Antrim Marina - Tuesday 24th December 2024...

Antrim Marina - Tuesday 24th December 2024

With the weather being stormy on Saturday and Sunday and wet on Monday,  I took advantage of the Christmas holidays, to make my weekly visit today.  A couple of regular people were surprised to see me, as they knew I normally come up here on either Sunday or Monday.

The day was cloudy though calm and again, very mild.  The temperature gauge in my car once again read 11ºC and believe me, it does work properly.

With the Black-headed Gulls fairly settled around the Marina, a count gave me a total of around 70 birds.  Having arrived at 10am, I was on the lookout for 30 colour-ringed Black-headed Gulls, plus any further returnees.  My four hour visit turned out to be very poor, as soon after my arrival, numbers dropped to between 40 and 50 birds and never recovered towards a higher total.  The reading of rings was a slow process,  though I did eventually hit the 20 mark, meaning I had 10 absentees today.  No further returnees were recorded, and the return of three gulls of known origin are long since overdue ( 2FDJ  from Estonia,  2FDL  from Sweden and  2FHT  from Poland).

With swans about today, I made three attempts to catch new birds to be colour-ringed, but they remained just out of reach.

Last week, I had intended to take a photo of -  2AAB , but it slipped my mind.   2AAB , belongs to Adam McClure's former Northern Ireland Black-headed Gull Study which ran from 2012 until 2018.   2AAB , is now the oldest surviving bird from Adam's Study, and by last Sunday had surpassed the 12 year mark since being ringed.  Ringed as an adult male, on the 11th December 2012, here at the Marina, the duration as of today's visit, is now 12 years and 13 days.   2AAN , which was also recorded today, is the second to surpass the 12 year mark, at 12 years and 3 days.  It was ringed as an adult female here at the Marina, on the 21st December 2012.

Black-headed Gull  -   2AAB   -  Antrim Marina, Antrim Town, Co. Antrim  (24 Dec 2024)

(Ringed as an Adult Male, on the 11th December 2012, at Antrim Marina)

Other than this, there was little else doing.  I'm fairly certain that the mild winter is definitely having an effect on the numbers of gulls relying on the Marina for food being fed to the ducks.  Perhaps some of my foreign gulls are still alive, and do not see the need to return to Antrim.  As always, I keep my hopes up that at least one or two will be spotted by someone, somewhere.

Colour Ringed Black-headed Gulls Recorded at Antrim Marina on Tuesday 24th December 2024

2ACV	2FFA	2FJF	2BRA	2CSK	2FJV	2AAN	2CJT	2CSR	2FJA
2FIL	2FJT	2FJX	2FKA	2ABN	2FHC	2AAB	2FFX	2CTA	2FJN

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

2AFD	2BRD	2FFH	2FFT	2FHV	2FIF	2FIJ	2FJH	2FJK	2FJL

The metal-rung Icelandic Black-headed Gull -  543335 , was recorded at 10:09.  A short time afterwards it disappeared for the remainder of my visit.  When trying to catch some gulls, I was watching out for it as it does make very close approaches.  Much like the other gulls, something of interest must have been keeping them away.   543335 , was ringed in Iceland in July 2023 and arrived at the Marina on the 21st August 2023.  Remaining until March 2024, it arrived back for a second winter running on the 11th August 2024, and has been recorded during the majority of weekly visits since.  

Other Birds at Antrim Marina

At last, the number of Mute Swans that arrived was a high for this time of the winter.  Needing these birds on the slipway helps to me catch Black-headed Gulls to be ringed.  A pair was already present on the slipway on my arrival.  Although standing on the edge of the water, I tried to coax them ashore with some bread, but they just hissed at me.  Obviously not too confident being around people, peering through the water neither bird was ringed.

At 10:25, two pairs arrived together from upriver and came ashore without any problems to take some bread from my hand.  None of these were ringed, though I tried to lure the gulls by dropping bread onto the ground.  Though interested, the gulls remained just out of reach and were not too pleased to see the swans slowly gobbling up the bread. A fourth pair of swans arrived from the direction of Lough Neagh at 11:08 and on alighting onto the slipway, included the ringed bird -  X4707 .  Another couple attempts to catch gulls ended up in failure.  I reckon that the continuing mild spell means the gulls are not hungry enough to take chances.

A count of the Mallards on arrival gave a total of around 50, with numbers slowly increasing to around the 70 mark.  After a few feeds of bread from passers-by, numbers dropped to between 40 to 50 ducks.  As usual, most if not all legs were checked, but still no rings on these.

Not such a good day for Common Gulls, with a single bird present on my arrival.  A second adult finally appeared at 12:41, with a juvenile arriving at 13:05.  That was all for today, with all three still present on my departure at 2pm.

The juvenile Herring Gull arrived at 11:04, with it's father arriving soon afterwards atv11:07.  Both were still present when I departed and there was no sign of the female.

A pair of Jackdaws came and went throughout my visit and the noisy juvenile appeared at 12:13.  I still find this juvenile very amusing as it tries to peck into everything it comes across, including all sorts of small rubbish.  No better way to gain experience of what you can and cannot eat.  A pair of Pied Wagtails where present throughout, and a single Hooded Crow made a brief visit.

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