Another lifer (N0T)

Things have been quiet on the birding front as I continue to try and mop up a few species on the patches. I have been over to Bolton and added a willow tit to the list. I also conducted a wild goose chase round Pennington Flash to try and add Egyptian goose to the list but they eluded me. How many flooded horse fields are there round the Flash? Quite a few is the answer but none of them contained the family of four geese. Locally I finally added lapwings to the North Down patch as the wintering flock were spotted by someone else and I was able to go down and see them. What was once 60+ is now down to less than 20, and recently 4 remained so they don't appear to be hanging around. Three recent walks have been largely bird free apart from gulls. 

The most noteworthy bird of late popped up at WOW on October 19th and was still there on November 9th. It is a blue-billed or Hottentot teal a native of Southern Africa. Despite not being ringed it is of doubtful provenance and so cannot be added to any list, hence the title of the blog. Stephen Maxwell described it as a "fence hopper", i.e. a bird which has escaped from a collection - most likely Castle Espie.  We did however have a great morning's entertainment trying to work out what it was. It was with teal, was the right size and it was dabbling. Despite scouring the books we had no idea what it was until someone started googling all types of teal and suddenly there it was in a picture on Google. The pictures give you an idea of our struggles as it did not fit anything we knew and until it flew and showed blue and white wing bars we had no ideas at all

Blue-billed teal

Rear view showing wing bars

Female teal for comparison

Millet seeking moorhens

Little egret

Cormorant

Eurasian teal

Moorhen

Grey heron

We have been getting large numbers of cormorants (20+), herons(16) and little egrets (14), but as water levels drop and the fish are eaten these numbers will fall. Recently we were down to 3, 6 and 4 respectively. The reserve is slowly changing into the winter pattern of ducks and waders, and the feeders are pulling in finches and tits. We live in hope of another megatick like the phalarope, but a redpoll would be nice. 

2023

160: Willow tit

+USA/Canada: 26 = 186 for the year.

NDCP

69: Lapwing

Belfast RSPB

93: Stonechat

Patch Gold lifer

As you can see from the title I found a good bird on Thursday at WOW. Seeing as I have been birding for 40 + years there's not much chance of picking up a lifer in Northern Ireland. Generally it is an overseas trip that adds lifers to the list. Sometimes one pops up elsewhere and I go to see it - cue the rustic bunting in Carnalea in December 2021 -  but I struggle  to remember the last time I had a lifer on either of the patches. The last one was probably the Wilson's phalarope in 2007 at WOW. The difference this time is that I found it, identified it and called it in. Fortunately a couple of experienced birders saw the post on NIBirds and came along to confirm the sighting (Thankyou Bob Watts and Aaron Long). The bird in question was a tiny wader called a grey phalarope, which has a particular method of feeding which involves going round in small circles picking up insects off the water. That's when I decided it wasn't the common tern juvenile I thought it was. The main problem was that I had never seen one before and it took me a while to work out what it was. It was a lot smaller than I expected as well. The said bird then got added to quite a few lists. Regular readers will know that I like lists!! So this one found its way onto the following lists: 2023, WOW, Life, County Down, Northern Ireland, UK. As well as the phalarope we had 40+ species including 9 grey herons, 6 little egrets, 11 cormorants, 2 ruff , 2 common sandpipers and a common tern. I have added my very distant poor photos as well as a link to NI birds where people who have good cameras and know how to use them have posted their much better photos. There are other photos on subsequent days which are worth a look as well.

Little egret

Common sandpiper

Grey heron

A siege of herons

1

2

3

4

1 - Initial view sitting on a spit on the far side, mainly white black head pattern looked like a juvenile tern which have used this spit before

2 - Moving and feeding by picking insects off the water, terns don't do this so alarm bells start ringing. 

3 - We are now thinking grey phalarope, consulting books and calling in a possible sighting. Note the size compared to the moorhen, a really dinky wee bird. 

4 - Zoom in from photo 1

The oracle that is NIBirds is found at this link:

https://nibirds.blogspot.com/2023/09/bird-news-friday-29th-september.html

Elsewhere things have been slow as we enter the last 3 months of 2023 and try to mop up a few missing species on both patches. Firstly I looked through the lists to identify what I need to be looking for between now and Christmas.  This led to me adding a few birds I had seen earlier in the year and forgotten to add to the lists. (Yes I am as shocked as you are!). So I was able to add skylark seen on Islay in March, a jay which flew across the garden in March and greylag geese which flew over the house about two weeks ago. WOW also added a Bonaparte's gull and a black tern both found on the beach at Kinnegar as well as gannet and razorbill offshore in the lough. There was also a distant pair of stonechats now that the taller vegetation has been trimmed. In terms of what I need to see the main omissions are dipper, redpoll, siskin and reed bunting. Hopefully the feeders at WOW will do the trick there but I might need  a visit to Mossley Mill for the dipper. I'll finish off with  photos of last years Bonaparte's gull as this years one was even further away than the phalarope!!

