Bird News Monday 31st January

The Snow Goose was with circa 350 Greylag and 150 Whoopers in fields just North of Portmore this morning (Nigel Moore)

Snow Goose - Nigel Moore

22 Waxwing were along the Westlink in Belfast near Roden Street (Walter
Veale).

An adult Yellow Legged Gull was at Whitehouse Lagoon in Belfast (Stuart McKee).

50 Redwing were at Roselawn Cemetery (David and Sheila Clarke).

A Blackcap was in a garden in Chippendale in Bangor (Francis Duffin).

An easy twitch for us Northerners

Picture above taken by Ian Graham this morning is of the Asian Lesser Whitethroat currently visiting a garden feeder in no 16 The Priory,Drogheda Co.Louth. Coming from Belfast you could be twitching this bird within 80 mins. Directions are easily obtained through Google or AA Route Planner..The race is not yet certain, may find out in due course,but still a very rare bird and well worth seeing.

Bird News for Sunday 30th January

The Snow Goose was still present in fields N.E. of Portmore Lough, it was feeding with Whooper Swans and Greylags and earlier 2 Brambling were visiting a garden on the Ballymacash Road in Lisburn.(W.Veale)

The Ring-necked Duck was back on Lough Cowey Co.Down.(K.Bennett)

The ad Bewick Swan was still with the Whoopers at Cullyhanna Co.Down and 4 Canada Geese and 150 Widgeon were also present. The 2 PF Geese were at Lough Ross.(F.Carroll)

12 RT Diver were off Maggy's Leap south of Newcastle Co.Down (S.McKee)

2 Blackcap were in a garden at Islandmagee (the numbers of Blackcap's reported from gardens this winter has been amazing) (R.McDowell)

6 Whooper Swan were on Lake Corbet Co.Down but no sign of the Ferruginious Duck.(W.Farrelly/P.West)

6 Goosanders at Cushendun, (2 male 4 female) also 1 Red Throated Diver.64no. Brent Geese at Ballygalley feeding on shoreline at low tide. (Pauline Majury)

127 Red-throated Divers flew past Whitehead this morning between 8 - 9am. Visibility wasn't great so this is a minimum with possibly another 60+ passing further out. All birds were seen to fly into Belfast Lough. (Ian Enlander)

50 Fieldfares, at Magheraveely, Co Fermanagh. (Stephen Scarlett)

A Sandwich Tern was at Sandeel Bay and a Merlin at Briggs Rocks on the Down side of Belfast Lough (Richard Weyl).

Brambling continue to visit a garden at Richill, Co. Armagh (Andrew Poots)

114 species were recorded in a day around South Down/Strangford Lough area,birds included 350 Common Scoter off Murlough and a Little Egret at Dundrum Bay South. 6 Yellowhammer and 2 Stock Dove at Ardilea. 30 Twite, 50 Linnet, 20 Reed Bunting, 6 Lesser Redpoll, 4 Tree Sparrow and a Skylark were at Tyrella and 2 Sandwich Tern and 2 Purple Sandpiper at Portavogie. 30 Tree Sparrow, 2 Stock Dove were with good numbers of Chaffinch and Reed Bunting at Lough Money. A female Scaup and 18 Whooper Swan were along the river from the Quoile Centre. Several Carrion Crow and a Common Guillemot were at Killyleagh Harbour and 20 Whooper Swan in the fields below Scarbo. 500 Golden Plover were at Comber Estuary and 350 Greylag and 1 GWF Goose in the fields north of Greyabbey. 2 GN Diver and 2 Slav.Grebe were off Monghan's Bank at Kircubbin and several Slav Grebes at Greyabbey Bay South.(C&T Murphy/K.Bennett)

Bird News Saturday 29th January

A Snow Goose was with 350 Greylag and 52 Whooper Swan in the fields between Portmore Lough and Lough Neagh - presumably the same seen earlier at Strangford Lough (Paul Toner).

A Red-necked Grebe and 8 Slavonian Grebe were seen at Greyabbey Bay South. (Keith Bennett)
At Craigavon Balancing Lakes, two Ferruginous hybrids were seen here (could these birds possibly be the cause of the 'multiple' Ferruginous Duck sightings?)
An adult Bewick Swan (an increasingly rare bird in NI), was with the Whooper Swan flock at Cullyhanna. 2 Pink-footed Geese were at Lough Ross, Crossmaglen (Joe Devlin)
The first winter Ring-billed Gull was at Whitehouse Lagoon, Belfast and an Iceland Gull flew over the RSPB Belfast Lough Reserve (Keith Bennett)
A White-fronted Goose was with a flock of Greylags near the river running alongside the north end of Castle Espie (the Anns Point bird?). A Kingfisher was also at the adjoining pool (Ron Price)

20 Waxwing were at the junction of Ravenhill Park and Ravensdale Park Gardens in Belfast (John Pyper).
At Belfast Lough 280 Scaup were off Cultra. 2,200 Eider, 13 RT Diver and 6 Carrion Crow were between there and Bangor - 2,000 of the Eider were off Grey Point (Richard Weyl).
12 Yellowhammer were in a garden in Magherafelt (Mark Smyth).
7 Wigeon and 3 Brent were at Carnlough Bay (Iris Miller).

