Wednesday, 12 June 2013

Belfast Harbour Hide Visited

This is my final post on taking the 2 Dutch people birding.  We ended up at the RSPB Belfast Harbour Reserve.  There was quite a lot to see and near the hide were some Robin, Goldfinch, Redpoll, Great Tit, Blue Tit, Wren, Collared Dove Pied Wagtail and a Magpie.

Magpie
Below is the island made for the Terns however the Black headed Gulls got there first this year and you can see they have nested and most of the young have been born and are at different stages of development. 

                                                     Black headed Gulls with lots of chicks.

                                  Black headed Gull with chick that had fledged the Island


                                                                   Black headed Gull chick

Also at the Reserve we saw Moorhen Coot, Heron, Black tailed Godwit, Dunlin, Wood Pigeon, Gadwwell, Shouvler and Swan.  However there were a couple of highlights for us and one was 3 Little Tern.  we don't often get them so there was great excitement at the Reserve.  The other highlight was that one of the Lapwings had a young chick.  That was wonderful to see as they do not breed often at the Reserve.

When I was leaving them back to the Crawfordsburn Inn, Ben and i walked over to a little park and although there were not many birds there, the meadow was resplendent with buttercups.


                                                        Meadow at Crawfordsburn Village

We are nearing the end of my posts regarding walking round Ballymacormick Point and visiting the Belfast Reserve  and we were pleased as we had seen 53 different species of birds. 

This video below is of one of the artificial islands made for Terns at the Reserve in Belfast to breed 
however the Black headed gulls have taken over it and have breed successfully.  This video shows many of the chicks at different ages and if you look closely you will see some Common Terns doing their best to squeeze in and make their nests.

 If you are unable to see this video on my blog, go into youtube and put in http://youtu.be/ou5l3CMeVTQ  



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8 comments:

  1. The Herald12 June 2013 at 20:57

    A great end to your 'tour' Margaret. And you managed some good sightings along the way.

    The Buttercup meadow looks stunning, as for the Tern raft, I think it should be renamed the Black-Headed raft! nice to see all the young gulls though...[;o)

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    Replies
    1. Margaret Birding For Pleasure15 June 2013 at 01:36

      Hi Yes I think you are right about the tern raft!! Many thanks for your encouraging comments Margaret

      Delete
  2. TexWisGirl12 June 2013 at 23:13

    the magpie is SO handsome! cute little gull chicks.

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    Replies
    1. Margaret Birding For Pleasure15 June 2013 at 01:37

      Hi Tex Many thanks for comments. people here do not really like the magpie but really it is a beautiful bird. Margaret

      Delete
  3. Judy 13 June 2013 at 01:35

    Beautiful shots Margaret! I love the third one.

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  4. Douglas Mcfarlane13 June 2013 at 05:29

    I really like the Magpie the colours are beautiful, as is the splash of yellow provided by the buttercups, I've actually noted alot more them this summer around my way...perhaps one benefit of the odd weather we've had?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Margaret Birding For Pleasure15 June 2013 at 01:38

      Hi Douglas You could be right about the number of buttercups this year. Thans for comments. Margaret

      Delete

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