2023

155: Curlew sandpiper

156: Bonaparte's gull

157: Black tern

158: Skylark

159:Grey phalarope. Lifer 😎

+ USA/Canada: 26 = 185 for the year.

NDCP

67: Greylag goose

68: Jay

Belfast RSPB

87: Bullfinch

88: Gannet

89: Bonaparte's gull

90: Black tern

91: Razorbill

92: Grey Phalarope 😎

93: Stonechat

Autumn update

 Another week in Bolton with few birding opportunities as we reach the end of summer and migrants are on the move. My last swift of the year was at WOW on August 4th. Swallows are still around but starting to gather on the wires. The first brent geese of the year appeared on cue at Kinnegar, so we are slowly moving into autumn. 

We did however manage a day to ourselves and decided to look at Marshside RSPB near Southport. It is a marsh area bordering the Ribble estuary with two hides (one of which was closed for repair) and three walks. We had hoped to visit in early July but the forecast wind and rain and the lack of any cover meant we put it off. This time we were hit by temperatures of 26-28C which meant we were walking in full sun with no cover at all. We switched to Plan B with a shorter walk, more time in the hide and lunch eaten there as well. The highlights of the visit were at least 30 little egrets, one great white egret, 4 grey herons and 5 spoonbills. It also had a common sandpiper and about 60 lapwing. The downside was the huge numbers of greylag and Canada geese. We were playing the "Try and find something that isn't a goose" game and fortunately the herons and egrets stood out. This was an initial visit to see if it is worth returning to. Pennington Flash and Elton are much closer and usually have good birds - Pennington turned up a nuthatch this time. Now we know the layout we know a few things for future reference - bring a scope, apart from hides there are no facilities, so bring supplies from Southport, if the weather is bad it is wide open. Hopefully we will get back there as it looks to be a good winter spot for ducks and geese, but Leighton Moss and Martin Mere have better facilities and can also provide a nice list of different birds. However the spoonbills gave good views and were well worth the trip. 

Water, marsh, ducks and geese.

The white blobs are spoonbills, honest!

Marshside RSPB, 2 hides and three walks, no cover whatsoever.

The garden is bird free as I have removed all the feeders for cleaning and I have not managed a walk along the coastal path since we got back from Bolton. The neighbour photographed a sparrowhawk in his garden, no idea where I was at the time. 

WOW still has lots of common terns and quite a few young chicks at various stages of growth. The deeper water (and fish) has encouraged cormorants to come in to the reserve. We have had up to 20 present whereas previously we would have had the odd bird which didn't hang about. The difference this year is that they are catching enough small fish to make it worth their while. Here's a selection of pictures from the last couple of visits. The curlew sandpipers were too far away for a photograph. The site bullfinch tick flew across the Airport Road in front of the car!!

Two of the 18 cormorants outside Hide 2

I survived bird flu

Closer in to the Ops room

Moorhen and daisies.

Return of the Koniks

20 little egrets at Kinnegar

Common tern

Adult and chick

Common tern

2 on the reserve

2023
154: Spoonbill

155: Curlew sandpiper (USA/Canada: 26 = 181 for the year)

NDCP

66: Manx shearwater

Belfast RSPB

85: Kestrel

86: Curlew sandpiper

87: Bullfinch

Catchup

Before I start a re-cap on our Bolton trip I am going back to a highlight of the Vancouver trip.  

I was looking on YouTube for the pileated woodpecker and came across this so I thought I would share it. We heard the drumming from the treetop walk so were watching carefully and the bird then flew across and landed on the trunk of a tree where it sat for about two minutes in typical woodpecker pose. Has to go down as a great birding moment!!

https://youtu.be/NqPPioNKIfo

Anyway back to Bolton and what was a more normal two weeks of child minding and rain. I actually didn't get a lot of birding done. Etherow Country Park added mandarin to the list but Pennington Flash was so wet the hides were flooded and locked as the ranger couldn't get to them. We had a short trip to Brockholes LWT reserve and during lunch spotted a great white egret fishing in the lake - pleasant and unexpected surprise. Other than that there was little to see and not much to hear. It was July after all so things were quiet and a couple of walks offered nothing more than magpie, carrion crow, wood pigeon and flying gulls overhead. The garden feeders are down for cleaning (my job). The one day we had to explore on our own was so wet we went to see Oppenheimer instead. 

