Golden Oriole and Spoonbill

Two disappointments for me (and other birders) were that we didn’t see the exotic young Spoonbill or the Golden Oriole when they arrived unexpectedly in the Province.

The Golden Oriole was spotted near Islandhill Reserve on Strangford Lough and these 2 photographs were taken by Stefan Greif.  You may remember him when in June he came to the Copeland Island with me and he allowed me to show many of his wonderful photographs on my blog.  So one again, thanks to him I can at least see the Golden Oriole.  There hasn’t been one recorded in Northern Ireland since 1957.

 

Golden Orioles have only been recorded 12 times in Northern Ireland,

mostly in the late 19^th and early 20^th Century.

More birders were fortunate to see the Spoonbill around the coast at Castle Espie.  However, I did tell you in a previous post, that Jimmy and I did not and then the next day it was found dead.  What I didn’t know was the probable cause of death. 

 

 

 

These 3 photographs of the Spoonbill above are by Chris Henry, the one below is by Joe Lamont and the last one is by Una McCamey  Many thanks to them.

 

 

Now it was tragic that the Spoonbill died.  Kerry Mackie, the General Manager of Castle Espie said, “We found it deceased on the mudflats.  There were fox prints leading up to the body and its head had gone.  It was very sad end to a bird that had given so many people of lot of pleasure in the 10 days that it was here.”

 

I have now arrived on the I.O.W so although I hope to post most days, I probably will not have time to comment on your blogs for the next week.

I nearly had a bit of a tradegy today myself!  Got to the airport on good time, plane was on time and had a good flight, caught the train and had a very pleasant journey into Portsmouth harbour and  sat down to wait for the ferry. Asked the man sitting next to me what time it was going and he said about 7 minutes and so I was very pleased how everything had dove tailed together. 

About 3 minutes later, I suddenly exclaimed, I had forgotten my suitcase and I torn up the ramp, onto the station, saw my train was still there and fortunately for me, I had been sitting at the very front of it, opened the doors and there was my case!  Ran down the ramp again, into my seat and everyone now knew what had happened and were very pleased to see me back with the said case although they said, "how could you leave behind such a large case"!!  Well everyone has these moments, don't they!!!

I hope you enjoyed this post although a bit sad however you may have smiled at my stupidity leaving my case on the train!!

Thank you for visiting and leaving comments on my blogs.  I appreciate every one of them.