Round the Lough delivers

Quite a lot to update since the last post. The Bangor West total stands at 40 with a walk along the coast delivering many expected species including purple sandpiper, red-throated diver and most amazing of all brent geese in the car park at Seacliff Road. A sparrowhawk in the garden is always nice even if it didn’t hang around for a photo.

Grazing in the car park

Not fazed by cars

Looking for a family space?

Belfast WOW kicked off with 39 species including peregrine, snipe, bar-tailed godwit and three twite, a patch first and a first for my reserve list. 

The annual list starter round Strangford Lough was delayed until January 13^th, but it  turned up 67 species including little egret, merganser, goldeneye, kestrel, greenshank, kingfisher, redwing, fieldfare, goldcrest, jay, redpoll and tree sparrow. Some views to look at, any of the interesting birds were too hard to digiscope and I was too busy listing to photograph the common stuff.  

Sunrise at the Flood Gates

Quoile pondage

Sunset at Kircubbin

I also did a trip to Whitehead to collect twite (again), black redstart and ring-billed gull. The latter in Carrick was too tempting to drive past. Too wet and dull for photos.

Bangor West

Wren, linnet, house sparrow, rook, oystercatcher, redshank, eider, cormorant, lapwing, red-throated diver, black guillemot, razorbill, brent goose, ringed plover, dunlin, turnstone, purple sandpiper, great black-backed gull, common gull, starling and 40: sparrowhawk.

Belfast WOW

Cormorant, grey heron, shelduck, wigeon, gadwall, teal, mallard, shoveler, sparrowhawk, buzzard, peregrine, moorhen, oystercatcher, lapwing, knot, dunlin, snipe, barwit, curlew, redshank, turnstone, black-headed gull, common gull, herring gull, woodpigeon, pied wagtail, wren, dunnock, robin, blackbird, blue tit, great tit, magpie, hooded crow, chaffinch, greenfinch, goldfinch, redpoll. and  39: twite.

2017

Wren,  linnet,  house sparrow, song thrush, mistle thrush, oystercatcher, redshank, eider, cormorant, red-throated diver, lapwing, black guillemot, razorbill, brent goose, ringed plover, dunlin, knot, turnstone, purple sandpiper, great black-backed gull, common gull, sparrowhawk, shelduck, wigeon, gadwall, teal, shoveler, peregrine, moorhen, golden plover, snipe, curlew, barwit, twite, little egret, little grebe, great-crested grebe, pintail, tufted duck, goldeneye, red-breasted merganser, kestrel, pheasant, coot, kingfisher, rock pipit, greenshank, redwing, fieldfare, goldcrest, tree sparrow, carrion crow, shag, black redstart, ring-billed gull, blackwit,  and 86: reed bunting

2017 New year new lists

The year has got off to a slow start as I did not set out on New Years Day to do a bird list. I spent January 1 in and around the garden and Bangor West and today was spent on a drive to Tollymore Forest Park and a walk. Nevertheless some good birds were spotted.  The garden produced all that I expected including long-tailed tit and blackcap. The Bangor West patch is at 19 all seen from the garden and the 2017 list added another ten including bullfinch, dipper, grey wagtail and jay which were all seen in Tollymore. Hopefully I will get a walk along the coast later in the week and add to the totals as well as kick starting WOW on Thursday.
 
WOW patch list

West Bangor patch list: 19

2017 list: 29

2016 all wrapped up

Saw the old year out at WOW with a high tide and 40 species including a female peregrine which appeared on two separate occasions. Light was good and birds were giving good views. No additions to the Patch list which stayed at 101.

Grey heron

Teal and moorhen

Lapwing

Wigeon

The Bangor West patch has stayed stubbornly at 71 but I had one last walk from Carnalea back home on New Years's Eve at 3.15 as an iceland gull had been spotted the day before. No gull but what is flying up Belfast Lough but a mute swan. The first on the patch in two years, a species I had given up on, but right place right time - two minutes either way and I could have missed it!! Final totals are as follows:

WOW patch list 101  

West Bangor patch list 72

2016 list 190 

 

Bill Polley

Been away for a while due to the sudden and unexpected death of my younger brother Bill. Four days after my last post he developed an aortic aneurism and despite the efforts of the intensive cardiac unit at the Royal Victoria Hospital he could not be saved. Obviously birding took a back seat, but the family are slowly getting there and remembering a nature lover, birder, walker, and photographer. His photos appeared regularly on BBC weatherwatchers and his Flickr site contains almost 12000 images, many of them bird related. Here he is earlier in the month in Carrick helping me lead a walking group on an unfamiliar route. He is on the left hand end of the group.

  This is the last photo of him at the CS Lewis Square in East Belfast looking at the stone table sculpture.

We are left with pictures and memories which will help to ease the hurt, as will nature and the great outdoors, plus, " A wee Maudes and I could force down a latte!""

I got back to birding at WOW on Thursday and we had over 30 species including a good array of waders and ducks. We also had a grey heron fishing close in and an American visitor a bit further away.

