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!!)

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

More spring goodies

We are now well into June so it is time to post an update before I lose all track of what I saw and where I saw it.

We will start local as there have been three additions to the local patch -  swift, Manx shearwater and gannet. The main reason for this is that the garden is in full leaf, birds are harder to see and I haven't walked the coastal path as much as I would like.

WOW continues to throw up surprises. We had 6 pairs of breeding Mediterranean gulls, and the sandwich terns have over 50 nests and now there are chicks - easily seen on the camera. It also served up a greenshank, ruff and 2 male garganey in mid May  plus arctic terns.  When I returned in early June one garganey was still there and this week we had two firsts for WOW - a Canada goose and a spoonbill. Obviously the spoonbill was the centre of attention as there is a feral flock of Canada geese in Strangford Lough. The spoonbill was feeding well outside Hide 2 and roosting at the back of the reserve so the photos are not good. At one point it was sitting on the trestle outside Hide 2 so I went round there only to find it had flown off to the back of the reserve. Oh how we laughed (not)!! I had 34 species this week including all 4 swift/hirundines, 5 ducks, 5 gulls and 5 waders. 

Spoonbill - no doubt

Better than a flyover

Please come closer

Oh look it's at Hide 2 - run!!

Garganey and black-tailed godwit

Garganey

Garganey

Shelduck family

Shelduck family

Arctic tern

Arctic tern

I also got to England (again!!) and we had a day at Leighton Moss RSPB reserve. This added 6 birds which are not native to Northern Ireland or very hard to get a look at: Cetti's warbler, reed warbler, marsh harrier, marsh tit, sedge warbler and a flyover spoonbill which I got really excited about until I went to WOW last week. We were also told there were ospreys feeding and there is a nest for them according to the notice in the café.

Osprey cam

Well look at the ospreys, they have changed into a pair of greater black-backs with three chicks and we never did see the osprey (or hobby or bittern). Never mind it was a good day out with a nice lunch in the café and an oystercatcher nest with a single chick. 

        

Oystercatcher nest at Leighton Moss

Locally I added fulmar kittiwake and puffin on a round Rathlin boat trip, a mandarin duck on the river at Broughshane and a flyover red kite at the Quoile Bridge near Downpatrick. 

Mandarin duck

Finally there is this little chap which hit a window in Carnalea, was rescued, revived and released by my birding pal David Miller. We thought it might be a twite but then sanity took over and we went for a fledgling linnet.

2025

124: Carrion crow (from February!!)

125: Kittiwake

126: Fulmar

127: Puffin

128: Ruff

129: Garganey

130: Mandarin duck

131: Sedge warbler

132: Cetti's warbler

133: Reed warbler

134: Marsh harrier

135: Spoonbill

136: Marsh tit

137: Red kite

138: Manx shearwater

NDCP

55: Swallow

56: Swift

57: Manx shearwater

58: Gannet

WOW

83: House martin

84: Greenshank

85: Ruff

86: Garganey

87: Canada goose

88: Spoonbill

A pre spring roundup

Thought it would be a good idea to have a quick update before even more spring migrants pitch in. As well as that we are in Bolton again over Easter so best to update before we go. I have already seen the odd migrant and even had a chiffchaff in January at WOW. A lone swallow at Portavoe was a nice bonus on April 1st. WOW produced sandwich terns and sand martins. The garden has been very quiet as warmer temperatures have encouraged the garden visitors to move on, fortunately the coastal path added lesser black-backed gull and meadow pipit.

WOW has been quiet although we are still recording all seven of our winter ducks, large flocks of black-tailed godwits starting to colour up and a pair of Mediterranean gulls finally made an appearance. The main excitement has been four of our class of 2021 ringed black-tailed godwits reappearing and the odd vagrant gull dropping in briefly (Iceland gull and little gull). There has also been a whimbrel on the back bank for about two weeks. The anti-gull measures from the last blog seem to have failed as the island is now back up to 100+ black-headed gulls . The 2 Mediterranean gulls also seem to be setting up home where they did last year. It looks like we are back to the drawing board in deterring the gulls. 

Not working as well?

Med gull was not worried at all

Up and close with the godwits

Blue over yellow

Red over blue

Colouring up for migration

Had trouble with this one, all our godwits have this on their right leg.

More breeding finery

We also have little grebes

................ and coots

We also had a trip to Larne to look for mandarin ducks but drew a blank. The river did produce grey heron, grey wagtail and .........dipper!! Considering I did not see one in 2023 and 2024 it was a bit ironic to see two in the space of  15 minutes.

Inver river, Larne

Late news from WOW as I went to press was that the little gull which has been hanging around finally turned up on a Thursday morning. Being a little gull there was no point in trying for a distant picture as it was right at the back all the time. 

2025

105: Whimbrel

106: Mediterranean gull

107: Sandwich tern

108: Sand martin

109: Swallow

110: Little gull

NDCP
50: Sparrowhawk
51: Lesser black-backed gull
52: Meadow pipit

WOW
71: Whimbrel
72: Mediterranean gull
73: Sandwich tern
74: Sand martin

75: Little gull