Antrim Marina - Sunday 12th December 2025...

Antrim Marina - Sunday 12th January 2025

Arriving at Antrim Marina at 10:15 this morning, the weather saw calm conditions though quite dull due to the heavy cloud cover.  The temperature gauge in my car read 5ºC rising to 8ºC by the time of my departure.  I had planned on leaving at 2pm, but due to the late arrival of many gulls, I remained until 2:50.

Driving towards the small concrete jetty where I park my car, the first thing to catch my eye was the large number of Mute Swans - more on these below.  A count of the Black-headed Gulls gave me a very low total of just 31 birds.  Returning to my car to write down the totals of all species present, a lady whom I have talked to in the past arrived to feed the swans with what looked like bran flakes.  To my surprise, despite a lot of this lying on the slipway, not one gull was interested in obtaining an easy feed.  This is telling me that the gulls have received enough in previous days to take the edge off of their hunger.

With 32 Colour-ringed Black-headed Gulls recorded this winter, the reading of rings was another long drawn out affair.  The overall number of gulls before 1pm, never exceeded the 50 mark, though judging by the comings and goings of the colour-ringed birds, there was a high turnover of visitors.  At 1:15 every gull departed due to the arrival of 5 canoeists whom made their way to the Marina from up-river.  They landed on the small sandy beach, and began removing their gear and canoes to the car park.  It seems that they had departed from that beach before my arrival, which might account for the low number of gulls when I arrived.

Prior to this, I had read 17 colour-rings, the 17th being -  2CSR  at 12:51.  Among these 17, were three birds of special interest.  My 10th sighting at 11:45, was the Latvian -  2AFD .   2AFD  returned to the Marina on the 1st December 2024 and this was his fourth sighting now.  The gull is known to spend much of his time around the Castle Way car park in the centre of the town of Antrim. 

The 2nd of interest was -  2BRD , my 15th sighting at 12:34.  Although -  2BRD  was ringed here, visits during the winter are few and far between and I'm fairly certain it spends most of it's time somewhere around the town of Antrim.  Today's sighting is the 5th here this winter, having previously been recorded in August, September, October and December.  In previous years,  2BRD  has been seen in the months of February and March at Lurgan Park Lake in County Armagh prior to the onset of the new breeding season.  So far, we do not know the breeding site, though it might be somewhere around the southern shores of Lough Neagh.  Ringed here as an adult male on the 1st February 2015, the duration since being ringed, is now 9 years, 11 months and 11 days.

Black-headed Gull  -   2BRD   -  Antrim Marina, Antrim Town, Co. Antrim  (12 Jan 2025)

(Ringed as an Adult Male, on the 1st February 2015, at Antrim Marina)

The 3rd gull of interest, was -  2FIJ , my 16th sighting at 12:44.  Ringed in January 2022 as an unsexed adult, initial sightings led me to believe that the gull was using Antrim Marina as a 'staging post; before moving on towards it's wintering site.  I had my suspicions that it could also be a foreign breeder, but three sightings over May and June 2024 here at the Marina suggests that it breeds locally.  This winter,  2FIJ  was recorded here on the 11th and 18th August 2024, and then disappeared until today.  This fits my 'staging theory', and this return means the bird has the coming breeding season in mind.  A sighting of an un-ringed Black-headed Gull later on (see below), adds strength that some Black-headed Gulls are on the 'march' towards their breeding sites.

Black-headed Gull  -   2FIJ   -  Antrim Marina, Antrim Town, Co. Antrim  (12 Jan 2025)

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

As stated above, the arrival of canoeists at 1:15, saw every gull leaving the Marina.  It did not take long for the canoeists to pack up leave and by 1:40 I was in two minds whether to leave before my planned departure time of 2pm.  At this point, a large flock of gulls arrived and circled about, so I began throwing slices of bread onto the river.  No sooner had they came down, when more and more gulls arrived.  In no time at all, I recorded another 5 colour-ringed Black-headed Gulls taking my finishing total to 22 colour-ring sightings.

Among the last 5 sightings was yet another bird of interest -  2FFT .   2FFT , was ringed here at the Marina as an unsexed breeding adult in December 2020.  I strongly believe that this bird is a foreign breeder.  It's history here at the Marina has been very patchy, but this winter, sightings are double of those made since being ringed through to October 2023.  Due to it's past history, I reckoned it was using Antrim as a 'staging post', but the accumulation of sightings this winter would now suggest that it is a 'winter resident' in the Antrim area.  Oh, the joy of trying to understand the movements of the gulls.

