Antrim Marina - (Sunday 25th February 2024)

Antrim Marina - Sunday 25th February 2024

It was approaching 10am when I arrived at Antrim Marina this morning.  It was calm and sunny, with the temperature gauge in my car reading 8°C.  As the morning wore on, the gauge read 11°C, but as an easterly breeze began to blow in, it felt quite chilly.

On parking beside the small concrete jetty,  2AAB  was the first ring to be read at 10:00.  The gull was standing on top of the security fencing, so I got out of the car and hand fed the bird with a few bits of bread.  With the death of -  2FJJ  recently, I was on the lookout for 34 colour-rings altogether.  37 Black-headed Gulls were counted on my arrival, and numbers never exceeded 50 at any time.  Reading rings was a long drawn out affair, but as the morning wore on, so did the numbers read.  Gulls were clearly coming and going, with my 24th and final ring being read at 13:54 - just minutes from my 2pm departure.

Notable sightings were of the Latvian -  2AFD , and the Icelandic -  2FHV  (read below).  One other bird which was not recorded today, was the Estonian -  2FDJ , which was recorded here last Monday.  Looking at my records, this gull departed from the Marina and was spotted on 4 occasions in Scotland in February 2021 before turning up in eastern Estonia on the 4th April 2021.  I think this gull has now gone, and hopefully someone will record it on it's travels back home.  Spotted just 44 kms away from the border with Russia, which country it actually bred in is unknown.

Another bird of note today is -  2FIJ , with it's 6th sighting here this winter.  It was spotted on two occasions in the Autumn - 8th August and 4th September 2023, and then disappeared until the 7th January 2024.  I have a feeling that the gull is using the Marina as a 'staging post', and is wintering somewhere else.  I still reckon that this one is a foreign breeding bird, though this can only be confirmed if it is spotted during the spring or summer months.

Black-headed Gull  -   2FIJ   -  Antrim Marina, Antrim Town, Co. Antrim  (25 Feb 2024)

(Ringed as an Unsexed Adult, on the 10th January 2022, at Antrim Marina)

Once again, with the gulls having been well fed by passers-by feeding the ducks, I had no chance to catch any new birds for ringing.  Talking of new birds, I believe a couple of today's Black-headed Gulls may well be birds returning to breed here for the summer.  When you work with a set of gulls all winter, the traits of new arrivals are easily noticed.  One bird I will be especially looking out for over the next couple of weeks, is the return of -  2K48 .  This gull was ringed as an adult in January 2022 at Southport in England, and then arrived at Antrim Marina in March 2022 followed by a second sighting in June 2022, which suggested it bred here that summer.  Spotted back in Southport in November and December 2022, it arrived back at the Marina for a second summer running in March 2023.

There could be one slight problem concerning -  2K48 .  My last sighting of this gull was on the 23rd March 2023, and on checking the BTO's DemOn Database, my sighting remains the last for this bird.  Did it survive last seasons breeding season?, has it wintered back in Southport un-noticed, the next couple of weeks should answer that question - will it return once more?

Black-headed Gulls Recorded at Antrim Marina on Sunday 25th February 2024

2AAB	2FDK	2CSK	2FFX	2CJT	2FIJ	2FHV	2FIK
2FJN	2FIL	2AAN	2CSR	2FIF	2BRA	2FJT	2ACV
2AFD	2FJL	2FHC	2FFA	2FJA	2FJF	2FJH	2FIP

Black-headed Gulls Recorded at Antrim Marina This Autumn/Winter but Absent Today

2ABN	2BRD	2CTA	2FDJ	2FDL	2FFT	2FHT	2FIA	2FJK	2FJP

At 1:12pm, I spotted a Black-headed Gull on the rails of the small concrete jetty in front of my car, and this bird had a metal-only ring on it's right leg.  Immediately, I was hoping that this was the Swedish bird that appeared on the 4th February 2024, where I was missing the 4th & 5th digits from it's ring -  654**88 .  Grabbing my camera, I managed to obtain one photo of the ring, then the gull flew off.  All I got was the first digit ( 5 ), showing the address above, which told me that this one was not Swedish.  The Swedish rings have the address below the number, so my thoughts turned to the gull being the Icelandic -  595818 , which has been recorded twice this winter (12th November 2023 and 28th January 2024).

Luckily, at 1:37, the gull returned to the concrete jetty, where I was able to complete the number this time, and it was indeed -  595818 .  My three sightings at Antrim Marina are the first for this bird since it was ringed at Akureyri in Northern Iceland as an unsexed adult on the 11th July 2023.  The duration since being ringed, is now 7 months and 14 days, and the distance from Akureyri, is 1,379 kms / 857 miles (SSE).

The photo below of -  595818 , shows it standing next to -  2FHV , so I had two Icelandic birds standing side by side.   2FHV , was ringed as an unsexed adult at Antrim Marina, on the 8th November 2021.  It is also associated with Akureyri, having been spotted there on two occasions - 26th June 2022 and 8th July 2022.

Another Icelandic Black-headed Gull -  543334 , has been recorded regularly at the Marina since the 8th August 2023.  The ring on this gull is fitted on the bird's left leg, but there was no sign of this one today.  A third metal-rung adult Icelandic Black-headed Gull -  527948 , was spotted on just the one occasion at the Marina this winter (18th September 2023).

Black-headed Gull  -  Iceland   595818   -  Antrim Marina, Antrim Town, Co. Antrim  (25 Feb 2024)

(Ringed as an Unsexed Adult, on the 11th July 2023, at Akureyri, Eyjafjarðarsýsla, N. Iceland)

Other Birds at Antrim Marina

19 (White) Mute Swans and 5 cygnets, were present on my arrival this morning.  Four of the cygnets, stayed together throughout my visit, and are presumably the youngsters which hatched out upriver during the summer.  An adult swam in from Lough Neagh at 10:27, giving me 20 (White) swans.  All birds eventually came ashore, but no rings were noted.   Z78580 , has not been seen since the 14th January 2024, and I have no idea what has happened to this one.  No Council staff were about, so I do not know anything more about the male swan that was found dead here recently.

3 adult, and 3 juvenile Common Gulls were also present on my arrival.  By 11:05, 5 adults were chasing the Black-headed's trying to rob them of their feeds.  The small Scottish metal-rung female -  EY64036 , has only been seen on a single occasion this winter (14th January 2024).  The way things are 'panning' out, I was lucky to get this one, though the gull has probably visited the Marina on occasions when I was not about.  The January sighting, was this bird's 62nd record at the Marina, since first being spotted here as a juvenile in February 2014.

Mallard numbers are getting worse all of the time.  Today, just 21 ducks were counted on my arrival, with just 13 present by the time of my departure at 2pm.  I do not have the foggiest about what is happening here.  For this time of the year, numbers should be close to, or even exceeding the 100 mark.

The female from the pair of Herring Gulls arrived at 10:39, and the male finally turned up at 11:48.  Once together, they were still present when I departed.  A Lesser Black-backed Gull made the first of two brief appearances at 12:24.

There was no sign of either of the Moorhens, who had been pottering about the Marina for several weeks.  A pair of Rooks made repeated visits, and I think they were hoarding bits of bread being fed to the ducks.  A male Pied Wagtail, and just two Jackdaws, were the only other species recorded today.

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