If my last update from the Larne
Lough patch seems a long time ago, that’s because it was! You can read it here – and since that post
not a lot has been happening, a year tick every now and again, with little in
the way of quality.
My struggles are highlighted by
the fact that my first year tick since 23rd June were some Sand Martins (117) in a mixed flock of
hirundines feeding over Glynn rugby club lagoon on 9th August. I had never knowingly seen this species
around Larne before, so I was more than happy to see them!
From early July I kept a look out
for passage waders, which eventually produced a few year ticks - a Knot (118) on 16th August
and a juvenile Curlew
Sandpiper (119) on 24th
September were new for the year, the latter only my second ever patch
record! Elsewhere, peak counts of 25
Greenshank (22/9), 32 Snipe (15/11) and 88 Lapwing (6/12) were notable. A Jack Snipe (120)
was found at Glynn on 15th November, which became my first record of
this species on the patch for almost 5 years!
I managed to successfully twitch an unexpected Grey Plover at Sandy Bay (121) early morning on 30th
November - they are normally seen in small numbers off Glynn Station much
earlier in the autumn. A single Whimbrel is currently wintering around
Glynn. It was not all good news on the
wader front as I managed to miss out on Spotted Redshank and Ruff.
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| Knot |
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| Curlew Sandpiper |
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| Redshank |
Seawatching was also a struggle, but with (extreme) perseverance produced some year ticks. The first Arctic Terns (122) of the year were seen from a short seawatch on 24th September. This species occasionally appears at Glynn Station during spring, but all I saw here this year were a handful of ‘red-billed’ Common Terns. Some decent onshore winds on 15th October had me in the shelters in Chaine Park for first light. Despite the bewildered glances of some locals, this proved to be an excellent decision as several Whooper Swans (123) and Common Scoters (124) were seen as was my first ever patch Bonxie (125)! To finish things off nicely for the day, the first Kestrel (126) of the year was seen above the coast road.
It has been a great year for
ducks on the patch and the autumn period once again threw up the occasionally
oddity. Three Common Scoter were off
Glynn Station on 16th October – no doubt some of the birds seen on
the seawatch the previous day. A female Shoveler
was present on 19th July and the first returning Goldeneye was back on the early date of
4th August. A male Scaup
was present off the station on 12th September, with 2 there on 28th. The interesting run of Pintail records continued, following the on/off appearance of a
male (in various states of moult) throughout the summer. An eclipse male was seen on 29th
October, followed by an adult male and 2 female types which have been omnipresent
since 15th November.
During the past few months Larne
Lough has once again proved itself as one of the best sites in Ireland to see Goosander. An eclipse male was present off Glynn Station
on 12th September (local breeder?), followed by an adult male there
on 11th November (same bird?).
Two females were seen late evening on 5th December followed
by a high count of 4 females the next day.
The adult male at least is still lurking around the lough somewhere. One of my best finds of the autumn was a Slavonian Grebe seen distantly from Glynn Station on 22nd
November. I wonder is it the same bird
seen here this spring. Whatever its
provenance, it looks set to spend the winter on the lough – the first bird for
many years to do so.
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| Eclipse male Goosander |
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| Female Goosanders |
It has also been a good year on patch
for Little Gulls,
I managed to find my 4th bird this year on 1st September
at Sandy Bay. Mediterranean Gulls are present on the patch all year round, though
it appears only two birds are overwintering this year – an adult and a 2nd
winter. Best seen at the mouth of the
Inver River. The most exciting recent
development has been the regular sighting of two Sandwich Terns around the mouth of the lough, an adult and 1st
winter. I picked them up feeding well
offshore on 30th November during a seawatch, associating with
hundreds of Kittiwakes and small
gulls which gather to feed on sprat in and around the Maidens at this time of
year. That evening they appeared on the
rocks at Sandy Bay and have been observed here occasionally ever since. These are the first wintering records for
Northern Ireland away from County Down.
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| Juvenile Med Gull |
.JPG) |
| Little Gull |
There was much fun and games on
13th December when, whilst scanning offshore from Glynn Station, I
picked up a white-winged gull flying
across the mouth of the harbour towards Islandmagee. As it looked set to cruise around distantly
above Ballylumford power station, I decided to drive around to see if I could
get better views. Despite it being
possible to throw a stone from Larne Harbour on one side of Larne Lough to
Ballylumford on the other, it takes a good 20 minutes to drive from Glynn round
to the north tip of Islandmagee and when I arrived there was no sign of the
bird. It eventually appeared flying
around above the docks on the other side of the lough! I watched it through the scope as it landed
on one of the harbour floodlights beside a Herring Gull. Views were atrocious but the outline of the
bird and its size compared to the Herring Gull suggested it was an Iceland Gull (127). So it
was back in the car for the half hour drive back to Larne. No sign from the harbour gates at Sandy Bay
or the road out to Curran Point. Then just
as I was about head home, it appeared over the car and flew towards the ferry
terminal. Sod it I thought and followed
it in. As I explained myself to
security, I could see the bird feeding in the wake of a docking ferry and
moments later found myself being escorted (surprisingly not off the premises)
down to a gateway beside the ramp for a better view. So there I was standing in the near dark
watching an Iceland Gull in Larne Harbour as passengers flooded past me in
their cars. All this for a lousy 2
points!
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| Iceland Gull |
The next morning, it took a loaf
of Kingsmill to finally pin the bird down as a 1st winter Iceland
Gull and obtain some decent shots. The
only other year tick since my last update was Lesser Redpoll (128) but the less said about this the better! With the year drawing to a close, there might
still be time for one or two additional species, but as it stands scores are 128 species or 166 points.
