Antrim Marina - Sunday 15th September 2024...

Antrim Marina - Sunday 15th September 2024

Today saw me making my seventh weekly visit of the autumn/winter season to record the wintering population of Black-headed Gulls, some of which have been colour-ringed at Antrim Marina.  Arriving at 10am, it was a nice calm day with 50/50 cloud and sunshine, with the temperature gauge in my car reading 14ºC.  Over the following four hours, this easily had to be the worst visit so far, with very small numbers of gulls present at any one time.

On arrival, just 38 Black-headed Gulls were present, increasing to around 50 birds by 1pm, before numbers dropped off again.  At times, just a handful of gulls were present.  So far this winter, a total of 23 colour-rings have been read, out of a total of 34 that had been recorded by the end of last winter (final visit was made on the 31st March 2024).

The first colour-ring to be read, was that of -  2FFA  at 10:04, and it took till 11:22 for the total to reach double figures with the 10th bird being -  2AAB .  My final total reached 17 with the sighting of -  2CJT  at 1:33pm, leaving me with 6 absentees today, and no further returnees.  I wonder what is going on with -  2CJT ?  Usually among the first to recorded from week to week, this is the fifth week running that it has been among the last of the gulls to appear.

The metal-rung Icelandic Black-headed Gull -  543335 , was among the earliest to be recorded at 10:12.  This bird arrived back for the second winter running on the 11th August 2024.

The issue of the 'Blue-Green Algae' has been in the Northern Ireland News again this week.  Talking to ordinary passers-by over weeks, many have commented to the lack of swans and gulls, having died due to the effects of the 'Algae', which I have told them, was not the case.  Problems here with 'Algae' this summer was nowhere near as bad as compared to that of last summer.  Back then I witnessed people throwing bread onto the thick plumes of 'Algae', which were covered in green sludge and still consumed by the ducks, swans and gulls.  Some of the gulls that I watched eating the bread, were my own colour-ringed Black-headed Gulls that are still alive and well today.

In the recent news article - Blue-green algae: 'Little known' about impact on wildlife - BBC News, scientists here are not sure about the impacts to wildlife, and have attributed wildlife deaths to natural causes, with birds having possibly succumbed to 'Bird Flu', rather than the effects of the 'Algae'.  This I totally agree with, with around half of my colour-ringed Black-headed Gulls having failed to return to the Marina last winter.

It was noted in the news article, that there has been a very depleted number of midges both last summer and this summer (I always called these masses of 'Black Clouds' - Mayflies, whether this is right I'm not sure.  One thing is for sure, is that those flies are badly missed by the gulls, swans and ducks as a food source for rearing their chicks.  There's no doubting, that the lack of chicks of all these species this summer, backs up the lack of food available.  All of the 'Bug Life' under the waters of Lough Neagh must be under serious pressure, effecting everything above it.

Colour Ringed Black-headed Gulls Recorded at Antrim Marina on Sunday 15th September 2024

2FFA	2FJK	2FFX	2ACV	2FHC	2FHV	2FJT	2FIF	2AAN
2AAB	2FIL	2FJN	2FJF	2FJA	2BRA	2CSK	2CJT

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

2ABN	2BRD	2CSR	2FFT	2FIJ	2FJL

Other Birds Recorded at Antrim Marina

On arrival, a pair of Mute Swans were sleeping just above the water-line on the slipway.  Once they became active, both readily took bread from my hand and neither were ringed.  A male appeared from upriver at 10:25.  Un-ringed, it showed some aggression to the other two, but soon left them alone.  No sign of the metal-rung -  X4707  today.

An initial count of the Mallards, saw an increase in numbers this week.  A total of 73 were counted, with numbers more or less being around the same mark throughout my visit.  Again, most if not all legs were checked, but still no rings on these.

The adult male Herring Gull and his youngster were present throughout my visit, whilst the female remained on the roof of the 'Gateway Centre'.  Whilst hand feeding the lone male Mute Swan, the male Herring Gull actually grabbed some bread from my hand which was the first time he had gathered enough courage to do so.  In the past, he would come quite close, but I really did not expect him to actually take a feed.  His youngster was beside him at the time, but it did not have the nerve to have a go.  I'm still hoping to catch and ring this juvenile at some point over the winter.

At last, an adult Common Gull appeared today at 12:03.  Hopefully, numbers will increase over the next few weeks.  The small Scottish-rung female -  EY64036 , was recorded back on my first weekly visit of the winter on the 4th August 2024, but has not been seen since.  Last winter, she was not recorded here until the 14th January 2024, the only sighting for the winter.  Prior to that, her last sighting had been recorded in November 2022.  Ringed in Ayrshire, Scotland in June 2013, she first appeared at the Marina in February 2014.  In the winters since 2014, she would have been regularly recorded in those early years, but these days, sightings are few and far between.

As mentioned at the start of this post, there was a distinct lack of birds here today, with just 4 Jackdaws being the only other species recorded.

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