As stated in my previous blog post, I was struggling to get used to Google's new Blog Interface. The major problem, was the uploading of photographs and their positioning. I checked a 'Bloggers Forum' online, to find that people worldwide were experiencing the very same situation. Instead of going out birding on Saturday, I remained at home, to try and sort out this dilemma.
I use a second blog for private use, and this is where I do testing, as well as keeping tables which I can copy and paste into my main blog page. Eventually, I sorted out the photograph issues, and found that I could click and drag photos into the correct position on the page. No matter how hard I tried, I could no longer use picture frames, or add captions directly below the photos. I came up with a 'roundabout' way to solve this problem, which will have to do for now. Perhaps some time in the future, I may find a way to include picture frames once again.
Trying to create a new 'Template', which I can copy and paste into every new blog post, I also discovered a slight problem with the tables I use for recording the colour-ringed Black-headed Gulls at Antrim Marina. I think I have this one sorted too, but I'm no expert when it comes to 'HTML' coding, but these codes seem to act differently within the new interface. For now, I'm plugging along fairly well, but every now and again, and new problem surfaces. Every time this happens, it takes a while to understand what is causing the problem.
An example of this occurred, whilst I was compiling this post. Having been plodding along quite well, my text lines began 'jumping', which gave me a blank line instead of scrolling down to the next line. Again, I had to work on this problem before finding a solution. As I always state, free time is hard to find, and much of this is currently being 'eaten' up by this new interface.
Emails are arriving with new sightings and re-sightings, which I would like to include within my blog posts. These include a Herring Gull sighting from Declan Clark, along with a photo, plus five colour-ring sightings from Suzanne Belshaw, which includes four re-sightings and a new sighting to Northern Ireland, again with photos. For now, I'll just get this post published, an immediately start work on my next post, starting with Declan's and Suzanne's sightings.
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| Black-headed Gulls At Antrim Marina - Monday 10th August 2020 |
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This weekend, I decided to undertake my weekly visit to Antrim Marina on Monday morning, instead of Sunday morning. With the weather being so good yesterday, I reckoned there would be far too many people at the Marina, resulting in little prospect of the gulls remaining on site.
Today, I arrived at the Marina, at 7:55am, to find I had the whole place to myself. This did not last long, as folk quickly began to appear. Weather wise, it was totally calm, but cloudy. As the morning stretched on, the sun broke through and it became quite warm. More and more people arrived, with many resting at the new picnic tables which now overlook the Marina's slipway.
Only five Black-headed Gulls were present when I arrived. Throughout the morning, gulls would come and go, and for long periods of time, there were no gulls at all. Total numbers, never exceeded the thirty mark, and recording colour-ringed Black-headed Gulls, became a long and slow process. At 12:01, just as I was about to leave, I spotted 2ABN , which took the day's total, to just eight colour-ring sightings, which was a very poor showing.
Last weekend saw the first of my weekly visits to Antrim Marina for the 2020/2021 winter season, and between Kate McAllister and I, recording the gulls at different times on Sunday 2nd August, we jointly re-sighted 15 colour-ringed Black-headed Gulls, which began this winter's list. Of those 15 gulls, I re-sighted 7 today, with 8 absentees. At 11:57 this morning, 2AAN was spotted, which now takes this winter's overall total to 16.
I consider 2AAN to be a non-resident. I end my weekly visits to the Marina, usually in the last weekend of March each year, but going by my records, 2AAN appears to depart in early to mid March, although I have one record, where 2AAN was not recorded after the 16th February (2014). I have no breeding season sightings for the months of April, May or June, with random summer visits having been made by myself and other observers. However, during those same random visits in the month of July, 2AAN has been reported back on three occasions. It seems to point, that 2AAN returns early on completion of it's nesting attempts, perhaps nesting not too far away, though not on the nearby former 'Torpedo Testing Platform', which was used during World War 2.
2AAN , was ringed as an adult female at Antrim Marina, on the 21st December 2012, during the first winter of Adam's McClure's former Northern Ireland Black-headed Gull Study (November 2012 to June 2018). During that winter, 2AAN was last recorded at the Marina, on the 12th March 2013. Since then, the arrival and departure dates, is as follows :-
Return - 5th August 2013, departure - after 16th February 2014.
Return - 11th July 2014, departure - after 15th March 2015.
Return - 28th July 2015, departure - after 6th March 2016.
Return - 7th July 2016, departure - after 12th March 2017.
Return - 21st August 2017, departure - after 19th March 2018.
Return - 1st August 2018, departure - after 11th March 2019.
Return - 19th August 2019, departure - after 2nd March 2020.
Return - 10th August 2020.
With all sightings of 2AAN having been entered onto Adam McClure's NI Black-headed Gull Database, today's sighting, is the 220th record for the bird here at the Marina, with the duration since being ringed, now 7 years, 7 months and 20 days.
Black-headed Gull - 2AAN - Antrim Marina, Antrim Town, Co. Antrim (10 Aug 2020)
(Ringed as an Adult female, on the 21st December 2012, at Antrim Marina)
Colour Ringed Black-headed Gulls Recorded at Antrim Marina Today - 10th August 2020
| 2ABK |
2CSR |
2ACV |
2CJT |
2AAK |
2ABS |
2AAN |
2ABN |
Colour Ringed Black-headed Gulls Recorded at Antrim Marina This Autumn/Winter, but not Recorded Today
| 2AAA |
2FDK |
2BRA |
2AAV |
2CSA |
2CSJ |
2CTC |
2CSB |
Other Birds at Antrim Marina
The first thing that I noticed on arriving at the Marina, was that there were no ducks or swans to be seen. However, on parking my car, I got out and walked over to have a look at the small beach, and counted 33 Mallards on the sand. As the morning wore on, more ducks arrived, taking the overall total to around 80 birds by the time of my departure. The Mute Swan pair, along with their six cygnets, arrived in from the direction of Lough Neagh, at 9:15, and the youngsters enjoyed several feeds from visitors along with their children.
