London calling

Just a short update on our jaunt to London which was not all I hoped it would be as I dragged Tanya round some of my favourite haunts. We first visited Kensington Gardens and failed to see the little owls or attract any birds down to feed on the plentiful supply of pine nuts we had with us. We did however take a boat trip along the Regent's Canal to Camden Market where we were treated to very close views of starlings looking for easy pickings. Apart from that it has a wide variety of stalls and food outlets plus the bonus of watching barges use the locks, a very relaxed way of therapy.

Camden Locks

Waterbus on the Canal

Sturnus Vulgaris

Summary of Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park is as follows:
First visit May 2010
Last visit October 2016
Total visits 12
Best total was in April 2015 with 37 species
Worst total was in May 2015 with 18 species
Average species seen per visit was 23
Total species seen was 53

Rainham Marshes has just suffered its driest summer on record. Where there were once vast pools teeming with waders, ducks and gulls there was only hard brown mud. In fact my total for the visit was the worst ever and there was little to see. There are normally three large water areas and two were bone dry. The third had some water so most of the birds concentrated there - the only one with no hide overlooking it. We did see a flyby kingfisher, a little egret, stonechat, buzzard, kestrel and finally after nine visits and multiple disappointments I finally set eyes on a pair of bearded tits. Much bigger than I imagined, and thanks to the couple ahead of me who stopped and looked. I did the same and there they were in the tops of the reeds. No photos I am afraid, I just enjoyed the birds. Tanya dipped out as she did not fancy a second walk.

Grey heron hunting

Summary of Rainham Marshes is as follows:
First visit January  2010
Last visit October 2016
Total visits 9
Best total was in  December 2014 with 49 species
Worst total was in October 2016 with 36 species
Average species seen per visit was 43
Total species seen 81


 Last stop the Wetland Centre at Barnes which did have water. Highlights were good views of cetti's warbler and young, peregrine on the hospital, chiffchaff and a few late swallows. I was using the travel scope and was getting a bit of vignetting as I had not used it for a while, sorry about that, I think I have sorted it now.

Little grebe

Shoveler, lapwing and black-headed gulls

I don't normally photograph captive birds but as it was my last visit hear are a couple of photogenic specimens.

Southern screamer

Puna teal

Summary of Barnes Wetland Centre is as follows:
First visit July 2009
Last visit October 2016
Total visits 36
Best total was in November 2012 with 47 species
Worst total was in November 2009 with 28 species
Average species seen per visit was39
Total species seen was 97


 Back home to Belfast WOW on Thursday and a quiet day until a female sparrowhawk went looking for a meal and put everything up in the air. No photos,  as my charging cable finally gave up the ghost and I have no way of recharging the batteries. I am working on it via Amazon, but might invest in an attachment which will clamp my i pod to the scope. Highlights were returning shelduck, 280+ teal, 3 curlew sandpiper, over 700 black-tailed godwit, 20+ bar-tailed godwit, 100+ knot and 2 meadow pipit. Sandwich and common terns were noted at Kinnegar by one of our four visitors. Water levels are dropping and are good for waders hence the large numbers.

Phone photo of dropping water levels

WOW patch list:    
95 Little stint
 
West Bangor patch list:
67 Manx shearwater

2016 list 

186 Bearded tit




 

WOW and Castle Espie

WOW continues to be a pleasure to be at, despite missing out on the Baird's sandpiper. Last week saw reed cutting taking place but I still managed 4 new species plus a little stint this week. The highlights were kingfisher, little egret,meadow pipit and scaup plus good numbers of ducks and waders drifting in for the winter. There are no shelduck yet and in three visits in eight days I have seen common terns with 12 present today.

Serious reed cutting machine

 This machine and a low tide meant we were not expecting much but we still logged 30+ species and four new ticks for the 2016 patch at WOW.

Poser

Castle Espie on a rising tide provided another kingfisher, 14 grey plover and 4 little egrets plus a buzzard in a pine tree right outside the cafe. Thre are good numbers of brent geese on the lough with a handful of shelduck. No sign of the whooper swans yet, too early and too warm.

Brent geese

Kingfisher (on the branch!!)

Distant grey plover

 Off to London for a long weekend and a long overdue "final" visit to Barnes, Rainham and Kensington Gardens. A chance to say farewell to sites I have had the pleasure of visiting over the last eight years when I was travelling to London regularly. Hopefully I will get the odd weekend in London, maybe once a year rather than every 8 weeks. I will update next week and see what totals I have managed on my travels.

WOW patch list:    
91 Kingfisher
92 Little egret
93 Meadow pipit
94 Scaup
95 Little stint
 
West Bangor patch list:
67 Manx shearwater

2016 list 

183 Scaup
184 Grey plover
185 Little stint

More from WOW

Struggling to master the new format so it was easier to do two posts. The terns are easier to see from Hide 2 before the sun moves too far West. Even around 1300 I was getting glare. Late afternoon and early evening would be a nightmare as you would only see silhouettes. The area where the waders roost is also much closer and makes ID easier. Strangely enough the 6 Koniks don't seem to annoy the birds very much. They move out of their way but rarely spook. The ponies are quite good at lifting hidden birds like snipe out of the grass as well.

