Gobbins cliff walk

 Finally managed to get to the Gobbins on a cold blustery November day. We managed to dodge the showers and get back dry and all in all had a very good three hours. We went for the 1300 tour which is the last one of the winter as it is too dark for later trips. It did take the full three hours and was well worth it.  This time we had a range of seagulls, shag, jackdaw, raven and robin. the latter in a cave down at sea level. Why it was there and what it was feeding on I have no idea.

It would be challenging if you struggled with steps - 500 up and 500 down -  and the access path is very steep - about 1:4 but the thought of breeding sea birds would be a great incentive. Hopefully I will be back inMay/June.

The garden is picking up as I go back to a full range of winter feeding. Th local feral pigeons have returned in numbers and I fight a constant battle to deter them. Otherwise I have had greenfinch (6), chaffinch (10), bullfinch (1), linnet (1) and goldfinch (20+) plus all 4 tits, dunnock, robin, blackbird, song thrush, jackdaw, magpie, wood pigeon, collared dove, rook and starling. 

Belfast WOW has been very quiet of late and indeed for the first time ever I walked in and there were no birds at all in the roost spot in the NE corner. This was two hours before high tide and it didn't get much better as there were only 140 lapwing and 110 blackwit at high tide. Not an oystercatcher in sight. Highlights have been 2 ruff, 8 snipe, three mistle thrush , a first for me at the reserve. The feeders have attracted 2 coal tits and and 2 redpoll as well as a blackbird. Goldfinch and greenfinch give nice views. Despite the lack of waders I still clocked 33 species and bird of the day was mistle thrush, you don't get to say that very often. :-)

A week of WOW

Patch birding has been very slow as November has seen shortening days and a lot of rain. Mild temperatures have hung on in there but there have been a few colder spells as winter kicks in. Having volunteered to help with schools week at WOW - or Belfast Harbour RSPB Reserve as we oldies know it - I am now definitely going to add a second patch to the 2016 challenge.

Late October saw a stonechat and 2 little egret turn up giving me my 100th species at the reserve. There is always a good selection of ducks and waders and during the schools week I logged 38 species. The highlights were over 100 greylag geese, 6 whooper swans, then a single bird, buzzard virtually daily, excellent views of snipe and a coal tit at the feeders. Most visitors and volunteers rarely see a snipe but the buzzard flushed 5 and they flew towards the observation room to land and one gave excellent views to everyone including one very fortunate P5 class who happened to be there at the right time.

Buzzard on the grass

Need I say more

Whooper at WOW

 

Whooper posing outside the window

The year list went up by two thanks to a Short-eared owl at Ballymacormick and a fly past by a Jack snipe while owl watching. I saw the owl twice, once sitting still for over an hour and then sitting on an islet and making a short flight. Always a delight to see this all too rare visitor.

70 up - birds not years

Having managed nothing in September I find myself mid way through October with three patch ticks and I have reached the 70 species I thought I would be able to make. Ringed plover was expected and over 40 at the Long Hole did the job. As yet there are no dunlin with them. Whooper swan flying in to Strangford over the house was a long shot but five did just that the other morning. Fortunately I was looking in the right direction at the right time. A female pheasant bursting out from under my feet as I walked along the coastal path was the least expected of the three. I did the same walk today and was fortunate to see a peregrine flying west over the coastal path. I also saw a wide range of coastal species, meadow pipit and linnet. The eider are back in force and there are black guillemot off shore.

While at the Long Hole looking for roosting waders- oystercatcher, redshank, ringed plover, turnstone and 5 purple sandpiper - I also saw four black guillemot flying in to their nesting holes along the road, behavior I have not noticed before. They sat looking out for some time and this one was unfazed my me taking a photograph on the phone.

Winter plumaged black guillemot

The garden continues to attract a few common species but is generally quiet. I still have hopes of siskin and redpoll in the garden and hopefully a diver off the coast, anything else will be a bonus. It is too late for patch shearwater and to date no brent have been seen and mute swan, coot and moorhen remain a dream.

Patch list:
68  Pheasant
69  Ringed plover
70  Whooper swan

The autumn moon lights my way

Hard to believe the patchwork challenge is three quarters of the way there and for the first time I managed a month with no patch ticks. Partly because I have got most of what I am going to get and secondly because most of the month was spent "Rambling On". I dashed outside last week to look at a flock flying over but lost them so they remain a mystery. I am still missing mute swan, coot and moorhen.

A week in France around Nice and Vence  produced two new year ticks in the shape of a Fischer's lovebird, an escaped species which is common in and around Beaulieu, and a white wagtail. Yellow legged gulls were the default gull and this one came down to a puddle for a drink.

Yellow-legged gull

 Pennington Flash in Manchester produced a lovely nuthatch and the Wetland centre at Barnes Elms gave superb views of a hobby thanks to a bird ringiing team who put me on to it. I only caught the tail end of the ringing but it was fascinating to watch and an education for me as a birder. I have been birding almost 40 years and this was the first time I have been up close and personal with the objects of my hobby. The other feature of this site was the total lack of large aircraft heading for Heathrow which gave it a beautiful noise free quality. The blocking high meant that the flight path did not go over the reserve and we had blissful silence instead of a 747 every two minutes.


