More Bad News from RSPB Belfast Harbour

On friday a fox was seen going under the Tern Island in front of the main viewing hide and then coming up through a hole onto the main platform of the island. So little hope for the eggs or chicks that were on the island.

The Tern Island has obviously been allowed to get into this parlous state and it just seems to me they couldn't care less any more.

When is the RSPB in Northern Ireland going to understand that the "P" in RSPB stands for "Protection".
That is the "Protection" of birds not foxes.

It is high time Mike Clarke the boss of the RSPB and James Robinson RSPBNI Director sorted out these problems.

House Martins and a Gift of a Dead Swallow

House Martin 

I love my House Martins and last year by the beginning of June I was wondering whether the pair that breed on the house were going to return. They did eventually return and only had one brood. This year they arrived back at the house on the 7th April.

House Martin returning to its Nest

In recent days I was quite surprised as it appeared that there were often three to four adult birds leaving the nest at one time. On closer examination it turned out that one pair was building a nest adjoining the nest already there.

House Martin Nest Building

Meanwhile at the same time on a gable on opposite side of the house another pair has been building a new nest.
The first few days of the new build seem to be a rather slow process as they wait for the first bits of mud to dry to the wall but as the days go on the process seems to speed up considerably. The farmyard of my neighbour seems to provide them with all the material.

House Martin with Building Material

House Martin's resting on their new build

House Martin with Mud

Carefully Placing Mud onto Nest

Proud of Her Nest Building

Yesterday afternoon a father of one of my sons friends knocked on the door to give me a dead Swallow as he thought I would be interested. It was an adult male with long streamers but most interestingly of all was that it was ringed in Italy. So I sent the details to the Istituto Nazionale per la Fauna Selvatica where ringing recoveries are recorded and await news of when and where it was ringed. Swallows don't weigh very much it weighed 15 grams.

Ringing Recovery from Dead Swallow

Tory Island Co Donegal , Corncrakes and a sighting of what I firmly believe was a Great Snipe

Corncrake on Rathlin

Last week I arranged by means of Twitter to meet Rónán McLaughlin, an excellent Bird Photographer originally from Co.Donegal now living in Co.Cork, at the Magheraroarty ferry for a day trip to Tory Island off the northwest coast of Co.Donegal. We were hoping to photograph some Corncrakes. My inspiration to come and photograph these birds was the above photograph taken by Anthony McGeehan on Rathlin last year and the photograph below taken on Inishbofin a couple of years ago. The top photo being simply superb.

Corncrake on Inishbofin

So on monday morning he set off from Cork at 4.30 in the morning and I set off at 6.30 and we met at 11.30 at the ferry at Magheraroarty.

The weather was fairly dreary and grey. Not good bird photography light. On the ferry trip over to Tory Island we saw Great Northern Diver in summer plumage, Shags, Cormorants, a fair few Manx Shearwater, a single Puffin, Gannets and a single Storm Petrel.

Storm Petrel

Manx Shearwater

Great Northern Diver

Tory Island is situated on the north west corner of Ireland it is about ten miles from the mainland and the crossing can be fairly hairy with atlantic ocean swells that have come all the way unbroken from America. Fortunately for a person who suffers from seasickness this trip was ok. Rónán, however is in the Irish Navy so not a problem for him.

We arrived and were welcomed by the "King of Tory" Patsy Dan Rogers and Rónán had a little chat to him in Irish of which I didn't understand a word apart from traon the gaelic for corncrake. No sooner than we had left him on the pier we heard a Corncrake in the fields behind the main street. Infact there were two or three birds calling. Now we had to find them. We walked up the street and came across another bird photographer who had seen them earlier. From his accent we guessed he came from Dublin. There was a bird calling only a few yards away behind a wall in a field of nettles but could we see it. No. So we decided to head out towards the lighthouse.

