Bird News Wednesday 22nd March

A male Merlin was seen on the road in to Portavogie (Stephen Maxwell)

Below are pics and history on two Black-headed Gulls from Antrim Marina, provided by Gareth Platt. A species that we often take for granted, the records below show the differing origins of these gulls:

'Iceland 571487' above has been recorded throughout the winter at Antrim Marina and this should be the final sighting until next Autumn. It certainly got well fed by folk feeding the ducks, a sign that it is building up for it's return to Iceland. Gareth first recorded it in March 2014.

The second BHG is a first winter that put in it's first appearance at Antrim Marina last weekend.  Gareth, realising it was foreign, it gave him the run-around as he took photos of the ring. He eventually managed to obtain the full code - Lithuania HA24.967. Another nice sighting and many thanks to Gareth for this information.


Thanks to Thomas Campbell for the picture below of a Treecreeper. You can see more pics from local photographers at: http://nibirdpics.blogspot.co.uk/ :