Events dear boy......!!

Too much happening and two lots of visitors mean time is at a premium and other events took precedence. I was halfway through composing a blog when a patch megatick turned up and everything went on hold till the visitors left. What follows is a summary of birding adventures since the end of May ie four weeks worth!!

First a round up of birding in England such as it was. We managed a couple of outings to sites we have visited before and prospected a new site at Rumworth Lodge. This proved hard to access and difficult to park so we may not go back. A walk round Elton Reservoir gave some nice views of common species with nothing unusual. We also called in at Brockholes near Preston. This is a Lancashire Wildlife Trust reserve created from a disused quarry which is eight years old. We visited it when it was newly opened and still bare and it has come on in leaps and bounds and greened up nicely. One downside is that the west boundary is alongside the M6, so the noise is awful. Nevertheless 35 species were seen or heard,  including common tern, sand martin, whitethroat, chiffchaff, sedge warbler, reed bunting,  lapwing and redshank - all breeding on the reserve. A surprising find was two nuthatches in Richard's garden in Bolton - an adult feeding a fledgling. He also spotted two jays in the garden the day after we left and they have joined tawny owl on the garden list.

Brockholes HQ is a floating village

River Ribble

Back home to WOW on June 6 and two garganey appeared. I saw the report when I was in England and was afraid I had missed them but lo and behold there they were giving point blank views along with an arctic tern nest and a distant greenshank. Total was 30 species for the morning including newly hatched shelduck, coot, mallard, moorhen, black headed gull, lesser black-backed gull and Mediterranean gull. 

Scruffy male 1

Elegant male 2

Arctic tern nest

Female on nest?

Male chilling

Gadwall

Shoveler

WOW then turned up 35 species including garganey again, blackcap, arctic tern, Mediterranean gull and all four summer aeriel specialists - swallow, house martin, sand martin and swift. Last Thursday however it trumped even that with 40 species and a long-billed dowitcher. A visiting birder was able to see the dowitcher, garganey, Mediterranean gull and arctic tern on the same reserve at the same time!! The dowitcher has been there for over a week and there have been some cracking photographs as the great and good of Irish birding turned up to fill their boots. It is in breeding plumage and how it got to WOW when it should be in NE Siberia or NW Alaska we will never know. We are however grateful that it took a wrong turn and brightened up our summer.

Tern nest boxes waiting for roseates

Marker stone shows we have had a bit of rain

Tern island floated out near hide 2, also with nest boxes and hiding the dowitcher.

From Hide 2 with godwits

Supercilium shows well

Size difference notable

A snipe on steroids

Heads up

Without zoom and head down it's harder to be sure.

An absolute cracker as I am sure you will agree and worth 4 points on the patchwork challenge. Well done Daniel for spotting it and calling it in correctly. I am not sure I would have been that confident!!

2019
136: Sedge warbler
137: Whitethroat
138: Garganey
139: Arctic tern
140: Rock dove
141: Razorbill
142: Puffin
143: Long-billed dowitcher

Bangor West
60: Common tern

Belfast WOW
82: Garganey
83: Arctic tern
84: Greenshank
85: Blackcap
86: Long-billed dowitcher

Dawn chorus

Yes it's true I managed a dawn chorus for the first time in many years, and you know what - I really should do it more often!! My pal David, he of the good camera, is now retired and offered to help the RSPB with farm surveys. This means a visit around dawn on four occasions in spring/summer recording birds seen and heard, any breeding/nesting behaviour and checking for six key species (yellowhammer, reed bunting, linnet, tree sparrow, lapwing and skylark). He was given an arable farm near Greyabbey and I joined him for his fourth visit  this week. We were there at 0500, walked nearly 6 miles round the fields and finished around 1030. We saw 25 species including a pair of linnet. I started off with four layers and finished off with one as the sun rose and temperatures headed up. All in all a worthwhile experience and one I would be happy to repeat, but not just at the minute as I am still catching up on sleep. The following pictures give a flavour of the morning but in no way do justice to the sounds and vistas of the experience.