Belfast WOW last week had 32 species including 104 teal, 6 common tern, 2 coal tit and a late house martin.

London wetland

Chiffchaff

Long-tailed tit

Ruff from WOW a couple of weeks back.

Garden tick for raven

You read it here first. While painting the gate to the rear garden this morning I heard a familiar "Kronk, kronk" overhead and there was a raven flying over the garden towards central Bangor. I have been anticipating this for some time but it is still nice to see and hear it. Next year Castle Park is off the patch and Ballyholme is on.

I spent a pleasant 90 minutes sitting at Stricklands Bay behind the scope on Sunday afternoon. The thinking was that the terns sit on the point to the west and I might get some shots. The best ones are these two of common terns - a patch tick no less.

There were also sandwich and arctic terns, gannet, guillemot, cormorant, shag, oystercatcher, turnstone, redshank, herring gull, black-headed gull and various passerines such as swallow, house martin, magpie, wood pigeon, pied wagtail and blackbird. 

Belfast WOW has better water levels and August 20th was a good morning all round producing 38 ruff, little stint, wood sandpiper, common sandpiper, greenshank, sanderling, spotted redshank and an immature peregrine hunting unsucessfully. Most of the terns have fledged and numbers are down to a couple of hundred, but we had 35 species all told as we had 6 people working scopes at the same time, hence the extensive list. If something appeared somebody was on to it. There was also a 60+ finch flock at the back of the reserve, mainly goldfinch and linnet and a passing buzzard. In previous years I have gone there to see a ruff and been over the moon to see two, nearly 40 was incredible. Later in the week there were more than 50. The waders are on the move and autumn is on the way.

The following day we had a quick visit to the Quoile and managed to see over 100 mute swans and a kingfisher, first there for a long time. Most stuff was on the far side and I did not have a scope as I was not expecting to be there. 



Patch list 67 - common tern

Golden eagle

We had a trip up the North Coast last week and had a couple of outings to Rathlin and Malin Head as well as a look at the Barmouth hide.

Barmouth hide

An hour here produced all the usual estuary/mudflat birds and a juvenile peregrine which landed briefly on one of the seaweed covered rocks. The trip to Malin also turned up a juvenile peregrine but not the hoped for chough. Basically there were too many people about. I did pick up fulmar and gannet offshore but other than that everything was as expected.

Malin Head

Chough free zone

The Rathlin trip was to attempt the Kinramer North walk which is the most difficult of the five off road walks,   " For the intrepid walker",  according to the leaflet. It cuts North at the Kebble to the North cliffs, along the cliffs and then back to the road. Like all walks on Rathlin the scenery is spectacular and the bird list always turns up the unexpected, in this case 4 great skua using a lake  to bathe in and then an immature golden eagle between us and the West lighthouse.  The minute I got the binoculars on the bird I said to my two companions, "That is a golden eagle". Then I thought to myself, don't be daft it is probably a buzzard, but the longer I looked the more sure I was - white patches above and below on the wings and the sheer size of the bird. It flapped and soared over a valley between us and the seabird colonies but would have been impossible to see from there. It was in sight from the road but there were no birders, only tourists to see the puffins! It eventually dropped in to the dip and out of sight and despite being in the area for around two hours we did not see it again. Never mind, a first for Northern Ireland, all Ireland and Co Antrim. I have been looking for an eagle here for a long time and when I finally got one it was on our 44th wedding anniversary, how good is that? The total for the trip was 33, well down on Rathlin standards but we also saw buzzard, kestrel, stonechat, skylark, reed bunting and about 15 manx shearwaters from the ferry. All in all a good day. We finished off at Harry's Shack for a meal - good food but slow service - the eagle was the more memorable experience of the two.

North cliffs looking East

Stunning view

Looking West, this is where the eagle appeared about five minutes later.

Coquet Island

Following the boat trip theme I was able to do a trip round Coquet Island, a small RSPB reserve off the Northumberland coast. Landing is not allowed on the island so we were confined to floating around just offshore. There is a breeding colony of almost 40,000 puffins as well as arctic, sandwich, common and roseate terns. The 100 pairs of roseate terns are the largest colony in the UK. We managed to see all of these plus fulmar and kittiwake. The boat trip from Amble also gave good views of eider, cormorant, 4 gull species and merganser. 

Coquet Island lighthouse

Dripping with puffins

Tern and puffin

For the rest of the day we explored the coast  and saw 50 species in all including barwit, blackwit, little egret, avocet, stonechat, linnet and tree sparrow. 

Cresswell Pond, there is an avocet here!!

 I returned to Belfast WOW on Thursday last hoping to see the white-rumped sandpiper which had been present for three days when I was in England, unfortunately despite the best efforts of eight quality birders it could not be located, the bird had flown. Nevertheless we managed 31 species including 2 common sandpiper, snipe, ruff and around 130 dunlin all of which were eagerly scanned several times over. It is probably not a good idea to look at NIBirds when you are in England as it can be a little frustrating. The last time this happened I was in Northumberland while a snowy owl was up around Binevenagh.

Patch watching remains static as I have found most of the birds I expect to see. The latest addition was a buzzard which was soaring somewhere over Bangor West before heading back towards Crawfordsburn. I am on 66 species and would like to think I will make 70. Anything over and above that will be a bonus.