Here is the full history for -  2FFT   :-

Black-headed Gull  -   2FFT   -  Antrim Marina, Antrim Town, Co. Antrim  (12 Jan 2025)

(Ringed as an Unsexed Adult, on the 21st December 2020, at Antrim Marina)

Colour Ringed Black-headed Gulls Recorded at Antrim Marina on Sunday 12th January 2025

2AAN	2FJP	2FJT	2FJK	2AAB	2FKA	2FHC	2FJH
2FJF	2AFD	2FFX	2CJT	2CSK	2FJV	2BRD	2FIJ
2CSR	2BRA	2FJA	2FJX	2FFT	2FFA

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

2ABN	2ACV	2CTA	2FDL	2FFH	2FHV	2FIF	2FIL	2FJL	2FJN

As mentioned, large numbers of gulls arrived from 1:40 onwards.  The metal-rung Icelandic Black-headed Gull -  543335 , was among these and was spotted at 1:50.  Normally, this gull would be among the earliest to be recorded on most visits.  Another interesting Black-headed Gull also arrived.  This bird was sporting it's breeding plumage  The question is - does it breed here and could it be a possible early summer returnee?  With the other more unusual sightings mentioned above, are some of these gulls on the move?  After a very mild winter, this would not surprise me.

By the time that I eventually departed at 2:50, Black-headed Gull numbers had easily topped the 80 plus mark.

Black-headed Gull in Breeding Plumage  -  Antrim Marina, Antrim Town, Co. Antrim  (12 Jan 2025)

Other Birds at Antrim Marina

With so many Mute Swans present on my arrival, my attention was drawn to these first, just in case any would leave towards Lough Neagh.  I had counted a winter 'high' of 15 birds, when the lady arrived to feed them with bran flakes.  With all of the swans on the slipway, I soon spotted the ring of regular -  X4707 .  This bird had been ringed in March 2024 at Barton's Bay on the eastern shore of Lough Neagh.

Soon afterwards, I spotted a second metal-ring.  Taking a photo of the bird, and then zooming into it's ring, the number read -  Z78562 .  I did not recognise the number, and on returning home and checking my records, this bird was new to me.  I entered the number onto my BTO DemOn Ringing Account. and discovered that it was ringed as an unsexed 2nd calendar year bird on the 15th April 2020 - this was apparently the first sighting since then.  DemOn does not reveal ringing locations, therefore I submitted my sighting to the BTO. 

The Ringing Recovery arrived by email on Tuesday, and - surprise, surprise, it had been ringed here at Antrim Marina.  The recovery included the circumstances for the ringing which stated 'Rescue/Release'.  This meant the bird had gotten itself into some sort of difficulty, and Debbie 'Dolittle' Nelson had to be called in to help the bird.  Debbie runs a sanctuary for sick and injured wildlife in Northern Ireland.  Debbie is a ringer as well, ringing with the Belfast & Down Ringing Group.  Before release, Debbie would ring the swans so that their movements can then be tracked.

It has now been 4 years, 8 months and 28 days since -  Z78562  was ringed.  I wonder if this swan has ventured back to Antrim Marina in the past, and went undetected?

Mute Swan  -   Z78562   -  Antrim Marina, Antrim Town, Co. Antrim  (12 Jan 2025)

(Ringed as an Unsexed 2nd Calendar Year Bird, on the 15th April 2020, at Antrim Marina)

At 10:40, a further three Mute Swans swan in from Lough Neagh taking the total to 18 birds altogether.  Alighting onto the slipway, none of these were ringed.  It has been a long time since I had so many here and today's total smashes the best so far this winter.  Despite having so many swans on the slipway, the Black-headed Gulls are still eluding me.

4 adult Common Gulls were present on my arrival, and the small Scottish metal-rung female -  EY64036  was among them.  There has been an amazing run of sightings of this bird so far this winter.  Ringed as a chick in North Ayrshire in June 2013, it first appeared here as a juvenile in February 2014 and has been recorded every winter since then.  Today's sighting is the 71st record at the Marina.  Over recent winters, sightings have been patchy until this winter.  I have added the history since January 2021 for comparison :-

A juvenile Common Gull arrived at 10:59, taking the total present to 5 birds.  With all gulls having departed with the arrival of the canoeists at 1:15, gulls began arriving back in large numbers from 1:40 onwards.  By 1:50, 8 adult Common Gulls plus a juvenile appeared.  Looking through these, two had metal-rings.  One was -  EY64036 , and zooming into the ring of the second bird, I could see the letters - ' ST ', which was enough to tell me that it was the Finnish bird -  ST177.028 .  After an absence of 6 years (March 2018), the ring was read on the 15th December 2024.  Ringed as a juvenile in Finland in August 1995, the duration since being ringed, is now 29 years, 5 months and 6 days. 

A final count of the Common Gulls at 2:30, gave a total of 9 adults and 2 two juveniles with this total possibly being a high for this winter.

The resident male Herring Gull arrived at 11:05, but there was no sign of his youngster or the female.

The juvenile Moorhen made it's second visit, though it did not stay for too long.  A pair of Hooded Crows also made a brief visit.  Two pairs of Jackdaws, along with the noisy juvenile made repeated visits, whilst a pair of Pied Wagtails remained throughout my visit.  Talking to a female photographer that passed by, she said that a Firecrest was feeding through the bushes beside the Gateway Centre.  Not really interested in rarities, I had a look but could not find it.

What began as looking to be a poor day for ring sightings, ended up being a good visit with a total of 27 rings read altogether.  Just a pity, that there were no further returning Black-headed Gulls.

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