The usual adult Herring Gull was already present when I arrived, and an adult Lesser Black-backed Gull appeared shortly afterwards. A juvenile Herring Gull then arrived at 8:10, and judging by it's actions, I'm fairly certain it was the same youngster seen on my previous visit. A second juvenile Herring Gull arrived at 8:35, but was not too sure about the folk beginning to appear, and quickly departed. All of these gulls, were gone by 10am.
A Kingfisher was a nice sighting. I had just parked, and turned off my engine, when I spotted the bird zooming past over the river heading for the breakwater. On taking a look through my binoculars, it was found perched on overhanging branches of a tree. More often than not here, their presence is only known when their 'piping call' can be heard, alerting me to their whereabouts.
With the abundant feeding of the ducks by 9:15, four juvenile Hooded Crows arrived to take their opportunity for an easy meal. All four made repeated visits, as they were obviously caching bread nearby. An adult pair appeared briefly at 10:54.
An adult Rook, a juvenile Magpie, and 10 Jackdaws were also spotted, as was two juvenile Grey Herons, which were perched on the long jetty. These flew off, when I walked over to the small beach area to count the Mallards.
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Having spent all day yesterday trying to sort out the new blog interface, with some considerable success, I decided to get out today, prompted by an email from fellow ringer, Richard Donaghey. On Friday 7th August, Richard was at the Bann Estuary, which is situated on the north coast of County Londonderry, between Portstewart and Castlerock.
A flock of around 320+ Sandwich Terns, were roosting close to the 'Barmouth', with at least 6 birds sporting colour-rings. Three of these, were juveniles bearing 'White on Blue' Darvic's, which Richard thought might be his birds ringed as chicks, when lockdown restrictions were lifted in County Donegal. Although Richard tried to get close enough to read the codes, they birds flushed every time.
With the power of my camera, I went up to the Bann Estuary today, to have a go for myself. When I arrived on the west shore of the river Bann, there were loads of Sandwich Terns about, but these were split into three groups. One group was on my side, just north of the hide, with a second group on pilings on the opposite east shore. The third group, was again on the opposite shore, but about a quarter of a mile upriver.
I spent the best part of two hours, scoping the terns on my side, many of these being among Black-headed Gulls. A few Herring and Common Gulls were also scoped, as were two Great Black-backed Gulls and a single Med Gull. A few Oystercatchers, Ringed Plovers and two Dunlin were also scoped for rings.
With birds coming and going all the time, the only rings spotted, were on Sandwich Terns and all of these were just 'metals', which were of no use to me. Scoping the distant pilings on the opposite shore, one Blue Darvic was spotted on a juvenile. With having no success on my side of the river, I made the long drive round through Coleraine to reach Portstewart.
On arrving at the Strand Road, it was closed as the car park and approach roads were full, due to the number of people out for the day. I had intended to walk through the golf course and over the sand dunes to reach the River Bann, but there was nowhere to get parked, so I just had to give up. On returning home, I checked out Google Maps, and discovered that there is a tiny back road through the golf club, that can be reached by driving through unfamiliar housing estates. I might well have another go this weekend, as I would like to help Richard, if those were indeed his youngsters.
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A couple of emails have been sent to me recently from a David Galbraith, who catches lobsters. Whilst out in his boat checking the 'Creels', gulls often follow his boat. One the 29th July 2020, a colour-ringed Great Black-backed Gull landed on his boat. David was able to read the code, but the photo taken with his mobile phone, did not clearly show the code - (White) 9H5:C. At that time, David's boat was about half a mile north of the Isle of Muck, which lies at the northern end of the Islandmagee peninsular, and due east of the County Antrim town of Larne.
Having received the email via my 'ringing trainer' John Clarke, I relayed the email to Iain Livingstone, as I knew the :C, meant that this bird had been ringed by the Clyde Ringing Group in Scotland. A couple of days later, Iain replied, with the metal number and ringing details for this bird. However, when I proceeded to submit David's sighting onto the 'BTO's DemOn Ringing Database', the ringing date for the metal number given, did not match the date for the ringing details sent to me by Iain. There is clearly a mistake somewhere, and I've asked Iain to re-check this gulls ringing details.
So far a reply has not been received, but a second email from David has since arrived. On Friday the 7th August 2020 - (White) 9H5:C, once again landed on David's boat, this time, just off the coast at Drains Bay, a short distance north of Larne. David took another photo with his mobile, which now clearly shows the code on the colour-ring. As I publish this post, there is still no reply from Iain, so I've now submitted the sighting to the BTO, via the gulls colour-ring number.
My thanks to David for reporting the gull to me, along with the photos. Hopefully, we'll find out when and where this bird was rung in due course.
Great Black-backed Gull - 9H5:C - Drains Bay, Co. Antrim (07 Aug 2020)
(Waiting for the Correct Ringing Detals)
(Photo Courtesy of David Galbraith)
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