It was great to be back out on
the patch on 8 September to find that some different birds have finally started
to trickle through. Most notable of
these were 2 year ticks, my first since 5 July!
A quick check of the West Pier area
failed to deliver anything unusual, so I had a few scans of the sea and along
the cliffs running down towards the west end.
A commotion overhead alerted me to soaring raptors being mobbed by
Hooded Crows, these turned out to be Buzzards and a female Kestrel (111) – year
tick!
I spent far too long checking out
a phyllosc warbler in Church Valley, which turned out to be a rather weird
looking Willow Warbler that appeared
to be in heavy moult and had just taken a bath; a really tatty bird. I also saw
2 Whitethroats in the hedges
here. The east end gardens were very
quiet.
Mill Bay shoreline had 15 Ringed
Plover, 6 Curlew, 3 Redshank, 1 Turnstone, 1 juv Knot and a White Wagtail.
The fields here held a smattering of Wheatears. Three Chough
were then seen tumbling about east of Craigmacagan Lough.
I spent a couple of hours in the
Ushet Port/Rue Point area scanning out to sea and checking rock pools, wet
flashes and short turf areas for migrants.
On land the best I could manage was a juv Common Sandpiper, small flocks of Linnets, some Wheatears and 2
Skylarks. A tringa species which shot out of a rock pool right beside the south
lighthouse had me scampering after it, only for it to be a juv Redshank. Scanning
out to sea was uneventful until a squall started to move towards Rathlin
skirting past Ballintoy and Ballycastle in its tracks. A small movement of birds began heading east
past the south light. This involved Gannets, Fulmars, Kittiwakes, the odd Manx
Shearwater and 4 Brent Geese. I was checking through a flock of Kittiwakes
when a dark adult Arctic Skua (112) went crashing through. The first
skua to make it on to my patch year list! Bring on the rest of the autumn...
Score now on 112 species, 138
points or 108.7%
 |
| Nearly missed this Knot! |
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