These are some
photograph taken by one of my birders, Danny when the group visited Oxford Island
in March this year. The birds are the Great Tit, Dunnock, Tree Sparrow, Little Grebe, Tufted Duck and Great crested Grebe
Once
again, I am posting from Tory Island when I visited it in May this year. Today
all the birds are sitting on fences, the Meadow Pipit, Wheatear and Tree
Sparrow on barbed wire and the series of Oystercatcher images are on a wall. I am showing a video at the end with a seal, ducks, Pipit, Wheatear and Oystercatcher
This
was probably someone’s home many years ago.
I
hope you enjoyed not only seeing the fences but also the birds. CLICK HERE if the video does not appear.
These are some of the birds I came across on my first
day walking round Tory Island in May this year. Enjoy.
Oystcatchers
breed on the island (above) as do the Lapwing (below).
Ringed
Plover are also found (not easily due to the terrain as seen in yesterday’s post)
but they do breed here.
There
are lots of Wheatear and nearly always out of range of my camera for descent shots.
This
is a young Rock Pipit (I think) Anyone
confirm this for me please?
Near
the harbour on the beach there is always loads of seaweed with plenty of Gulls
scavenging on it as well as Starling, Pipits, both Rock and Meadow, Pied Wagtail
and even Wheatears. I will show you a video at the end of this post with this Gull pretecting this fish and also a Pipit that I videoed in another part of the island.
There
are Tree Sparrows on the Island breeding and I am also told only 1 House Sparrow!
This
time I believe this is a young Meadow Pipit but let me know if that is not
correct please.
I will be showing you more birds over the next 2 weeks in this series however I hope you enjoyed the ones I showed you today. Tomorrow as promised I will show you the Lighthouse and grounds. I am linking this post with WILD BIRD WEDNESDAY.
Many thanks for visitng and also to those who leave comments.
Eileen and I were sorry we had to leave Broad Water but as we headed for Portmore Lough, we stopped at a place behind a pub at Gauley's Gate where very often there were quite a number of ducks but none was present. However we did see the Grey Wagtail as well as a Pied Wagtail. This is the view for this little jetty as we walked up to the Lough.
Grey Wagtail
We arrived at Portmore just in time to have a coffee and speak with the wardens. This reserve is trying to attract more Lapwings to breed here and so far each year there are more and more breeding.
Viburnum opulus - Guelder Rose
While we sipped coffee, we watched the beautiful Tree Sparrow
on the feeder.
Then we headed down the boardwalk to the hide which is on the Lough shore. In the summer time the meadows are full of wonderful wild flowers and the reeds have lots of Warblers. The tree in the first part had lots of small birds such as Finches and Tits.
Like the RSPB Reserve in Belfast, they have these ponies on site to keep the meadow right. In fact this was the first place in Northern Ireland to introduce them and they have bred so well that they now have exported some to other Reserves on the Mainland.
When we were at the hide we heard Whooper Swans and then saw them flying in to land on the lough. We discovered later from the wardens that these were to first 3 to come into Northern Ireland this year. In the previously few days a female Marsh Harrier had been seen, however we didn't see it there. There were ducks and quite a lot of Mute Swans.
Then back up to the centre where they have a wonderful meadow that we walked around and saw all the small birds. This pond above would attract Dragonflies in the summer and the whole area would be wonderful for butterflies.
Wonderful Red Kaffir lilies lite up the whole area.
There were quite a number of places for little animals and insects to hide and go to sleep.
While I was videoing the Tits and Greenfinch, Eileen was watching another feeder with about 10 Tree Sparrows on it but when I went to video it, they disappeared! However below you might like to see what I did video with one surprise visitor!