The probable Asian Lesser Whitethroat continues to be seen in Drogheda (Irish Birding).

Bird News for Friday 28th January

24 RT Diver were in Belfast Lough, 15 of them of Kilroot and another 9 seen flighting east out of the Lough.(C.Mellon)

Yesterday 4 Waxwing were at the edge of Florencecourt in Fermanagh.(G.Henderson)

Belfast Telegraph & Birding

Well done to the Belfast Telegraph who today carried nearly three pages about birds and birding in NI! It was also good to see that all the bird photographs were correctly captioned. Unfortunately the feature articles are not online so you will have to buy a copy but worth the read.
Interestingly they do have on their website (at http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/photo-galleries/photos-from-northern-ireland-and-around-the-world-13967859.html?ino=1) the following picture!

Greylag Geese, Rathcoole - Jack Close, ref: Belfast Telegraph www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk

Bird News for Thurs 27th January

7 Waxwing were at Abbeydale off Rossdowney Road in the Waterside in Derry.(T.Campbell)

11 Waxwing were in Ballycastle.(irishbirding)

7 Slav. Grebe, 1 Greenshank, 10 Knot and 3 Grey Plover were at Greyabbey Bay South.(H.McCullough)

7 Gadwall (unusual there) were at the east end of Hillsborough Lake.(B.Anderson)

A Blackcap and 2 Siskin were in a garden in Newry.(F.Carroll)

Yesterday the Med.Gull with the yellow ring was seen again at Ballycarry Bridge.(C.Moore)

Birding Frontiers Talk

Martin Garners talk will be taking place at 7:30, Friday 11th February at CIYMS, Circular Road, east Belfast. One species that Martin will discuss is Northern Harrier, a possible future visitor to NI?

Northern Harrier - Ian Lewington

Birds of East Africa

Many thanks to Kerry Leonard for an excellent talk and presentation last night about ringing birds in December in Kenya. There were many superb photographs of both birds and mammals. Below are three photographs from that presentation:

Barred Warbler, adult. Note how worn the plumage is - Kerry Leonard

Barred Warbler, 1st Winter. Note how pale this bird is, particularly on the underparts - Kerry Leonard

Marsh Warbler. Ringed in their thousands. This bird is very olive on the upper parts - Kerry Leonard

Bird News Wednesday 26th January

4 Goosander - 2 female and 2 immatures - were at the weir at Randalstown (Dermot
Hughes).

A second winter Mediterranean Gull was seen again at the river at Ballyholme, Bangor.
(George Gordon).

A female Blackcap was in a garden at Island Magee (Robert McDowell).

Yesterday 175 Curlew were at Dundrum Inner Bay South, 5 Bullfinch a mile
along the road from Newcastle to Bryansford and 4 Goldfinch at the east side
of Tollymore (Ann McComb).

Thanks to Stephen Foster for this shot of a female Blackcap taken in his garden in Bleary in late December.

Female Blackcap, Bleary, Co. Armagh - Stephen Foster

Bird News Tuesday 25th January

A male and female Peregrine were seen together twice over Belfast city centre today. (Colin Cardy).

Bird News Monday 24th January

The male Ring-necked Duck was giving good views at the Rahop end of Lough Money. At least 6 Stock Doves were in a nearby ploughed field with numerous Woodpigeons. A pair of Blackcap were at the Quoile Centre but no sign of any Bramblings. At 5 pm the redhead Smew was on the far side of River Quoile below the Quoile Centre. (Ian Jackson).

The Ferruginous Duck was in Lurgan Park Lake which is partially frozen so the bird was giving good views. (Stephen Foster).

9 Slavonian Grebe were at Greyabbey Bay and 3 Slavonian, 2 Carrion Crow and
a hybrid just south of Horse Island (Richard Weyl).

20 Waxwing were at the Adelboden on the road to Donaghadee just outside
Groomsport and a Carrion Crow at Groomsport harbour (Jim Whitla, Margaret
Adamson).

A Waxwing was along Pond Park Road in Lisburn and 2 Brambling in a garden at
Ballymacash Road (Walter Veale).

Yesterday 2 Brambling and 2 Blackcap were in a garden at Waterloo Park in
Belfast (Larry Toal).

Ferruginous Duck, Lurgan Park Lake - Stephen Foster

Shoveler, Lurgan Park Lake - Stephen Foster

Bird News for Sunday 23rd January

The American Herring Gull was still at Donnybrewer along with a 2nd winter RB Gull.

The RN Duck was still showing at Lough Money.(C.Nash)

2 Smew both female were at the Quoile pondage, one about 200 yards from the bridge, the second from the main hide. 3 Brambling were at the Quoile centre, a male Blackcap was giving good views at the RSPB Belfast Harbour Estate Reserve.