Moonset to the west

Sunrise to the east

Distant Scrabo

Winter barley

Spring barley

WOW continues to entertain with a lot of common terns now present and going through the display/mating routines. Water levels continue to slowly drop, there is about two inches outside the observation room which might make floating the new tern islands a bit difficult, Hopefully they will soon be in place and give the late arrivals a chance. The black-headed gulls have quite a few chicks although many of them are still incubating. Lapwing chicks seem to have been predated, but there are coot and moorhen chicks to be seen. We have not seen any mallard ducklings and the swans are still incubating. Tufted ducks abound so fingers crossed and there were four pairs of gadwall on the reserve so they may nest as well.The first swifts apeared over the reserve last week and a little egret and a ruff dropped in as well as four greylag geese.

Gull chick taking a risk

Mr shoveler

Gap year godwits

Incubation

Two eggs revealed

A "dread" when everything flies up including the incubating gull.

Exposed chick

The marker stone with two common terns

Last month I fulfilled a long standing ambition to visit the UWT site at Bog Meadows. We managed to find the entrance off the Falls Road and had a wander around. Lots of activity and singing but spoilt slightly by the proximity of the M1 which is the boundary of the site to the south. The traffic noise was loud and persistent. They are conducting guided walks in July and August and we hope to return for an informative tour . The downside will be the ever present traffic noise, I doubt it is ever quiet!! There is a large water area surrounded by reedbed, scrub and trees with a couple of rough grazing fields and some hedgerows. Mostly we saw and heard common birds of the urban fringe including swallow and tufted duck. Fingers crossed we will do better.

Lake and swift nesting tower

Lake view

2019
133: Whimbrel
134: Common tern
135: Swift

Bangor West
55: Willow warbler
56: Greylag goose
57: Swallow
58: Swift
59: Jay

Belfast WOW
78: Whimbrel
79: Comon tern
80: Little egret
81: Swift

Where did April go?

Yikes, April is nearly over and there are still migrants to catch up with. The trip to England netted a few but apart from 1200 black -headed gulls, WOW is still evolving slowly into spring. We managed a couple of walks in Lancashire. Elton Reservoir served up no less than three bramblings, Hollistone Lake chipped in with common sandpiper and sand martin while I picked up two nuthatches by call, one at a playground in Bolton and the other at a National Trust property (Garforth Hall) near Burnley. A visit to Pennington Flash for woodpecker again disappointed, indeed there was no sign of woodpeckers at Elton, Hollistone or Garforth either despite suitable habitat and a fair bit of walking, listening and diligent scanning through trees. There were also willow warblers galore, blackcaps galore, the occasional chiffchaff and an oystercatcher at Hollistone which is north of Rochdale and a fair bit from the sea. Penninington Flash bird feeders had up to 6 stock doves and a jay with the usual good views of reed bunting and bullfinch. 

Stock dove

Stock dove

 Wow did come up with the first house martins and sand martins of the year but is now totally dominated by the 1200+ black-headed gulls (bhg) preparing to breed. The issue every week is trying to spot what is not a bhg. Having said that, last week we had a few herring gulls, nearly 30 lesser black backs, over 130 common gulls, 1 great black-backed and 9 Mediterranean gulls. There are still a few wintering ducks(teal, wigeon, shoveler) 8 pairs of gadwall, 40+ mallard, 70+ shelduck and a dozen or so tufted ducks. The feeeders have gone quiet and we rejoiced at adding a pied wagtail to the list!!

Island 1

Black-headed gulls

Island 2

The issue we have is where will the terns breed when they arrive? A handful have been seen already but the main bulk are yet to arrive. There are three floating islands to push out but we need to time it right so as they are not covered in gulls before the terns arrive or worse they are too late and the terns nest elsewhere. It is a fine balancing act and I am glad I am not calling the shots!!

There is also the low water levels already as we have not really had a lot of rain and the levels are already down from March. This photograph of the rock in front of the window shows the lack of water. Three weeks ago the water was over the lip of the rock shown by the black band and about a third of the way up the slope. This suggests about 2 - 3 inches of loss due to evaporation as it has been warm and dry. If we get a summer as warm as last year we may end up with a muddy desert again. Sorry to say but we still need significant rain in the next 8 weeks.

