Fun and Games in Larne

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 23^rd June were some Sand Martins (117) in a mixed flock of hirundines feeding over Glynn rugby club lagoon on 9^th 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 16^th August and a juvenile Curlew Sandpiper (119) on 24^th 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 15^th 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 30^th 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.

 

Knot

 

Curlew Sandpiper

 

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 24^th 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 15^th 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 16^th October – no doubt some of the birds seen on the seawatch the previous day. A female Shoveler was present on 19^th July and the first returning Goldeneye was back on the early date of 4^th August.   A male Scaup was present off the station on 12^th September, with 2 there on 28^th.  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 29^th October, followed by an adult male and 2 female types which have been omnipresent since 15^th 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 12^th September (local breeder?), followed by an adult male there on 11^th November (same bird?).  Two females were seen late evening on 5^th 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 22^nd 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.

Eclipse male Goosander

Female Goosanders

 

It has also been a good year on patch for Little Gulls, I managed to find my 4^th bird this year on 1^st 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 2^nd 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 1^st winter.  I picked them up feeding well offshore on 30^th 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.

 

Juvenile Med Gull

Little Gull

 

There was much fun and games on 13^th 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!

 

Iceland Gull

 

The next morning, it took a loaf of Kingsmill to finally pin the bird down as a 1^st 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.

Purple Patch – Larne Lough update

Life ‘Post-Crane’ around the Larne patch has been predictably dull, with just the occasional oddity turning up and a slow trickle of migrants arriving through March.  However, in the past week or so, things have really livened up, with some birds actually troubling the bonus points column on the score sheet!  Since my last update in early February, I have made more visits to Glynn Station and Sandy Bay than I care to remember and have had no end of trouble trying to find certain ‘common’ species.  Yet, somehow it all seems worthwhile when the patch serves up birding gems like Kumlien’s Gull and Glossy Ibis!

 

The only addition to the year list in February following the Crane was a drake Shoveler, found loitering off Glynn Station with Wigeon on 22^nd, which I’m treating as a patch tick – although I do have a vague recollection of seeing two females at Glynn many moons ago, but don’t seem to have noted it down anywhere.

 

 

 

There has been no shortage of gulls to check through during the past month or two, with a major arrival occurring in mid-February and numbers generally building since then.  I made a rough count of all the gulls visible from Glynn Station on 20^th February and tallied 1200 Black-headed Gulls, 800 Common Gulls, 300 Herring Gulls, 25+ Great Black-backed Gulls, 5 Mediterranean Gulls and 3 Lesser Black-backed Gulls. A grand total of over 2300 gulls, but this figure could easily have been doubled had all the gulls in the north end of the lough been counted.  Paying close attention to the gulls also revealed the spring arrival of Med Gulls, with at least 12 birds being seen on at least one occasion (8 x adults, 2 x 2nd sum & 2 x 1^st sum) around the patch.  By mid-March several adults could be seen displaying off Glynn Station and most will hopefully stay to breed on the nearby islands, which are currently heaving with gulls and terns.

No further year ticks were seen until 9^th March when I finally caught up with a Kingfisher at Glynn Station.  Later that day, on my first foray to Curran Point of the year I managed two more with 15+ apparently fresh in Meadow Pipits and a female Stonechat.  On my second visit here on 17^th March, a nice male Wheatear was present.  This site definitely seems capable of attracting passerine migrants.

Other early spring migrants were picked up around the patch on predictable March dates – Black-tailed Godwits on 14^th, the first Chiffchaff singing at Bank Road on 16^th, Sandwich Terns off Glynn Station on 29^th and a Blackcap at Glynn Lagoon on 30^th.  Although a Whimbrel seen and heard off Glynn on 19^th March had most likely wintered there.

 

Little Egret and Water Rail proved surprisingly difficult to get onto the year list. The former was not encountered at until 14^th March and an early morning stake out of the private lagoon at Glynn was required for the latter the following day.



 

March is normally one of the best months of the year in Larne Lough, as in addition to the mass arrival of gulls, there is also a nice build-up of ducks, geese and waders and this year proved to be no exception. Peak counts from Glynn Station included: 120 Brent Geese, 145 Redshank, 6 Greenshank, 100+ Curlew, 129 Eider, 63 Goldeneye and 58 Red-breasted Merganser. As well as occasional Red-throated and Great Northern Divers. 

I was beginning to think the most unusual gull sighting of the winter was going to be an adult Kittiwake seen roosting off Glynn Station on 19^th March, but an evening trip to the local garage on 31^st soon changed that idea.  Driving home along the harbour highway, I noticed a nice collection of gulls loafing at the Inver River mouth at high tide.  I pulled onto the hard shoulder and was scanning the flock with my bins, when I was stopped in my tracks by a most welcome tail pattern! I focussed in on the bird – an adult Kumlien’s Gull, but something wasn’t quite right, it was at the dark end of things for Kumlien’s, appeared rather chunky and most strikingly appeared to have an all dark bill.  At that moment I realised I had no scope with me, so after a quick dash home, I was soon back viewing the bird from the Bank Road side of the lough as it drifted further away on the outgoing tide.  I managed good views and took some shots through the scope.  The eye was also dark (ok for adult Kumlien’s), the breast and neck heavily marked/streaked and the bill did have some blotches of yellow on it, suggesting it may have been stained or caked in mud.  Later that night, once confirmed as a Kumlien’s by various other gull enthusiasts, I updated my patch score sheet to discover it was worth a whopping 6 points!



 

I arrived home from a work visit to England late on 3^rd April to discover that the Glossy Ibis first seen outside the patch boundary in January had been seen off Glynn Station.  Obviously this necessitated a 7am visit the next morning before work, but there was no sign, although the first Willow Warbler of the year was in full song at the station.   

My next visit to Glynn Station on the evening of 6^th April, will live long in the memory.  I arrived to find a couple of local birders casually chatting about a Pintail – I raised my bins and right at the mouth of the river was a stunning drake, which I quickly told them (not that they cared much) was the first time I had ever seen this species in the lough.  Shortly afterwards, the original patch birder himself - Cameron Moore arrived to get some shots of the bird. He then told me he had seen the Glossy Ibis there that morning.  Whilst enjoying views of the Pintail a small grebe popped up into my field of view.  I got onto it through the scope and stopped Cameron mid-sentence and said you might want to take a look at this grebe!  A smart Slavonian Grebe almost in full summer plumage was feeding just yards away from the Pintail!  This was as good as a patch tick, as my only previous record was of a dubious long range bird several years ago.  I have seen summer plumaged Slav’s in Strangford and Lough Foyle before, but never at such close range.  An absolute belter.

 

 

I ventured off to view the private lagoon from the main road, hoping to finally see the Glossy Ibis.  After half an hour searching there was no sign, but I did manage to year tick Coot!  I returned to the platform at Glynn to find that another couple of birders had arrived to see the grebe.  As all present stood taking in views of the grebe and Pintail, local birder Brian shouted out “hold on, isn’t that the Ibis just off the point?” Err hell yea it is!  Appearing as if from nowhere, the Glossy Ibis was now standing within feet of the feeding Pintail and Slav Grebe…

 

 

Having birded around Larne for many years, this sort of thing just does not happen here.  Whatever next I asked Cameron, “Pelicans” he replied.

All this action leaves me on 102 species or 131 points for the year.

Shirley Dunlop, Gerard McGeehan, Cameron Moore and Brian enjoying all the goings on at Glynn last night...