Thought it a good idea post an update on what has been happening in the meantime.

The local patch has added a couple of expected visitors in sandwich tern and lesser black-backed gull, while the garden finches had a post all of their own. Other than that it's been a slow transition into spring with  the occasional cold wintry day. It looks like the classic spring migrants will be seen in England rather than Northern Ireland. 

WOW is also mired in winter with all seven winter ducks still present and very few migrants to quicken the pulse so far. We have added a few species . A male pintail spent a lot of time with its rear end up in the air and we finally added Mediterranean gull to the list in mid March. This week I finally found a dunnock -  it only took three months - and three sandwich terns flew in. Hopefully they will breed again this year rather than going to Cockle Island where high spring tides and predatory rats seem to have pushed them out. We might even get some of the arctic terns as well as they haven't bred successfully since 2022.

Godwit at rest

Poor shot of an uncooperative Med gull

Uncooperative pintail

That's better

Class of 2021 back again

Med gull standing up

As you know, the two patches don't provide all the birds I see, so there have been a few wee excursions elsewhere. A trip through the north quarries at Scrabo added raven and chiffchaff. JBirds - Birding by boat arranged an excursion through Lough Beg on a fine warm sunny afternoon and this was an excellent trip through an area I have viewed from land, so the chance to see it from the water was too good to pass up. I clocked up 37 species including an unexpected fieldfare in a tree at Toome, a green sandpiper along the Bann, sand martins overhead and the piece de resistance -11 glossy ibis in flight. As usual I have some nice scenic views but here is a link to the JBirds Facebook page where people with good cameras who know how to use them have posted their shots. 

JBirds - Birding by Boat | Facebook

This is the main page, you will have to scroll down to reach the Lough Beg trip on March 21st. there are lots of good shots of a wide variety of birds well worth looking at.  There are at least a dozen posts from different people on the trip, so keep on going and don't miss the sparrowhawk pretending it is an osprey which was seen on the morning trip. Kingfisher was also seen by a few people but didn't pose for a picture. I also added dipper on the Inver River at Larne as the 2026 list moves ahead ready for the migrant bonanza that is April and May. 

Primroses at Scrabo

Chiffchaff tree at Scrabo

Our boat on the Bann

Bridge at Toomebridge

Church Island from Lough Beg

New LIFER for me, can I add it to all my lists?

 

2026 

115: Water pipit

116: Mediterranean gull

117: Chiffchaff

118: Raven

119: Sand martin

120: Fieldfare

121: Green sandpiper

122: Glossy ibis

123: Sandwich tern

124: Dipper

NDCP patch

53: Guillemot

54: Sandwich tern

55: Lesser black-backed gull

Belfast RSPB patch

62: Starling

63: Pintail

64: Mediterranean gull

65: Sandwich tern

66: Dunnock (DOH!!)