Tern planks looking west

Reserve bliss

Roseate tern

Roseate tern

Roseate tern

WOW patch list:    
84 White-rumped sandpiper
85 Curlew sandpiper
86 Roseate tern
87 Shag
88 Raven
89 Skylark
90 Pochard
 
West Bangor patch list:
65 Razorbill
66Common tern
67 Manx shearwater

2016 list 

179White-rumped sandpiper
180 Curlew sandpiper
181 Roseate tern
182 Kingfisher

Back to birding at last

Where have you been I hear you say? Why no birding? The answer is wrapped up in family visits to Bolton, so bird free I even left the binoculars out the last time. Too busy baby minding to go anywhere with birds. WOW has also been intermittent as I have missed three Thursdays, but I got back this week and although the terns are heading off the waders are coming back. Apart from that not really a lot to report but there are some nice pictures and the lists have been updated.

Ruff, one of nine scattered about

Raven

Pair of curlew sandpiper, there were up to 8 seen

Birds on holiday?

Not a lot to report recently. A boat trip to the Copeland Islands added puffin to the year list and put the County Down list up to 200. It also provided lots of manx shearwaters, immature gulls and seals. We were able to visit the Observatory and see a shearwater chick in its burrow.

Puffins in the sea

More puffins

Fratercula arctica

Common tern close up

 

Manx shearwater chick

A visit to Rathlin added wheatear and sedge warbler to the year list but not the expected great skua. It flew past all the non birders eating their lunch while I was visiting the lighthouse!! Work at the harbour turned out to be a new deep water berth for the bigger ferry so here are a couple of shots of the old one before it is taken out of service. I remember when it was state of the art and an improvement on an open boat with an outboard at the back.

Castlerock Beach at sunset

Belfast WOW is quiet, most of the gullls have gone and the terns are at various stages of fledging. Some are flying, others still vulnerable. Last week I watched a common tern chick being taken and swallowed by a lesser black-backed gull, possibly one of the breeding pair on the reserve. A wood sandpiper popped up last week but too well hidden and too far away for a photograph. Waders are staring to drift in and it looks like autumn is on the way while we still wait for summer. The poor weather has its compensations however as we have had good numbers of swifts, swallows and house martins giving good views.

WOW patch list:    
81 Greenshank
82 Sedge warbler
83 Wood sandpiper
 
West Bangor patch list:
64 Gannet

2016 list 

175 Puffin
176 Sedge warbler
177 Wheatear
178 Wood sandpiper

Quiet homecoming

After three weeks plus in France I returned home to  a much changed patch. No birdsong, everything keeping out of sight, rampant greenery and very few additions to the patch lists. Nevertheless in the words of Edith Piaf " Non, je ne regrette rien". The passion,  fervour and sheer excitement of the Euros more than made up for a scarcity of birds.

Stade de Lyon

 The trip was not entirely wasted birdwise as I racked up manx shearwater from the ferry, and in various locations en route South I picked up white wagtail, redstart, black redstart, and black kite. Highlight was a stopover in Gap and a day off driving. We took a bus up to a chateau, had a picnic lunch, a walk around the  chateau,  and then walked back down into Gap. This gave good views of a pair of red-backed shrike and eight griffon vultures. Try sorting your bird of the day from those two.

Walk near Gap

View over Gap from the Chateau

 Belfast WOW was a haven of peace and tranquility with breeding common and arctic terns, Mediteranean gulls, black-headed gulls, mute swan, coot, moorhen, mallard, shelduck, greenfinch, goldfinch, chaffinch and lesser black backs. The autumn wader passage has started, sorry,  I know we are still awaiting summer. There were 3 common sandpiper, 60 bar-tailed godwit and 35 knot this week.

Med gull with chick

Med gull

Black-tailed godwit

We are off to Bolton on Wednesday so hopefuly a bird or two there to boost the year list - I am still missing willow tit!!

WOW patch list:    
80 Sand martin
 
West Bangor patch list:
64 Gannet

2016 list 

168 Manx shearwater
169 White wagtail
170 Black kite
171 Redstart
172 Black redstart
173 Griffon vulture
174 Red-backed shrike

Au revoir mes amis.....

Que sera, sera whatever will be will be,
We're going to gay Paree,
Que sera, sera.

Last proper post for a while as we are off to join the army for three weeks, the Green and White army that is, or as they say in France "L'armee vert et blanc". Things have been quiet since I last posted with a couple of visits to WOW where we now have common terns looking like breeding and black-headed gull chicks hatched. Apparently there are two med gull chicks as well but they are hard to spot.

Common tern

The black-headed gull family

One of five tufties

We also did a return trip to the Gobbins to see the seabird colony. We had good views of guillemot, razorbill, kittiwake, shag, cormorant and gannet but dipped out on Puffin. You get reasonably close to the breeding ledges and if you have a better camera than mine you could get some nice shots. Margaret Adamson did so on her blog here:

http://birdingforpleasure.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/through-my-lens-gobbins-walk-part-1.html

This is the first of six posts on the Gobbins and you will see that she did see one more puffin than I did.

With only a couple of walks along the coastal path it was going to be hard to find new birds. Whitethroat could not be found and gannet pushed the list up by one. Basically I was away too much in May, and June is not going to be any better. However three weeks in France might boost the year list.

Kittiwakes on the nest

WOW patch list:    
78 Bullfinch
79 Blackcap
 
West Bangor patch list:

64 Gannet

2016 list 

166 Gannet
167 Kittiwake