Another year, another set of lists

Let's wrap up 2025 first. There were no additions to the 2025 list and nothing else on the North Down patch but WOW turned up a kestrel and a female great spotted woodpecker on December 11th and pushed the patch up to 99. Despite an extra visit to try and find one more bird it stayed there and I look back on the grey wagtail and the great white egret which turned up when I was in England, never mind my failure to find a sedge warbler in the spring!! Not much in the way of pictures either, too dark or too far away I'm afraid, so have another shot of a woodpecker from late 2023. 

2025: 153 (154 if we count the ruddy shelducks at Kiltonga)

North Down patch : 63

WOW: 99

So we march on into 2026 and the annual yomp round Strangford Lough starting at the Flood Gates at dawn.  

First an apology for the lack of photos to break up the text. We just didn't bother!! A cold day (4/5 degrees centigrade and a brisk north wind) and the tide was pushing in so birds were being pushed up towards us. We got good views of lots of species (but unfortunately not golden plover or knot). Most numerous bird was lapwing, followed by redshank, dunlin, curlew, bar-tailed godwit, black-tailed godwit, turnstone and oystercatcher. We also had brent goose, shelduck, mallard and pintail in good numbers. There were four gull species present - black-headed, herring, common and great black-backed. Passerines flitted around the seaweed and adjacent farmland - pied wagtail, robin, blackbird, song thrush, rook, jackdaw, magpie and hooded crow. Just before we moved on the obligatory little egret dropped in and we spotted a greenshank tucked into a corner. We moved south to Annes Point  and saw woodpigeon en route but by that time the tide was well in and there was very little on the salt marsh apart from a pair of red-breasted merganser and a singing wren in the scrub. Just north of Greyabbey David executed an emergency stop when we saw two whooper swans in a field with 20+ greylag geese. Whilst checking for pinkfeet (negative) a female sparrrowhawk zipped past. We added starling and mute swan to the list before we reached Kircubbin to scan the seaweed. By this time the tide was full in and it was a bit exposed and baltic in a car park which had clearly suffered from recent storms. We added a pair of stonechat, collared dove, lesser black-backed gull, eider duck and meadow pipit before heading south again to Abbacy Road, Bishop's Mill and Shore Road for the 1145 ferry. We finally added teal and wigeon to the list and observed a high tide roost of 12 little egret and 10 grey heron. Goldfinch, greenfinch, dunnock, mistle thrush and house sparrows were noted before we moved onto Shore Road and noticed a single bird on the wires and stopped to see a beautiful male yellowhammer which was joined by a pair of reed buntings. The stubble field below them erupted as about 200 chaffinches flew into the hedge cover nearby. They dropped into the stubble several times and disappeared but despite extensive looking we were unable to see any other species. The ferry crossing added cormorant, shag and a single guillemot barrelling north into the Lough. Castleward Bay was in full tide as well and looked a bit bleak but the scope pulled in a large shoveler flock, 5 gadwall 2 little grebes and 2 great-crested grebes. On to the Quoile pondage for lunch in the hide and a bit of a bummer as the reed cutting machine was in operation!! 

Birds were scarce and far away but we added goldeneye and one redwing in an adjacent field. Towards the yacht club end David spotted a pair of pochard. This was a common bird in the reserve 40 years ago but we cannot remember the last time we saw pochard on the reserve. Passerines were conspicuous by their absence and the feeders were mostly empty apart from blue and great tits. We finally saw a buzzard and a small flock of long-tailed tits and  found tufted duck on the river section as well as these cute little ducks which turned out to be silver appleyard miniatures and not countable!! 

They may be in the same category as the Kiltonga ruddy shelduck in being released/dumped. By this time we were heading north in fading light but despite stops at Killyleagh, Whiterock and Castle Espie we were unable to add to our tally of 65 species. We were short on passerines and they head early to roost in winter. Interestingly the 65th and last species on the list was tufted duck at 1547 at the Quoile. We spent a further 90 minutes on the road with nothing to show for our efforts. Might be a lesson we could learn here and spend more time at some spots instead of rushing on to Castle Espie in fading light looking for a final tick. This year it was moorhen, last year coot and in previous years we have unsuccessfully chased collared dove or house sparrow. 

I will wrap this up here and do another post on the garden and North Down patch in a few days when I have some pictures from the garden feeders and I get a walk along the coastal path without the risk of slipping and falling. 

2025

65: Tufted duck

Winter hiatus

 

Teal

As winter proper approaches there is really nothing much to add. Both patches have staggered to a halt, WOW is very quiet, no trips are planned and generally there is not a lot going on bird wise. I have managed to miss a couple of boat trips to Lough Beg and Belfast Lough and the shorter days curtail birding. However there are a few pluses - the garden is starting to pull in visitors, the feeders are up and the Birdwatch Ireland survey has kicked off. 