Mandarin duck behind 4 mallard

Mandarin female?

Back to WOW this week where there are enough fish present to pull in 6 cormorants. wader numbers are increasing and the common terns still dominate. Bird of the day however was this rather lost and out of place chicken seen near Hide 2. Comments welcome as to what to do with it, how did it get there, can I add it to my WOW list and would it go nicely at 180 in a fan oven with a hunter's sauce? The update is that the chicken was caught safely and sent to Moira where it is happily living with other female species of the same chicken. 

Other birds included common sandpipers, arctic terns, returning teal, curlew, godwits, lapwing and common gulls. We also saw a lesser black back take a tern chick and two herons were escorted off the premises by the terns. 

Common terns

Arctic and common

Arctic and common

Common sandpiper

As you can see August is on the quiet side, not one passerine was seen at WOW apart from swallow, sand and house martins and swifts. The garden is devoid of birds BUT autumn is on the way and things will improve bird wise if not weather wise. 

2023

152: Mandarin duck

153: Great white egret (USA/Canada: 26 + 179 for the year.

NDCP

66: Manx shearwater

Belfast RSPB

85: Kestrel

Vancouver

Starting off with a video of the Nuggett Falls which I struggled to get on to the previous post. You can see the corner of the glacier as the camera swings left. We've seen glaciers in Norway and Switzerland but most Americans haven't so it's a big plus to see one. Having said that both glaciers were impressive in their own way. 

We had good reports of Vancouver and had a list of places to go and three days to go there. 

Day one saw us going to the Capilano suspension bridge and park which is another good example of the temperate rain forest along America's west coast. The bonus here was the treetop trail which got us up at eye level with some nice birds including rufous humming bird, dark-eyed junco, chestnut-backed chickadee and a seen and heard pileated woodpecker. We also saw another belted kingfisher as well as the usual gulls and crows. 

Treetop trail

Good views from higher up

Cheeky red squirrel

The ravine

The suspension bridge

Clifftop walk

Day two was based round Granville Island and the hop on- hop off bus. Birdwise it was a quiet day with no new species apart from house sparrow and mallard!!

Vancouver skyline

Granville Market

Glaucous-winged gull

The steam clock 

Day three saw us back to Stanley Park a large recreational area with woodland trails, lakes and a sea wall walk with stunning views. We had the usual gulls and crows, Canada geese, both types of cormorant and several great blue herons on a list of 16 species. However a walk through the wooded area and a stroll round Beaver Lake added a few new birds to the list - Carolina wood duck, bank swallow, red-winged blackbird, fox sparrow, white fronted sparrow and hermit thrush. No sad faces as the camera had packed in by this stage. 

Vancouver from Stanley Park

Lion's Gate Bridge

Phone shot of great blue heron and Canada geese

Beaver lake

Stanley Park, we only managed a small part of it.

Regular blog readers will know I love lists, so here are a few to keep you amused:

I managed 15 lifers.

I added 21 species to the North American list which now stands at 81.

The trip list ended up with 34 species.

Managed to add 26 to the 2023 list but happy to keep them separate. 

Since coming home to a re-opened WOW I have added common sandpiper.  It was badly hit by bird flu with the black-headed gulls being worst hit. We did not pick up any Mediterranean gulls at all and fear they may have been hit as well. They were nesting in the corner of the small platform surrounded by 150 gull pairs and a handful of terns. Currently there is no sign of them and there are very few black-headed gull chicks around the reserve, normally the place is coming down with them. There were however three sandwich terns and ten arctic terns on the reserve as well as around 200 black-tailed godwits.  A late addition this week was a flyover female kestrel which headed north towards Carnmoney Hill. As it passed over all the terns went up and I was lucky enough to pick it up 

Not sure when the next (more local) blog will be, but we are off on our travels again - only as far as Bolton this time. 

2023 

145: Manx shearwater

146: Reed warbler

147: Cetti's warbler

148: Osprey

149: Stock dove

150: Little tern

151: Common sandpiper (USA/Canada: 26 = 177 for the year)

NDCP

66: Manx shearwater

Belfast RSPB

83: Kittiwake

84: Common sandpiper

85: Kestrel