Head Cold...

This weekend, I remained at home, on both Saturday and Sunday.  The weekend had been wet and windy, with storm Aiden passing through on Saturday, and the remenants of a hurricane on Sunday.  Since the previous weekend, I have been ill with a bad head cold, which certainly was not helped by working at the factory, where temperatures have to be kept well below zero degrees.  With such poor weather, I decided that it would be wiser to steer clear of the conditions.

 

I had planned to visit Antrim Marina, along with my son Adrian, on Sunday morning, to ring the cygnets (large pliers to hand this time), but I cancelled that, due to the poor weather forcast and being down with my head cold.  With the current Coronavirus Pandemic, it was also better that we kept apart, should my head cold, be something worse than it was.

 

At my place of work, we are 'Thermal Tested' on several occasions each night, and so far so good.  At least I now know, I do not have anthing other than my head cold.  It is now Friday, and as I finish this post, I'm now on the up, and should get out and about again this weekend.

 

During the week, I've had a couple of colour-ringed gulls reported to me.  Just one, had a photo to accompany the sighting, but I'll report on this one in my next post, as we are still waiting on the ringing details.  The ringing details for the German metal-rung Black-headed Gull, which I recorded at Antrim Marina, and again at Castle Way in Antrim have arrived with me.  I shall publish those in my next post as well.

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Black-headed Gulls at Antrim Marina - Monday 2nd November 2020

I arrived at Antrim Marina just before 9:15 this morning, having taken my wife to her work first.  It was a very dull cloudy day, with steady rain, which lasted throughout my visit.  It was also quite windy, with a westerly blowing in from Lough Neagh.  Around 40 Black-headed Gull's were standing on the rough ground where the former cafe once stood.  A couple of workmen were busy power hosing the long wooden jetty, and the noise coming from the generator, kept the gulls away from the front of the Marina for long periods.

 

Overall numbers increased slowly to around 100 to 120 gulls altogether, by 10am, with most birds landing along the front car park and the low wooden jetty.  My overall total of colour-ringed Black-headed Gull's, which had been ringed at the Marina during this autumn & winter season, had increased by four, after my previous visit on Sunday week ago, which took the total to 25.

 

No new returnees were recorded today, and just 15 of the 25 colour-rings so far recorded, were re-sighted today.  I now think, it's time to write off -   2AAP , as this gull should have returned weeks ago.  Even worse, is that   2AAR  and   2ADV , have not appeared either, with both gulls now well overdue.    2AAR , is known to breed in Poland, whereas the breeding site for   2ADV , is unknown.

 

Several gulls which I've ringed over the previous couple of winters, are also absent, but there is still every chance for some of those to re-appear, as very little is known about their movements at this present time.  However, one of these more recently rung birds -   2CSH , is now due.  The two previous return dates for   2CSH , is on the 12th November 2018, and on the 4th November 2019.

 

Another one of the older gulls -   2AFD , which in the past, has been spotted in Latvia and likely breeds there, is also due.  I'll try my best to visit Antrim this coming Sunday, and if I do not come across   2AFD  at the Marina, I'll take a look for him in the centre of Antrim Town, at the Castle Way car park.

 

During today's visit to the Marina, I recorded both metal-rung juvenile Black-headed Gulls again, and both came very close to being caught.  I'd love to add colour-rings to these two.    EZ78694 , was ringed as a chick, on the 13th July 2020, at Stockton-on-Tees, in England, and I previously recorded it here, on the 19th & 25th October 2020.  The second juvenile from Denmark -   VA6110 , was ringed as a chick, on the 14th June 2020, and previously recorded here on the 12th October (ring not read), and on the 25th October 2020.

 

Again, there were plenty of juveniles today, possibly bordering on the quarter mark, of all Black-headed Gulls present.  It was very noticeable just how hungry they have become, with several birds coming close to being caught.  One juvenile, was caught and ringed however, aided by one of the Mute Swan cygnets.  I was sitting crouched among the swans feeding them bread, but also dropping bits between their legs, whilst being ready to grab any intruding gulls.  The juvenile, tried to steal in, but promptly got stood on by a cygnet, therefore pinning it to the ground, where I then, just lifted it.  A few minutes later, I released it, having attached a metal, and a new coded ring -   2FDP .

 

Once again, this was not an ideal visit, as numbers were not nearly as high, as on Sunday week ago.  With autumn daylight hours disappearing fast, there is no doubt, that the numbers should get higher, as the gulls become hungrier.