Tory Lighthouse

The cacophony of sound from birds on the way there was deafening. There were Lapwing protecting there young from Lesser Black-backed Gulls. Oystercatchers protecting their nests, Common Gulls protecting their young and both Ronan and I were mobbed by one particular individual. Ringed Plover were doing broken wing displays. All in all it was absolutely wonderful.

Common Gull on the Attack

We walked right round the lighthouse and came across this family party of Choughs feeding on the short grass just in front of the lighthouse before they took off at our arrival. Then we both photographed this Common Gull that allowed us to get quite close.

Choughs

Common Gull

After walking right round the lighthouse compound we decided to head towards a lake close to the Lighthouse to see if there were any Little Terns about. As we were doing so we walked through a stretch of boggy land and this bird got up and flew into the wind about forty metres before flopping down again. It was bigger than a snipe and flew low not much more than a metre of the ground in a much less frenetic way than a snipe. It also appeared to land rather suddenly as though it had just stalled and put its wings out at the last moment. Rónán commented afterwards that it was almost lazy in flight. We both said to each other almost simultaneously that it was a Great Snipe even though neither of us had seen one. Apart from the size difference it appeared to have far more white in the tail than a snipe. We decided we had to get photos and headed down towards where it had landed. As we were doing so a number of Dunlin flew around us. We also flushed two snipe both of which flew straight into the wind before heading skywards and over towards the east of the island. These were definitely not the same species in our minds to the bird we had just flushed. Rónán also commented that it was almost Woodcock in size. After searching in the area we thought it had landed we couldn't find it. Then a Dunlin presented us with a nice opportunity so we took a few shots.

Dunlin

I then said to Rónán that we had to go back over the ground we had just come and see if we could find it again. Fortunately for us the bird hadn't moved too far from where we reckoned it had landed and yet again it took off similarly to when we originally flushed it and I got the following poor shots. Yet again it flew only a few metres off the ground and headed away from us before flying to our right and behind a hillock. The tail was again noticeably white. I am positive it was a Great Snipe.

Great Snipe?? 1st Shot

Great Snipe 2nd Shot and Crop

I used to rough shoot and have seen hundreds of snipe over the years and this in my mind and Rónán's was definitely not a Gallinago gallinago. I have also taken photos of snipe in flight before and apart from the obvious difference in size I cannot for the life of me see how the tail feathers of the above bird is similar to the one below.

Snipe in Flight

We searched for quite a bit longer but didn't find the bird again. The ferry that was due to leave at 6.00pm we had been told was leaving at 4.00pm so this curtailed our visit and we headed back to the ferry past a calling Corncrake. The light was now getting worse and the chances of getting a last minute photograph were doomed. On the boat journey back to the mainland a Great Northern Diver appeared even closer to the boat.

It was a long day and even though the light was not in our favour and we did not get to see any Corncrakes but did hear 5-6 birds. It was an exciting one never the less with a possible sighting of a Great Snipe. We will be making a submission to the Irish Rare Bird Committee at some point. Thanks to Rόnán for a great day.

RSPB Belfast Harbour Revisited And It Is Still A Disgrace

I had to kill a few hours in Belfast a couple of weeks ago so I thought that I would go along to the RSPB Belfast Harbour Reserve and see how the Terns were coming along. Firstly the reserve was bone dry no water at all and on the right hand tern island there were Black-headed Gulls nesting all over it. I counted 12 nests and very few terns.

Black-headed Gulls nesting on Tern Island

I cannot understand why the water situation is allowed to get like this on the reserve. WATER is the lifeblood of this reserve. The warden knows how to put water into the reserve as does his boss Gregory Woulahan. All they have to do is make an arrangement with NI Water. They just do not care and it is only when too many people start complaining that they bother to do anything about it. The laziness on this particular reserve is astounding.  I went back to the reserve yesterday and much to my surprise the water had only been turned on the night before. (It takes about a week to fill the lagoon without rain water)  There were also more terns than on my previous visit thankfully.   I was talking to a visitor who had queried the lack of water a few weeks previously and he was told that they were unable to put any in.

