Keep on keeping on

This will update both patches before a planned trip to Northumberland and Bolton to add all sorts of goodies I can't get locally.

I have added eight to the North Down list - garden goldcrest, Carnalea black guillemot and Ballyholme brent geese, but a visit to the Long Hole to look for rock pipit turned up a most unexpected addition to the patch list in the form of a single twite. I noticed a small bird feeding on the small weedy, stony beach between the Long Hole and the back of the North Pier - not rock pipit as it had a stubby finch bill so having ruled out redpoll I was left with linnet (expected) and twite (a long shot). I got good close views and bingo, it's a twite. 

A female sparrowhawk also had the decency to land in the garden and do a bit of preening - it didn't get a meal. I finally added rock pipit and also picked up an offshore red-throated diver on one of my many visits to look for the kingfisher which has graced the Long Hole for three years but I fear it has finally gone. Stricklands produced the expected grey wagtail on the lower pond so I have now seen most of the species I expect to see at the start of the year. 

Twite at the Long Hole

WOW continues to have high water levels despite the sluice being open. Apparently the sluice drains into a storm drain which takes the water towards the channel. However in times of heavy rain (like 2026) the run-off from the road pushes back up the sluice and pushes the water into the reserve. The key is to anticipate a period of heavy rainfall and close the sluice. Clearly it is not as simple as open the sluice and let the water out, plus the sluice needs frequently dredged, cleaned and raked to remove all the detritus trying to get out and gumming up the works. The resulting high water levels means that the reserve is not as favourable for small waders. I did manage jackdaw and ringed plover at Kinnegar so it is not all bad.

Old friend from April 2021

New Stena ferry

Swan pair, we hope they don't stay

Male gadwall

As well as goldcrest and twite (see above) I finally saw a treecreeper in a friend's garden close to Castle Park in Bangor, Having not seen one in all of 2025 it was a bit unexpected  to see one in a suburban garden. What was even more bizarre was to see one land in a tree in front of me in Antrim Castle Gardens the very next day  while I was using it for cover to watch a small flock of lesser redpoll bathing in a puddle!!  I finally added pheasant by nearly running over a splendid male near Ardmillan whilst out looking for fieldfares which are still off the list. 

2026
80: Goldcrest
81: Twite
82: Treecreeper
83: Lesser redpoll
84: Pheasant

85: Red-throated diver

86: Grey wagtail

NDCP

43: Black guillemot

44: Goldcrest

45: Brent goose

46: Twite

47: Sparrowhawk

48: Grey wagtail

49: Red-throated diver

50: Rock pipit

WOW

58: Knot

59: Jackdaw

60: Ringed plover

1 Across: HIJKLMNO (5)

The title is a cryptic crossword clue which hopefully you will get by the end of this post. If not the answer will be on the subsequent post. Please feel free to post the answer in the comments section plus any other observations you may have.

First a quick trip to Castle Espie on November 6th on a rising tide in the hope of  nice pictures. Unfortunately heavy rain put paid to that and by the time it cleared the tide was well in and the birds had moved on. We did seee grey plover, little egret, greenshank, kingfisher, golden plover and 46 whoopers at Islandhill as well as all the regulars. Bonus was a flock of twite from the Limestone Observatory which we decided were redpoll rather than linnet. We never considered twite as they are relatively rare here, but closer examination of the photographs and a bit of help from NI birds gave us an unexpected bonus tick.

Wet and cloudy

Willow brent at Castle Espie

Wader roost on the saltmarsh with brent behind

Twite

Twite

The Greater Belfast area had serious rain on three days in the last week and at last water levels rose significantly at WOW. From nowhere we suddenly had water and birds - there were over 500 teal, 60 wigeon, 200 curlew, 60 knot, 20 dunlin, 200 lapwing, 150 black-tailed godwit, a snipe  and a shelduck!! This plus the usuals gave us over 30 species for the first time in about 5 months. Added to the excitement of counting we had three birds with rings. The first was a greylag goose with a white 212 on the right leg. We suspect this was one of the geese ringed and collared as part of the study to see where the geese go and how they impact on the Harbour Airport. The other two ringed birds were black-tailed godwit and these were much more exciting.

Ringed godwit GG-ORf

This bird has been seen regularly here since it was first ringed in Iceland in July 2007. We saw it in May of this year and it was seen in Whitehouse Lagoon in August this year, now it is back at WOW at the age of 11. In many ways it was like welcoming back an old friend. I'll post a full history next time. 

The second bird was new to the reserve  so we forwarded the description to the relevant authorities and this is what came up!!

L-GW//W

09.09.02	Holbeach, the Wash estuary, Lincolnshire, E England
25.10.15	Rahasane Turlough, Co. Galway, W Ireland
29.07.16	Snettisham, the Wash estuary, Norfolk, E England
21.08.16	Snettisham, the Wash estuary, Norfolk, E England
23.08.16	Snettisham, the Wash estuary, Norfolk, E England
24.11.16	Dee estuary, Cheshire, NW England
20.08.17	Frampton Marsh, the Wash estuary, Lincolnshire, E England
13.07.18	Snettisham, the Wash estuary, Norfolk, E England
08.11.18	Belfast Lough, Co Antrim, N Ireland

         
Having been ringed in The Wash in 2002 it was not seen for 13 years, suddenly it popped up in Galway and has been regularly sighted since and is now 16 years old. How cool is that for a godwit. This sort of staggering feedback shows us how important ringing programmes are in building up a picture of bird migration and we were well chuffed - to coin a phrase.

As well as bringing in birds to the reserve the rising water levels pushed the birds towards the observation room and gave better photo opportunities than we have had recently.

Redshank

Mallard pair

Black-tailed godwits

Three photos to finish with showing that WOW is back in business and perhaps you can now solve the clue.

November 8th

November 11th

November 11th

2018  
157: Twite

Bangor West
71: Curlew

Belfast WOW
99: Jay