Marker stone we use to judge water levels

Finally a walk up the Quolie Water on Easter Monday added wheatear and skylark to the list plus reed bunting, meadow pipit, stonechat and sand martins. The River Braid at Broughshane added a grey wagtail but not a mandarin could be found. Hopefully a few more walks along the coastal path will push up the numbers and this year I really must add cuckoo - I missed it last year.


2019
127: Nuthatch
128: Brambling
129: Common sandpiper
130: Sand martin
131: Wheatear
132: Skylark

Bangor West
54: Sandwich tern

Belfast WOW
76: House martin
77: Sand martin

Godwit at 60 cms

As the title suggests the godwits are right up at the window of WOW feeding on millet. There were 300+ last week most of them well into their orange breeding plumage. There are over 1000 black-headed gulls but wintering duck numbers are on the decline - we are having to search for teal and only found a dozen or so compared to a high count of 600+ in the autumn. The only star bird over the last three weeks was a carrion crow. 

We're on our way to Iceland

We will hoover millet

Look water and gulls

Spot the not gull

Elsewhere spring migrants are finally hitting the shore with gannet and sandwich tern at St John's Point, chiffchaff and house martin at Moira and then swallow, chiffchaff  willow warbler and reed warbler at WOW. The coastal path added lesser black-backed gull, raven, grey wagtail and sandwich tern. The raven flew overhead as I walked up the road from Bangor.

The other highlight was a guided walk of WOW, Kinnegar and Harbour meadows last Saturday which turned up 53 species with a nice mix of winter leavers and summer arrivals including the first swallow of the year.

Looking for a kingfisher

RSPB lunch

A very interesting pile of bricks

Willow scrub

There's a fox

I'll just raise a snipe or ten

Scenic bullrush

Spot the bird

2019
118: Grey wagtail
119: Gannet
120: Sandwich tern
121: Chiffchaff
12: ouse martin
123: Willow warbler
124: Swallow
125: Reed warbler
126: Jack snipe

Bangor West
51: Lesser black-backed gull
52: Raven
53: Grey wagtail
54: Sandwich tern

Belfast WOW
68: Carrion crow
69: Chiffchaff
70: Willow warbler
71: Swallow
72: Rock pipit
73: Rook
74: Reed warbler
75: Jack snipe

# patch gold megatick

Let's not beat about the bush here, this afternoon I saw a water rail in Strickland's Glen. One of those moments you dream about as a birder -  an unexpected bird in a famliar place. As they are reedbed specialists I have no idea what it was doing there in a wooded glen. There is a tree down across the river at that point and in heavy rain the water backs up and the path floods. Once the flood subsides there is a mass of flotsam behind the tree - mud, leaves, branches, plastic bottles, dead footballs etc.. I stopped to look, saw a movement and thought dunnock, no too big, possibly moorhen, so got the binoculars onto it and bingo, it is a water rail which picked about long enough for Tanya to get a good look at it as well. After taking our fill of the bird, we walked on and it was still picking about. The hoped for grey wagtail and first lesser black backs of the year did not appear, but hey, who cares I'll get them again!

Other than that, it has been reasonably quiet as most of the winter stuff has been mopped up and the spring migrants are not here yet. I added a garden song thrush, and a walk along the Broad Water at Moira turned up two redwings in a flock of 20 - 25 fieldfare. WOW was very quiet with a low tide and heavy showers. The milder weather this week with south-west winds might pull in an early chiffchaff or sand martin, both have been seen locally. The other piece of news happened in Carnalea where my friend David - he of the good camera - spotted a brambling on his feeders on St Patrick's day. It did not hang around and has not been back or found its way to my garden but you never do know - if you can get a water rail in Stricklands Glen anything is possible. It just proves the old adage, anything can turn up anywhere.

Dunlin at Whiteabbey

Black-headed gulls at Smelt Mill Bay

A rainy WOW last Thursday, there were around 1000 black-headed gulls present.

Water rail spot on the river

It was behind the orange football!!

David Miller's brambling

Great tit with large tick

The great tit was photographed by David as well at Castleward. He thought it looked a bit off colour and let him get close without moving, only later did he realise it has a large tick attached to its neck. probably not long for this world unfortunately. 

2019
117: Redwing

Bangor West
48: Greenfinch
49: Song thrush
50: Water rail

Belfast WOW
67: Lesser black-backed gull