Another plus was the sudden arrival of six ruddy shelduck at Kiltonga, a small wildfowl pond outside Newtownards. They were not ringed but appear to have been "dumped" by someone from a private collection. Not sure they are capable of flying but  they haven't been seen for a week or two. The question is do they go on the 2025 list or not? I actually saw a ruddy shelduck at Strangford Lough back in the 1980s. At that time we thought it was a fence hopper from the nearby WWT reserve, but they said they didn't have any in their collection so it is on the Northern Ireland and County Down lists already.

Highlights from the garden so far have been bullfinch, greenfinch and 7/8 linnet. I am still looking for a treecreeper for the 2025 list and it looks like a long walk round Castle Park is needed. In two weeks time the nights will be on the turn and and in three weeks David and I will be hoping to kick off 2026 with our annual jolly round Strangford Lough. I'll add a few pictures from WOW and the garden as I know you all like pictures as much as I like lists. 

Mallard

Headless cormorant

There it is!!

First year bird

Roosting curlew

Gadwall refusing to co-operate

Bullfinch is back

and goldfinch

and chaffinch

STOP PRESS!

Amble from Helen's Bay home last weekend saw a red-breasted merganser at Crawfordsburn - not on the patch - but closer to home two patch ticks - a great crested grebe offshore  and a single whooper swan swimming round Smelt Mill Bay. First ever on the patch and no idea why it was there. I have had mute swan in flight once, but never whooper. Just again proves the old adage - anything can turn up anywhere!

2025 list

153: Flamingo

154: (Ruddy shelduck?)

NDCP
61: Guillemot

62: Razorbill

63: Greylag goose

64: Great-crested grebe

65: Whooper swan

WOW

97: Kingfisher

Minorca - set the bar low

Not much local to report but here's an update from a family holiday in Menorca. As this was not a birding holiday I set a low bar of yellow-legged gull so anything else would be a bonus. As it turned out that was a good call as Menorca is not as good for birds as its larger neighbour. Having said that we were at the very southern tip in Punta Prima and didn't get to the north at all. The other issue was the date we were there, early October is well past migration time. There are two bird sites mentioned in Menorca, one was the coastal strip east of Punta Prima, the other one is the Albufeira Es Grau reserve which is a proper reserve with a visitor centre and hides. 

Birding in and around the hotel, beach and resort turned these birds up on a daily basis - woodpigeon, collared dove, yellow-legged gull, Audouin's gull, house sparrow, goldfinch, Sardinian warbler, turnstone, cormorant, robin and swallow. I also added blackbird, linnet, stonechat, kestrel and chiffchaff during the week. Merlin proved useful when I heard a calling bird near the hotel and it was identified as a Sardinian warbler. I was able to locate it in a pine tree and was also able to recognise the call during the rest of the holiday.

Yellow-legged gull

Audouin's gull

Audouin's gull

Turnstone

Turnstone

We did a trip to the capital Mahon and a boat trip round the harbour - the largest in the western Mediterranean - which is why the island was fought over by the French, Spanish and British on a regular basis. This added shag, rock dove and a very unexpected osprey circling up over the port and being harassed by yellow-legged gulls which is why I picked up on it. 

We also visited the Es Grau reserve for a morning. This needed a bus into Mahon and a taxi to the reserve. There are three walks and we did one completely and half of another. We baulked at the second half when we realised it involved a steep descent and then a steep climb to a viewpoint which was then reversed on the way back. It was hot and we were tired so we kept that for another visit! It also took us away from the lake area. The third walk was on the far side of a long inlet (2 mile walk!!) and as we had no transport to reach it we gave it a miss. It was well worth the effort to get to the reserve as we had all the common species plus a few bonus birds. The day list ran to 26 and included black-necked grebe (6), little grebes, great crested grebes, coot (200+), pochard, mallard, grey heron, little egret, great white egret (4), blackcap, Sardinian warbler, Cetti's warbler, raven and moorhen. There were also excellent views of red kites (4), 2 booted eagles soaring over the reserve, 21 flamingos and a tortoise!! 

Flamingos

Tortoise

Tortoise, unlike the birds it didn't spook when we approached it!!

Es Grau reserve views

The coastal walk east and west from Punta Prima was on a very rough path where you had to watch your feet rather than the birds. Any likely candidate usually shot straight into the middle of a handy bush, nothing sat up to be looked at. The shoreline was rocky with a small tidal range so there aren't a lot of birds as there is no food. The scenery was lovely but the birding was limited. I did an early morning walk seeing as sunrise was 0800 so it wasn't a chore, but apart from stonechat and two chiffchaffs there was nothing else of note except a nice sunrise. 

Torre del Alcafaur

The dodgy path lined with bushes for passerines to dive into

Watch your feet not the skies!!

