Antrim Marina - Sunday 17th February 2025...

Antrim Marina - Sunday 17th February 2025

I arrived at the Marina an hour later than normal, and the sound of chainsaws greeted me on my arrival at 11am.  Clearing up operations are still ongoing since Storm Éowyn brought down lots of trees along the length of the Avenue in late January.  With most of the carnage sorted, the shortened trunks and root systems are being cleared now.

It was cloudy throughout my visit, and though the temperature gauge in my car read 8ºC, a light easterly breeze made it feel a very nippy.

On arrival, I had a nice total of around 80 Black-headed Gulls present, but straight away numbers quickly dropped to around half and never recovered.  On a couple of occasions, no Black-headed Gulls were present at all for brief periods.  Today's visit was not much better than last week's, which was easily the worst for this winter with so few gulls about.

So far this winter, I have recorded a total of 33 colour-ringed Black-headed Gulls, which includes three caught and ringed back on the 1st December 2024.  Despite trying to catch a few more new birds to add to the total, they have not been hungry enough to take chances at close approach in order to be caught..

The reading of rings were few and far apart, and by the time of my departure at 3pm, only 12 out of 33 rings were read.  With 21 absentees today, I cannot really make a comment as to why so many gulls have been absent over these last two weeks.  Even the Icelandic metal-rung Black-headed Gull was absent.  I had hoped to catch and colour-ring this one before it heads home to Iceland, but it has narrowly evaded me all winter.

At 11:38, I spotted a new Black-headed Gull in front of me.  Reading the ring through my binoculars, I could see the code -  218H , and a few photos were quickly taken.  Looking through the photos, I even managed to obtain the number on the metal-ring -  EM42201 .  I suspected this gull may have been ringed in Cumbria, as similar coded gulls have been recorded in Northern Ireland in the past.  When the recovery came back from the BTO, my suspicions were correct.   218H  was ringed as an unsexed adult on the 29th November 2022, at Bowness in Cumbria, England.  The distance was given as 218 kms / 135 miles (WNW), and the duration since being ringed, was 2 years, 2 months and 19 days. 

Sitting in my car and holding up bread out of the window,  218H  along with a couple of other gulls, readily took bread from my hand.  Being used to being around people, was possibly the reason that it was caught and ringed.  Another new Black-headed Gull with a BTO sized metal-ring landed on the rails of the short concrete jetty at 2:15pm.  By the time I collected the camera from my car, it had flown off and I could not find it again.

Black-headed Gull  -   218H   -  Antrim Marina, Antrim Town, Co. Antrim  (17 Feb 2025)

(Ringed as an Unsexed Adult, on the 29th November 2022, at Bowness, Cumbria, England)

Colour Ringed Black-headed Gulls Recorded at Antrim Marina on Sunday 17th February 2025

2FJA	2FKA	2CJT	2FJX	2AAN	2CSK
2FJV	2FJN	2BRA	2FFA	2AAB	2CSR

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

2ABN	2ACV	2AFD	2BRD	2CTA	2FDL	2FFH
2FFT	2FFX	2FHC	2FHV	2FIF	2FIJ	2FIL
2FIX	2FJF	2FJH	2FJK	2FJL	2FJP	2FJT

Other Birds at Antrim Marina

Over the past few weeks, there has been a large number of Mute Swans at the Marina.  Over the winter, there were weeks where we had no swans at all, or in limited numbers.  Parking at my usual spot on my arrival, a large number were all gathered around the slipway.  With 19 swans present, there were no further additions before I departed at 3pm.  At times, all of the birds were out of the water and no rings were recorded.

Mallard numbers are still on the low side.  Around 30 were counted at first, but numbers dropped slightly after a few feeds from the public.  By the time of my departure, just 18 remained.  Again, I'm fairly sure all legs were checked during my visit, but still no rings at all this winter.

Three adult Common Gulls were resting on the long wooden jetty on my arrival.  Having noticed that there seemed to be more birds about at 11:20, a second count revealed 5 adults.  Noticing that one bird resting on the outer edge of the wooden jetty was metal-rung, I went back to my car to grab my camera.  Zooming into the ring, I could see that it was dirty, but seeing the digit '1' above the address line was enough to tell me that it was the Finnish Common Gull -  ST177.028 .

 ST177.028 , was recorded during the winters of 2016, 2017 and 2018 here at the Marina, and was not seen here again until the 8th December 2024, having made a partial ring sighting.  The whole ring was read the following week (15th December).  I went on to record this gull three times in January, but I feel that today's sighting might be the last for this winter.  In truth, I did not expect to see this gull after the January sightings.  Ringed as a Juvenile on the 6th August 1995, the duration since being ringed, is now 29 years, 6 months and 11 days.  The distance from Maaninka in Finland to Antrim Marina, is 2,124 kms / 1,319 miles (WSW).

Common Gull  -   ST177.028   -  Antrim Marina, Antrim Town, Co. Antrim  (17 Feb 2025)

(Ringed as an Unsexed Juvenile, on the 6th August 1995, at Maaninka, Pohjois-Savo, Kuopio, Finland)

A juvenile Common Gull made a brief appearance around 1pm, and a last count of the Common Gulls before I departed left me with the 5 adults.

The resident pair of Herring Gulls along with their youngster which hatched last summer were also present throughout my visit.  The 3rd winter immature Herring Gull which first appeared here a couple of weeks ago, was present until 12:30.  I initially recorded it as a juvenile bird until I saw the grey feathers on it's back a week later.  When I arrived today, this bird walked right up to me and took bread from my hand as calm as you like.  It has no fear whatsoever, so wherever it has been before it arrived here, it must have interacted with people somewhere else.  I have put 'G' size metal rings and the large ringing pliers into my ringing box, so I would like to get this one ringed before it moves on.

One adult Lesser Black-backed Gull was also present throughout today's visit.  This was the first one I've seen with spring arriving.  During the week, I saw another two outside my home in Ballymena, so these birds are now arriving back from southern Europe and northern Africa.

Possibly, the same Great Crested Grebe was seen diving for fish for around 30 minutes in front of the jetties before making it's was slowly upriver.

1 pair of Hooded Crows, 2 pairs of Jackdaws along with the noisy juvenile made several brief appearances, and the usual pair of Pied Wagtails were the only other species noted.  A thought about Chaffinch's came into my head today/  In previous winters, a few of these would appear in the early spring, but I yet to see one here so far.  At home, I keep several feeders out for the winter, but this winter for the first time ever, not a single Chaffinch has been seen.  Ever since I moved here in 2008, I have had a pair of Bullfinches wintering around my house, and I still have a pair here now.

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