A Barn Swallow seen at Oxford Island this morning, showing the characteristics of the sub-species transitiva which breed in the eastern Mediterranean.(Ed O'Hara) see photo below
RSPB WoW had a first year Little Gull and 3 Ruff (Wilton Farrelly)
The Spoonbill was seen again at Ballykelly.(Christine Cassidy)
A White Wagtail was at RSPB Wow reserve.(Derek Polley)
Myroe today had 1 Curlew Sandpiper and 1 Little Stint. The Spoonbill was showing well at Ballykelly Marsh. (Hill Dick)
The Spoonbill was seen from Station Rd, Ballykelly. A Little Stint was at Myroe and an Osprey was seen flying high over Barmouth heading south. (Patrick Barton)
A Tree Pipit, two Stock Doves, 12 White Wagtails and 10 Long-tailed Tits were among highlights of three hours of visible migration at St John’s Pt this morning between 8.30 and 11.30 dominated by Meadow Pipits c.2,000, Starlings c.1,500, Skylarks c.200, Goldfinches c 300, Siskins 42 and Tree Sparrows 31; (Chris Murphy)
A flock of five Lapland Buntings are now present at Copeland Bird Observatory (Ollie Padget & Joe Wynn)
Magilligan Point had two Arctic Skua and a juvenile Little Gull (Richard Donaghey)
Our thanks to Thomas Campbell for this photo of a Sandering. Also to Juliet Fleming for the Sandwich Tern. Bottom photo sent in by John Bamford is of the Spoonbill seen at Ballykelly.
A Black-browed Albatross went south past Copeland bird obs 18:25-18:29 per Copeland team \ Ollie Padget.
An inland Kittiwake was in a flooded field by the canal bank at Poyntzpass, Co. Armagh. (Joe Devlin)
Myroe has 2 Little Stint and 2 Curlew Sandpiper (Gerard McGeehan / Shirley Dunlop / Carol Gillespie / Christine Cassidy and Lindsay Hodges)
A Baird’s Sandpiper and a Curlew Sandpiper are at Trabeg Bay, Ballyhooriskey, Fanad. (Ralph Sheperd)
A 30 minute seawatch at Ramore Head this afternoon produced a Sooty Shearwater, 2 Leaches Petrel and 2 Storm Petrels. (Stuart McKee)
A high count of 26 Gadwall were at the pond at the Billy Neill Playing Fields, Dundonald (Chris Shaw)
A Pomarine Skua and 6 White Wagtail were off Blackhead this afternoon. (Philip Watson)
Christine Cassidy, Curlew Sandpiper:
The Wetland Bird Survey
As we are gearing up for winter, many birders will resume their Wetland Bird Survey (WeBS) counts. WeBS is the primary method of recording non-breeding waterbirds throughout the UK and BTO is currently looking for counters for a range of sites across Northern Ireland.
What's involved?
Most of the vacant sites are relatively small and the time commitment would be approximately an hour per month from September to March.
Methodology is extremely simple, all you have to do is go for a nice walk on a specified weekend each month and record all the waterbirds at your site!
Which sites are available?
You can view all vacant sites and contact the relevant WeBS Local Organisers by visiting the link below:
https://app.bto.org/websonline/sites/vacant/vacant-sites.jsp#lon=-4.5263672&lat=54.8006849&zoom=5
Alternatively please contact BTO NI Officer Stephen Hewitt at stephen.hewitt@bto.org
I have a site which isn't listed....
In addition, if anyone would be willing to take on a site which isn't listed, please get in touch with Stephen to discuss.
Myroe this morning had 7 Curlew Sandpipers and a Litle Stint. (Richard Hunter).
Ramore Head between 7.30 and 11.00 this morning had 6 Great Skua, a dark phase Arctic Skua, 3 Great Northern Diver, a Red-throated Diver and 4 Common Scoter. (Garry Armstrong, Ed O'Hara, Richard Donaghy).
Fanad Head in Donegal had 33 Leach's Petrel, 2 Storm Petrel, 27 Sooty Shearwaters, 7 Great Skua, 6 Arctic Skua and a Sunfish.(Wilton Farrelly / Jamie Bliss)
2 Sanderling were at Kinnegar Pools in Belfast. (Daniel Newton).
3 Barnacle Geese were with 70 Greylags at Ballycarry in Larne Lough. (Adam McClure).
Rathlin Sound this morning had a juvenile Sabine's Gull, 2 Leach's Petrel, an Arctic Skua and at least 6 Great Skua. (Ric Else & Hazel Watson).
Lough Beg this afternoon had 3 Ruff and a White Wagtail. (Richard Hunter).
Faughanvale on Lough Foyle had the Spoonbill, 6 Knot, 3 Sanderling, 30 Little Egret and 500 Brent Geese. (Kevin Kirkham).
A ringtail Hen Harrier, Merlin and Wheatear were in the Antrim hills. (Michael Latham)
This evening a Swift was over Whitehead train station. (Paul McCullough).
This afternoon a possible White-rumped Sandpiper was seen in flight at Myroe, 3 Curlew Sandpipers and the Little Stint were also present. (Kevin Kirkham).
The adult Roseate Tern and 2 Ruff were at Belfast WOW reserve. (Stuart McKee).
Thanks to Thomas Campbell for the pictures of the Sanderling, Dunlin and Kestrel, to Michael Latham for the picture of the Wheatear and to Stuart McKee for the picture of the Roseate Tern:
This should only take around five minutes. The aim is to help BTO increase volunteer participation in Northern Ireland so that they can produce more robust scientific data and better understand our wild bird populations.
The more responses BTO get to the questionnaire the better, so please feel free to forward the link to anybody who might be interested.
The questionnaire will be closed on 28th October 2020.
For anyone who has visited Cape Clear, you may be interested in this new book by Steve Wing. It can be purchased at the web address below. For those in NI, Steve will try to arrange a collection of the order from the CCBO for NI recipients, so when checking out, if you select Ireland as your region, you will get an option to collect at the CCBO. If you select this, we will endeavour to get a delivery to NI.
https://puma-flatworm-42cf.squarespace.com/