Torre del Punta Prima

Punta Prima by day

Punta Prima by night

Sunrise 

Sunrise

Obviously the local patches haven't moved but the 2025 list took a little leap up.

2025 

146: Audouin's gull

147: Yellow-legged gull

148: Sardinian warbler

149: Booted eagle

150: Osprey

151: Rock dove

152: Black-necked grebe

153: Flamingo

Autumn solstice check in

Hard to believe the year is now three quarters of the way through, the nights are drawing in and the winter visitors are on their way or have recently arrived - brent geese, whooper swans and pink-footed geese. The patch birding has slowed to a crawl and I have only added curlew sandpiper to the 2025 list. 

The North Down patch is marooned on 63 with very little chance of reaching the 70 target. Best I can do is a picture of a stunning sunset from the top room window looking west.

The WOW patch can still raise the pulse rate on the odd occasion, but still remains 3 short of the 100 bird target. I added curlew sandpiper this year after drawing a blank last year. Three turned up at the very back for about a week. We also had a brief glimpse of a kingfisher and a pair of flyover ravens. The final addition was a gannet scoped from Kinnegar which was closer to Whiteabbey than Holywood, but hey - if you can see it while standing on your patch it counts. 

I have tried to connect with the influx of glossy ibis and black terns but have not succeeded. A few days in Donegal didn't add any new birds to the list but it did however add 3 species to the County list - black-tailed godwit, bar-tailed godwit and Canada goose. The Canada goose was seen at Inch levels in  a flock of several hundred feral geese split between Canada and Greylag. I had no idea there were large feral flocks in that area. 

Whooper swan (Credit to Ivor Greer)

Inch levels from the hide

As well as several hundred geese there were 6 whooper swans and several pochard which seemed to be a trifle early for winter arrivals. They looked more like they had remained over the summer which threw me completely. Comments on this welcome, particularly if you are familiar with the Inch levels and have first hand knowledge. We picked up bits and pieces en route but nothing stunning or worthy of a photograph. 

Glenveagh Castle was bird free apart from chaffinches INSIDE the café feeding on food scraps and crumbs.

Lovely walk along an old railway line below Muckish which needs re-visited in spring. It was also bird free although a Force 6 breeze didn't help.

Pollet Great Arch had a couple of stonechats on the way down and small families of meadow pipits. 

There were also fulmar, gannet and Manx shearwaters off Fanad Head but I really was not best equipped for a three hour sea watch and I suspect my travelling companions would have rebelled at the thought. 

2025
144: White wagtail
145: Curlew sandpiper

NDCP

63: Greylag goose

WOW

93: Peregrine falcon

94: Curlew sandpiper

95: Gannet

96: Raven

97: Kingfisher

It's been a while

It's been a while since I did a post and there's a couple of reasons for this. First I've been a bit busy with family across the water and secondly there hasn't been an awful lot to report on. We will take it a patch at a time.

The local patch has thrown up both guillemot and razorbill which are expected this time of year close to the coast. I also picked up the feral flock of greylag geese doing a fly round from Ward Park

WOW has had a few good birds of late including a long expected great white egret. I have been predicting one of these for at least three years but as fate would have it, it turned up while I was in Bolton and did not stay long enough for me to connect. I did connect with little egret and white wagtail and also had a fleeting glimpse of a young peregrine falcon which has been hanging around trying its luck. Exciting things are happening at D3 and this week they took down our shiny new fence and blocked off the back gate. This was planned work and the ponies will be back when the work is finished and the gate re-instated. 

No entry!!

This was it in July

Ruff - one of 14

Different ruff

Common tern

Lapwing

Lapwing

The 2025 list is crawling up into the 140s but most possibilities have been hoovered up so it is a matter of being a bit lucky or getting put on to something which has been spotted by someone else. I can tell you now the bogey bird of 2025 is treecreeper. I have spent quite a few pleasant walks wandering round likely wooded areas but so far I have not been lucky, and with treecreeper you need that bit of luck. I can see me doing laps of Castle Park in Bangor between now and December looking for droppings on a roosting site in a nice coniferous tree. 

I went owl hunting up Druridge Bay in Northumberland and managed a barn owl. The hoped for little owl has either gone or was in hiding but I did see two red-legged partridge while doing a three point turn in a farm gate. I also had a tawny owl hooting away very close to Richard's house in Bolton. It was actually in the big poplar tree at the bottom of the garden but try as I could I was unable to actually see it. I got a recording on Merlin but cannot see anyway of getting it on here from my phone.

Cresswell Pond at dusk

Grey heron at Randalstown courtesy of David Miller

Roe deer at Druridge Pools which were bone dry

2025
142: Red-legged partridge
143: Barn owl
144: White wagtail

NDCP

61: Guillemot

62: Razorbill

63: Greylag goose

WOW

91: Little egret

92: White wagtail

93: Peregrine falcon