I spent the 19th and
20th of May on Rathlin doing a mix of patch birding and survey squares
for the RSPB Northern Ireland Twite survey which has been taking place over the
last two breeding seasons. Naturally, my
survey squares were all within the patch boundary! The two days produced 3 new birds for the
year list, including two patch ticks but will be remembered just as much for
making the rookie mistake of leaving the island while other birders were still
present!
I decided to split the patch into
two sections, north and south of the harbour and cover one area each day. From the ferry across on Sunday 19 May, it
was unusual to see many Puffins sitting
on the water and several more were seen later on the water below the
Coastguards Station and East Light. The
harbour wall was swarming with hirundines feasting on flies and 2 Common Sandpiper were at the base of
the West Pier. As I checked the trees
and scrub at the bottom of Church Valley, a small finch appeared into few
feeding on seed heads by the Church.
This turned out to be the first of a number of rather interesting Redpolls seen during the day (and the
only one that I got the chance to photograph).
Answers on a postcard...
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| Interesting Redpoll |
White Wagtail passage appears to be coming to an end, with only 1
bird noted today, but a small number of waders are still on the move, including
8 Dunlin at the south east side of
the harbour. Also of note today were
high counts of 27 Sedge Warblers and
15 Whitethroats. The laneway running alongside Ballycarry Pool
has produced a few good birds so far this spring and today held 2 Spotted Flycatchers
(105) and at least 2 Common Redpolls (106) as well as multiple Sedge
Warblers and Whitethroats. Two pairs of Coot each had 4 small chicks in the
pool itself. The Common Redpolls were in
a flighty flock with 10 Lesser Redpolls
and really stood out from the crowd – real chunky birds. A small arrival of finches had obviously taken
place with small numbers of Goldfinches
and Linnets also present. I see
Common Redpolls most autumns on the patch, but good to get them on list early
on nonetheless.
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| Spotted Fly - one of 3 on the patch today
Another Spotted Flycatcher was seen
in the upper part of Church Valley along with large numbers of common
warblers. Half an hour spent seawatching
from the East Light saw 320 Large Auks (mostly Razorbills), 1 Puffin and 5 Manx
Shearwater heading west and 3 Porpoise
milling around.
19 May - Day totals (north
section of patch only): 35 Willow Warbler, 27 sedge Warbler, 15
Whitethroat, 2 Blackcap, 1 Chiffchaff, 1 Goldcrest, 3 Spotted Flycatcher, 2 Common Redpoll, 10 Lesser
Redpoll, 29 Goldfinch, 20 Linnet, 55+ Swallow, 14 House Martin, 1 Sand Martin,
2 Common Sandpiper, 10 Turnstone, 8
Dunlin, 1 White Wagtail, 4 Wheatear
The next morning I met with work
colleagues in Ballycastle for the 8am ferry to spend the day looking for Twite
around the island. This also provided
the rare opportunity for the bulk of the island to be covered simultaneously,
so I asked the others to keep a note of anything unusual they encountered in their
survey squares (any Moorhens lads?).
I had barely started into my survey
work, when a Collared
Dove (107) flew by. I paused
for thought soon after finding myself clambering up to a high point for a
better look! This was an island tick
after all. Sedge Warblers were again prominent with a further 20 birds noted
in this half of the patch. One lonesome Sanderling was in Mill Bay.
 
The weather all day was rather
misty and murky, but this certainly ushered plenty of Snipe into action, as out of the 10 encountered today, 7 were heard
chipping or drumming. In fact this was a
good day overall for breeding waders around the island, several more displaying
Snipe were recorded, as were breeding Lapwing
and a “suspicious” Curlew. However, it looks like the Black-headed Gull colony has been flooded
out, as all the birds have now left the area.
Snipe
The Doon Bay area had 2 Sandwich Terns feeding offshore and yet
more Sedge Warblers were in the vegetated gullies along the cliff face. From the top of the cliffs, while eating
lunch, I spotted a Ferret bolting
around below. Several Rock Doves were also seen in this area. I had finished covering my survey squares by
3pm with a return of 2 Twite to show
for my efforts. I met up with some of
the others who had also finished in Church Bay for a cup of tea. Reports came in that a Spotted Flycatcher was seen behind Church Bay (M. Tickner) and that
presumably the same 2 Common Redpolls from
yesterday had been seen again, this time at the west end (B. Robson).
Talk soon turned to my Patch
Challenge efforts on the island and I mentioned how the laneway beside
Ballycarry Pool (it turns out no-one seems to know what this area is actually
called) had been producing the goods for me.
A couple of us caught the 4.15pm ferry back to Ballycastle, leaving the
others to finish up the Twite work or have a final look around. The inevitable text was received at 5.30pm while
sitting with my feet up in Ballycastle – “Whinchat
at end of laneway by Ballycarry Pool”.
Bollocks. That text almost ruined
my chippy! To top it all off, not one
Moorhen was seen on the entire island.
20 May - Day totals (south
section of patch only): 20 Willow
Warbler, 1 Chiffchaff, 1 Blackcap, 1 Goldcrest, 20 Sedge Warbler, 4 Whitethroat,
1 Collared Dove, 2 Sandwich Tern, 1 Sanderling, 10 Dunlin, 6 Turnstone, 30+
Swallow, 12 House Martin, 14 Sand Martin,
10 Wheatear, 2 White Wagtail, 2 Lesser
Redpoll, 25 Linnet, 2 Twite, 6 Goldfinch
Score now on 107 species, 133
points or 104.72%
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