The fact that there are Black-headed Gulls breeding is very worrying as well. Firstly they like to nest in colonies. Secondly they start to nest before the main wave of terns arrive.The space on the tern islands is limited and one has to bear in mind that the terns are territorial so by allowing the gulls to nest they are effectively reducing the areas that the terns can nest. Each year quite a few immature Black-headed Gulls roost on the islands but are not interested in using the islands as nesting spots. In the past the previous warden would have strung wire in a matrix over the islands which scared away the gulls as if disturbed they would fly into them and after a few times would be deterred. You do get colonies of Common Terns and Black Headed Gulls breeding together but only if there is the space for them to do so. I hope the RSPB will move them on elsewhere. In 2008 there were 200 pairs of Common Tern and 25 Pairs of Arctic Tern breeding and even a visit by a pair of Roseate Terns. Will this situation ever return I wonder. It would be a travesty if after all the work that went into creating these islands, including the help from the RAF, to be wasted as it seems to be at the moment.

It wouldn't surprise me if we are going to have a similar situation as 2010 when there was a 90% breeding failure of the terns on the reserve. The RSPB said that this was due to lack of food. This was a lie. The food availability in Belfast Lough was not an issue. Belfast Lough is a fabulous fishing ground. The Terns at the reserve have a wide diet confirmed in study by the RSPB NI Directors wife Lorraine Chivers "Courtship feeding and food provisioning of chicks by Common Terns Sterna hirundo at Belfast Harbour Lagoon" Irish Birds, 8: 215-222 In fact no other tern colonies in the North or in the South of Ireland failed due to food issues. Some were affected by bad weather and one colony suffered through vandalism.

The real reason was that the water levels were so low that it allowed the two foxes that are trapped in the reserve by the predator proof fence to predate them. If the water levels are high enough the foxes cannot get onto the islands. GUESS WHAT they now have two offspring so now there are FOUR FOXES trapped within this 24 acre site.  So now any of the Lapwing that breed within the reserve will have their young predated. One of the volunteers was telling me that there were already some lapwing chicks and that they hadn't been seen for a week.

RSPB Belfast Harbour Fox Food

It has now been nearly three years that these foxes have been there. The RSPB in Northern Ireland seems far more keen on keeping to the corporate message than doing anything about conservation. 

The reserve itself was looking very poorly maintained. The grass outside the main hide hadn't been mowed in quite a while. The willows immediately outside the front of the hide had been cut down so there is no longer as much cover for the  Reed Buntings, Robins and Linnets that you would find there. The grass on the far side of the reserve hasn't been properly maintained and the scirpus is just encroaching further and further onto the lagoon. In this months Bird Watching magazine there is an aerial photo of the reserve which was taken in 2008 and if a similar photo was taken today I think the difference would be very noticeable. For a start the reserve looked well maintained in the photo.

From what I hear the headquarters at Belvoir is a really unhappy place. Staff have been off with stress. Even at the meetings about the reserves nobody is allowed to bring up the state of the Belfast Harbour Reserve.  Aodhán who was the media officer and ran the RSPBNI twitter site was facing a disciplinary and left before they pushed him.

Belfast Harbour Reserve was once a well maintained well run reserve which attracted keen birders all the time and would turn up three or four nice rarities each year. It is now just a shadow of its former self.

So RSPB my advice is. Find a new warden for the reserve who knows what they are about and who is prepared to do a hard days physical work maintaining the reserve to a high degree.

Then if you want there to be a nicer atmosphere in Belvoir transfer the Reserves Manager to England. Then from what I hear the atmosphere will change very quickly.

And finally hire Tom Black, the man that used to deal with your predator control, to either shoot or trap the foxes within the reserve and then maybe any nesting birds within the reserve might have a chance of survival.

