Last Monday my birding group decided to go to the Floodgates at Newtownards which is 5 miles from my home, and once again the tide was out! Even though, there were a lot of birds and we were able to see them well through the telescope. There was Curlew, Black tailed Godwit, flocks of Lapwing, Redshank, flocks of Dunlin, Turnstone, Gulls, 1 Greenshank, 2 Little Egret, 2 Grey Heron and about 30 Pintail ducks. However the best birds seen were the 500+ Golden Plover. At the end of this post I videoed them lifting off the mudflats.
Golden Plover
These were the congregation of Golden Plover.
Then we decided to go to Killynether Wood and on the way we saw a collection of birds in a field. So we parked the cars, got the telescope out and discovered there were about 200 + Black tailed Godwit with at least the same amount of mostly Black headed Gulls. Can you even see them in this shot?
Again, I managed to get them on video taking flight.
At last we arrived at Killynether Wood. It was a beautiful sunny day and we were so glad we came here as there still were many trees showing their
autumn glory.
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In Killynether Wood we followed the path to the rear of the
old Walled Garden into the woodland. The path ahead passes impressive beech
trees on the right, through mixed woodland and then climbs through a hazel
wood. From here, we followed the path before descending through the beech wood to finish
at the car park once more.
We stopped for coffee and enjoyed the peaceful surroundings of this former estate
woodland which is the result of planting in the mid nineteenth century.
We saw, Wren, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Coal Tit, Chaffinch, Dunnock, Robin, Wood Pigeon, Rook and Jackdaws.
Some of the bird watching group as we were nearing our cars before heading off to see if we could find the Yellowhammers. (we didn't). However one our way, we stopped to see these horses below as they were galloping up and down this field.
I decided to take a video and while I was doing this my bird group spied something else and indeed it was the reason the horses were acting this way. In tomorrow's post, all will become clear when I show you what we found!
I wonder if you can guess what it will be?
The video can be accessed at
If there is a black space below,click it and the video will appear.
Once again I hope you enjoyed coming out with us today to see the birds around my area.
Many thanks visiting and leaving comments on my posts yesterday.
