Bird News Thursday 31st December

Happy New Year and a big thank-you to everyone who has viewed and contributed to the blogs over the last 12 months.

An adult Iceland Gull was in Larne Harbour this morning, (Neal Warnock).

A female Brambling and 20 Redwing were at the Rosetta end of Cherry Vale in Belfast. (Dermot Hughes).

A Great-spotted Woodpecker and 2 Jays were in a garden outside Hillsborough, see picture below. (Owen Beckett).

One Carrion Crow, one Sandwich Tern, one Little Egret, 3 Great Northern Divers and six Brent Geese were at Ballymacormick Point this afternoon. (Clive Mellon).

At Ballyhenry Island there was an adult Little Gull and 2 Jack Snipe. At Ballyquintin Point there were 15 Great-northern Diver and 5 Gannet. On the 28th the hybrid Ring -billed Gull was at Millisle. On the 27th 2 Jack Snipe and 80 Snipe were at Portavogie and another 2 Jack Snipe on the shore north of Portavogie. (Richard Weyl).

Thanks to Owen Beckett for the picture of the Great-spotted Woodpecker in his garden and to Gareth Platt for the picture of the Common Gull taken in Millisle on Xmas Eve, this bird was ringed as a chick in Ayrshire in July 2013 and this is the first sighting since then.