There are no additions to any of the lists, partly because I had not been out and partly because anything else is a bonus. Off to Bolton for Christmas and hopefully some incidental birding or duck feeding with the grandchildren, otherwise have a Happy Christmas and a prosperous bird filled 2017.

Frozen

With a title like that I should get lots of hits from people looking for a cartoon character, but NO, this is WOW frozen for the first time since I started volunteering there in June 2015.

This meant that birds were at a premium. We struggled to reach 20 species and apart from 180 curlew and about 25 lapwing there were no waders. The only duck was teal  and empty feeders meant fewer passerines. The low tide probably didn't help either. The two female pheasants were around for the third week. As usual they favoured the area in front of the observation room.

Teal (F)

Teal flock on the only bit of open water.

Moorhen foraging.

Pheasant (F)

 Last week was a little better and we had full feeders and softer ground for feeding mallards.

The goldfinch "charm" totalled 30+

Mr Mallard

Patch birding in Bangor West is now clutching at straws as I have ticked most of the stuff I should see and am wating for a bit of luck. I finally managed a red-throated diver in Ballyholme Bay but three walks in the last ten days have not added any new birds. In fact Tuesday's walk saw the roughest seas for some time and very few birds were around.

Its all very well having five weeks to go but there is not much to hope for apart from a waxwing or a brambling. I still have never seen mute swan or coot on the Bangor West patch and that is a long shot in shorter darker days. Anyway targets were 70 for Bangor and 100 for WOW and both have been hit.

WOW patch list is still at:   
101 Razorbill
 
West Bangor patch list:
71 Red-throated diver
 
2016 list is still at:
190 Willow tit

Visitor from Iceland

This week at WOW we had a lot of interesting events, not all bird related. First the heavy rain showers gave some spectacular rainbows.

Then we watched a ship head off down the Lagan loaded up with wind turbines from the site next door. This is a specialised vessel called the A2SEA Installer which transports and "plants" wind turbines. The four large rusty poles go into the seabed and lift the ship up above the sea. The cranes then lower the turbines into place. It is an unusual sight and sound so the waders and ducks all spooked and lifted. If you want more info on the operation use this link

http://www.a2sea.com/fleet/sea-installer/

Next Phyllis and Kenneth noticed a colour ringed black-tailed godwit which has been seen before here and elsewhere as we had a record of it in the file. The attached photo of the log shows that it is 9 years old and was ringed in Iceland. It has wandered around a fair bit but has not been seen since 2013 until it was spotted twice this week. It has not beeen spotted in Iceland again, only in its wintering areas

Not only is the bird 9 years old, so are the flags on its legs! They have endured all the flying miles and feeding in wet lagoons and are still hanging on in there. It was nice to be able to contribute to a little bit of scientific research as humble volunteers.

Finally the water levelels are rising as a result of the recent rain and the ducks were feeding outside the observation room for a change.

Pair of teal

Pair of wigeon

Pair of shoveler

The lists are updated with a willow tit in Bolton. The local patch, Elton Reservoir now has feeders maintained by the local patch watchers, so they gave up willow tit and nuthatch. I will be back in the new year!!  I went looking for divers off Carnalea, but sometimes you get lucky, I turned up three common scoter. I still have 6 weeks to turn up a diver or a grebe.

WOW patch list:    
101 Razorbill
 
West Bangor patch list:
70 Common scoter
 
2016 list
190 Willow tit

Islay 2 and ton up

First a few more shots from Islay taken by Horace Reid who is clearly a better photographer than I am and also has a better camera which he knows how to use. He was there on the Friday. The pictures are superb,  what is lacking is the soundscape which was equally good. I never thought to take a video, but I suspect it would be a letdown.

WOW on Thursday had 29 species and at long last a peregrine appeared. It spoooked everything but we stil saw 5 snipe, 60 golden plover and a little stint. My SD card was in the computer, so no photos. On Saturday Daniel Newton reported a long-tailed duck off Kinnegar so on Sunday I called in to see if it was still there. Pulled up in the car park and there was Daniel with the duck in his scope!!  We also had a young razorbilll close in and a wheen of mergansers. On checking my lists later I realised I had omitted to record guillemot on the day I saw the diver, too excited or more likely thought it was already recorded. This is a long-winded way of saying that the "old squaw" was number 100. Thankyou Daniel. West Bangor is still stuck on 69 but divers have been seen off the coast so I live in hope. We are heading for Bolton for a few days so I am still in with a shout of a willow tit or some other exotic English species.

Somewhere out there is "old squaw"

Return from Islay

 The shot of Belfast Lough at Kinnegar last Sunday is what I would call a millpond. The trip to and from Islay is what the boatman calls a millpond ie no white caps on the waves. I think we are going to have to agree to differ on this one.

 WOW patch list:    
98 guillemot 
99 Peregrine
100Long-tailed duck
101 Razorbill
 
West Bangor patch list:
69 Brent goose

2016 list
189 Long-tailed duck