EarthShots Photo Of The Day

Today This Photo is Earth Shots Photo of the Day.

Here is the Link

For those of you that have come from the EarthShots website here is my blog post of when I was out at Kaikoura New Zealand

Having left Kapiti Island we stayed in Wellington with my father's first cousin Jan for a few days before we headed to the South Island and went our seperate ways. I wanted to see Albatrosses at Kaikoura and Kea in Arthur's Pass and my father wanted to visit friends and go fishing.

I arrived in Kaikoura and stayed in the Adelphi Backpackers Lodge.I had booked to go out with Albatross Encounter about a week earlier on the internet. I got up on a beautiful morning and headed to the Encounter building.I had made sure I had taken my seasickness tablets the previous night and an hour before we were to leave. At the Encounter centre there is a really nice cafe serving excellent breakfasts and great coffee. so i had a quick coffee before our group of seven were to meet up with our guide Alastair Judkins.

Alastair drove us from the centre around a headland to where we would board the boat. Pretty much the same as Kapiti we got onto boat and it was then reversed into harbour. We made our way out to an offshore canyon which is pretty close to the shore.It is about a mile deep. It is here that two currents converge and forces nutrient rich water upwards which in turn supports a wide variety of fish and marine animals creating a wonderful feeding habitat for many different species of seabird.

The first we were to see were the Cape Pigeon or Cape Petrel.

They have a black and white colour and were named cape pigeons because they frequent Cape Horn. They are not a pigeon but a Petrel and in NZ follow fishing boats looking for scraps.

Once we were over the canyon Alastair put a bag of frozen chum overboard and what felt like seconds birds were coming in all directions. There were Great Northern Petrels,

Mollymawks,

Albatrosses and as they came in Alastair was pointing them out and naming them as they came in, as I was trying to photograph them. Westland petrel, Sooty Shearwater, White Chinned Petrel,

Buller's Shearwater,

Hutton's Shearwater, Salvin's Mollymawk,

Gibson's Wandering Albatross.

The shear beauty of these very large birds cleaving the water as they bank over the waves was awe inspiring. Also the backdrop of the Kaikoura Mountains made it all the more spectacular. To me it was one of the greatest birding experiences I have ever had.

Alastair then shouted Chatham Island Mollymawk.

This had to be the bird of the whole NZ trip for me. It is critically endangered on the IUCN red list. There are about 4500 pairs in the world and they breed on a rock called the Pyramid 800 miles to the East in the Chatham Islands. They would be a very rare visitor to New Zealand and this was only the third time in six or seven years that Alastair had seen one.It is one of the three sub species of Shy Mollymawk. It flew round the boat before coming intoland right next to the chum.It really was a beautiful bird.

It then flew off not to be seen again. I then tried to take photos with my sigma 10-20mm lens with my camera body as low to the water as possible. I got a range of shots. In this one immediately below the tip of his bill is only about an inch away from the lens!!!

This Photo was runner up in Naturescapes Bird Photo of the Year 2009

Then we were visited by a Black-browed Albatross of the Campbell Island Race. It is one of the most widespread albatrosses. It looks as though it is wearing eyeshadow.

The only other Mollymawk we saw was a New zealand White -capped Mollymawk. This one is immature.

Alastair then headed to show us the Spotted Shag Colony on a rock just a few hundreds from the shore when we stopped at a group of Buller's Shearwaters sitting on the water. We looked and photographed them and then he chucked the remaining chum into the water. The albatrosses and the giant petrels went into a feeding frenzy.It was a pretty noisy affair.

As a photographic experience it was second to none.It had to be one of the best mornings of my life. The next time I am in NZ I will definately go out on an earlier trip in the day to experience the early morning sunlight. I would also love to photograph the birds from an underwater perspective.

I entered this photograph, which I changed to Black and White, into the Birdforum Monthly Photo Competition (In this case the title was Monochrome Birds) and it won so I was pretty pleased with that.