A Goosander was seen off Cusendall.(Brenda Campbell) see photo below

A minimum of 48 Brambling (amazing number) were visiting a garden in Richill.(A.Poots) see

photo below

A Chough was in the fields at Fair Head and 4 GN Diver at Red Bay. A Waxwing was along Ardenlee Ave in Belfast.(K.Bennett)

A second winter Med.Gull was at Ballyholme Bay and a Little Egret, 3 Carrion Crow, and 2 hybrid at Ballymacormick Point Co.Down.(R.Weyl)

The hybrid Common/RB Gull was at Millisle, 9 Slav.Grebe at Greyabbey Bay South and a Sandwich Tern at Ballyhenry Co.Down(G.Gordon)

2GN Diver were off Ballygally Co.Antrim, (photo below)there was also 12-14 Bottlenose Dolphin

(P.Majury)

Ballycarry Med Gull

Many thanks to Cameron Moore for the picture below of the Mediterranean Gull at Ballycarry, Larne Lough. It had been ringed as a pullus in England.

Bird News Saturday 22nd January

A day for Ring-necked Ducks with two seen.
A drake was at Drumgay Lough, Co. Fermanagh and a first winter male at Lough Money Co Down. This latter one is probably the Lough Cowey bird
Also at Drumgay Lough was a drake Scaup and 22 Whooper Swan. (Wilton Farrelly)
The Smew was seen at the bridge at the Quoile
24 Waxwing were at Ramoan Road, Ballycastle

In Co Down, 2 Sandwich Tern were at Portaferry Marina. At Marlfield were 30 Yellowhammer, 10 Tree Sparrow, 5 Reed Bunts, 100s of Chaffinch, 100 Skylark and a Greenfinch.
9 Slavonian Grebe in Greyabbey Bay South, 120 Golden Plover at Kirkistown along with a female Merlin. Kearney had 5 Scoter, a GN Diver and a passing Pochard. Mount Stewart had 20 Greenfinch (all Keith Bennet)

In Larne Lough, 52 PF Geese, 84 Greylag and the first winter Med Gull were at Ballycarry Bridge (Cameron Moore)

11 Brambling, 2 Blackcap and a Lesser Redpoll were in a garden in Belgravia, Belfast. 2000 Eider were off Grey Point, 30 Knot and 40 Black-tailed Godwit at Kinnegar Horehound, Co Down (J Whitla)

A Brambling was in a garden at Killough, 10 Tree Sparrow and a Twite were at Tyrella. 500 Common Scoter, 5 Scaup, 20 Razorbill and a Common Guillemot were off Murlogh.

15 Yellowhammer were along the Belfast Rd, Comber. (D Polley)

Blackcaps have been seen in a number of Gardens e.g. Larne (Derek Polley) and east Belfast

Carlingford Birding Weekend

The sixth Carlingford Birding weekend takes place on Feb 4th - 6th and is guided by Eric Dempsey. The event includes an introductory talk, a bus tour and walks. The cost is 50 euro per person, excluding accommodation. For more information, contact Breffni Martin at bmartin@regintel.com

Bird News for Friday 21st January

A 30 mins. seawatch at St John's Point produced a GN Diver, 4 RT Diver, 30 Razorbill, 3 Black Guillemot, a common Guillemot, 4 Common Scoter, 2 Kittiwate, 20 Skylark were at the point, a Brambling, 4 Lesser Redpoll, 25 Reed Bunting and a Stonechat were at Tyrella and 2 Eider offshore (C.Murphy) (if you are brave enough to do a sea watch this time of year, it is worth knowing that there have been unusually high numbers of Balearic Shearwaters off Cornwall this month)

A Little Egret paid a visit to a garden in Dundonald, no doubt the bird that is seen regularly in Moat Park.(R.McCrory)

2 Carrion Crow, a Hooded Crow and a hybrid were at Cove Bay in Groomsport.(G.Gordon)

A female Brambling was at Clogher (P Grosse) 

Little Egret, Strangford Lough - George McKee

Focus on Birds

Focus on Birds is a photographic exhibition currently running in the Belfast rooms of the Ulster Museum and will continue until March. Organised by the NIOC, it is a collection of stunning photographs taken from the last 5 years of the club's competition, well worth a visit and of course it's all free.

Ringed Little Egrets

Please keep a look out for colour ringed Little Egrets in NI. From a total of 40 birds fitted with colour rings with individual digits, there have already been 12 re-sightings reported from birders around  Ireland  The most impressive sighting has been that of a Little Egret which was ringed by BirdWatch Ireland staff member John Lusby in its nest last summer in Galway Bay and which was subsequently spotted by a birder in the Azores in October, a trip of 2,133km! Please keep a look out for any colour ringed egrets and report sightings to John Lusby at jlusby@birdwatchireland.ie  or Chris Benson at  Illaune@eircom.net.  Each bird has two colour rings, a black darvic with a letter above the left knee and a yellow darvic with a letter/number above the right knee.

Little Egret - John Lusby

 

BTO Help Needed

If you bird any of the squares in the map below, the BTO is seeking your help. Please log on to the web link below and help contribute records for the next Atlas:
http://blx1.bto.org/atlas-results/rich_gaps_map.html