 

Colour Ringed Black-headed Gulls at Antrim Marina Today - Monday 2nd November 2020

2ABK	2CSJ	2BRA	2CJT	2ABL	2AAN	2FDK	2FDJ
2AAK	2CTC	2CSA	2AAA	2CSR	2AAB	2ABN

Black-headed Gulls Recorded at Antrim Marina this Autum/Winter, but Absent Today

2ABA	2AAV	2ABS	2ACV	2BRD	2CSB	2CSK	2CSL	2CSX	2CTA

On Tuesday 3rd October, I received another email from Kate McAllister.  Kate was reporting on two gulls sightings, which she had made around 7:30am that morning.  The first was that of -   2CJT , which turned out to be a first re-sighting for Kate.  This actually surprised me, when I entered Kate's sighting onto my spreadsheet and database.  For me,   2CJT , is usually among the first to be recorded during every visit, though it seems to have eluded Kate until now.  Caught and ringed on the 4th December 2016,   2CJT  is an all year round resident to the Marina.  The duration, as of Kate's sighting, is now 3 years, 10 months and 30 days.

 

 

 

Black-headed Gull  -    2CJT   -  Antrim Marina, Antrim Town, Co. Antrim  (03 Nov 2020)

(Ringed as a 1st Winter Bird, on the 4th December 2016, at Antrim Marina)

(Photo Courtesy of Kate McAllister)

 

Kate's second sighting, was that of   2FDP , which I caught and ringed the day before.  I was not expecting a first re-sighting quite so soon, but the young gull does not look too bad, after getting trod on by a cygnet, and then man-handled.  My thanks again to Kate for the sightings, along with the photos.

 

Black-headed Gull  -    2FDP   -  Antrim Marina, Antrim Town, Co. Antrim  (03 Nov 2020)

(Ringed as a 1st Winter Bird, on the 2nd November 2020, at Antrim Marina)

(Photo Courtesy of Kate McAllister)

  

Other Birds at Antrim Marina

Other than the Black-headed Gulls standing where the former cafe once stood, it was the number of Mute Swans which then caught my attention, as I went to park my car.  A total of 8 adults, and 9 cygnets were counted.  The resident pair, which have been here since the summer, along with their six cygnets, seems to have given up chasing any intruding swans.  The extra three cygnets, along with their parents, are probably the same family which arrived here on the 12th October.  Having swam in from the Lough, the cygnets parents were pursued up-river by the resident pair.  The cygnets, which were not confronted, had to swim to catch up with their own parents, whilst the residents pairs six youngsters remained on their own at the Marina.

My mind went back to a number of weeks ago, when I had talked to a passer by.  He said that in the summer, there were two pairs of swans with small cygnets, one with six, the second with five.  I even remember, during one of my summer visits, having noted a pair with five young.  It could be possible, that this second family, is that same pair, but have since lost two of their chicks.

With nine of the 17 swans sorted, my attention went onto the remaining four adults.  I looked for 'Lumpy', as this female, does not have a smooth beak.  She was there, which meant her partner was also present.  I was not so certain about the two remaining birds, but I reckon they could have been the pair which I noted on the 19th October.  The female of this pair, was at that time, very wary to take bread from my hand.  During my visit, not all of the adults were out of the water at the same time, so it was too difficult to determine if this wary female was actually the same bird.  One thing was certain, none of the swans were ringed.

At 9:42, the juvenile Herring Gull appeared, followed by an adult Common Gull at 10:20, and the adult Herring Gull at 10:34.  All three, are regular visitors to the Marina, but because of the power-hosing on the long wooden jetty, none of these birds remained for long.

A Great-crested Grebe, appeared whilst the workmen were on their teabreak.  The bird fished for about an hour on the river in front of the Marina.  Over the years, just a couple of Grebe's have fished here, so this is a bit of a rarity.

Mallard numbers were around the 40 mark on my arrival.  These remained fairly constant throughout my visit, but perhaps decreased a little by the time of my departure.  By then, the rain was falling so heavily, there was no chance, that I would go out to count them.

Just 1 Hooded Crow, and 4 Jackdaws, were the only other species noted.  This was not surprising, due to the noise being created by the workmen.  I headed for home, to grab a couple of hours sleep, before starting tonight's evening shift at work.

 

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