Finch fest

The feeders have been buzzing of late, particularly the sunflower hearts, and I have had a wide variety of birds coming and going. The following pictures illustrate the interesting combinations observed. I have also had blackbird and magpie on, but when they appear everything else clears off! The odd slightly blurry image is caused by the feeders swaying in the wind or when a bird lands, and my simple digi-scoping kit does not cope well with this. 

Bullfinch

Blackcap & Linnet

Siskin (M)

Chaffinch, house sparrow & Siskin (F)

Linnets (F)

House sparrow

Greenfinch pair

Blackcap & Goldfinch

Goldfinch and a pair of siskins

No patch updates, but things are looking up as winter visitors are still around and summer visitors are on their way north - watch this space!

The North Down patch

Oh you lucky people, instead of once a month you get two in a week as I try to update the local patch which also includes a few 2026 birds I didn't see on New Years day. That includes this little beauty which pitched into the garden two days in a row.

Jay on the bird table

I didn't get jay on the local patch last year and it is a couple of years since I had one in the garden. A few days later three greenfinches turned up at the feeders. It is at least two years since I've had a garden greenfinch and the last one was a single male only seen once. It seems the cold spell has some benefits for the garden birder. The cold spell also encouraged a song thrush to feed in the garden and I then realised I had two of these, one in the apple tree and one on the grass.  These along with three blackcaps (2 female and a male) and three bullfinches (2 male and a female) were the standout birds in early 2026. The supporting cast were much as last year - chaffinch, goldfinch, linnet, robin, dunnock, blackbird, woodpigeon, collared dove, magpie, hooded crow, starling, herring gull, blue, coal, great and long-tailed tits. All obviously feature in the Birdwatch Ireland garden bird survey which is now in its sixth week - that means we are almost half way through the winter as it runs for 13 weeks. To date I have not seen jackdaw in the garden and my house sparrows have disappeared as well. Hopefully they will drop in during the next seven weeks. 

Greenfinch via the phone waved at the scope - the camera was on charge!

Camera shot

Blackcap (F)

Blackcap (M)

Song thrush

Coal tit

Linnet

Blue tit

Goldfinch & Chaffinch

Bullfinch

The coastal path and a walk towards Ballyholme  has added a few of the usual suspects - cormorant, turnstone, eider duck, common gull, black-headed gull, jackdaw, pied wagtail, oystercatcher, redshank, dunlin, ringed plover, purple sandpiper, shag, house sparrow, rook and a wren on the top pond in Stricklands Glen.  A walk to Carnalea added moorhen, great black-backed gull, lapwing, grey heron and a razorbill in Smelt Mill Bay. All expected apart from the razorbill. Currently puts me on 42 for the patch. I will wrap that up for now and do another post on the WOW patch which got off to a solid start with 51 species.

2026

65: Tufted duck

66: Blackcap

67: Bullfinch

68: Coal tit

69: Jay

70: Linnet

71:Rock pipit

72: Ringed plover
73: Purple sandpiper
74: Coot
75: Moorhen
76: Snipe
77: Black guillemot
78: Razorbill

North Down patch

42: Razorbill

Garden birds and WOW

Not a lot going on at the minute so I tried to spend some time in the garden seeing what was about in the colder weather. I really haven't done this much this winter and this is the first time this year I have set up the digiscope and waited. I failed to get a shot of the local house sparrows but here is a selection of garden visitors. There are as many as eight blackbirds at one time and 5/6 chaffinches. At one stage I had 20 starlings squabbling round the suet feeder which is emptied daily - and refills are not cheap! I have seen two male blackcaps and one female so am unsure how many I actually have. The rook is an occasional visitor if there is no movement around the window, one false move and he is off. The magpies are the same while the wood pigeons and the squirrel are more difficult to shift.

Male starling?

Male blackcap

On a different fat feeder

Long-tailed tits

Female chaffinch

Mrs blackbird

Mr blackbird

Rook waiting for a go at the fat feeder

Nothing terribly exciting at WOW but a female scaup was spotted briefly and we had good views of displaying shelduck, there seemed to be nine males chasing one female. The gulls were displaying and investigating the nesting island for the first time this year. The wigeon had all but disappeared but despite a quiet morning I still managed 43 species between WOW and Kinnegar.

Resting teal

Displaying shelduck

One of 30+ on the reserve

one of 70+ on the reserve

I also managed to see four whooper swans at Islandhill and dippers at Mossley Mill plus a wren along the coastal path, so totals are inching upwards as we wait for the migrants to appear. Presumably the cold snap will set everything back a week or two although sandwich terns and lesser black backs are about. Roll on March!!

2018

108: Whooper swan
109: Scaup
110: Dipper
     
Bangor West
49: Wren

Belfast WOW
62: Reed bunting
63: Bullfinch
64: Scaup