Weather - sunny with heavy showers, no wind.
Quoile Pondage - water levels not as high as the last visit, but still high. Gadwell, shelduck, mallard, wigeon, teal, black-tailed godwits, redshank, mute swan, little gull (lovely, this was only my second sighting, 1st sighting was here in 2002), black-headed gull, swallow, sand martin, house martin, great crested grebe, moorhen, coot, magpie, golden plover, lesser black-backed gull, tufted duck, red-breasted merganiser, garganey.
Causeway to Quoile Pondage - brent geese.
Cloghy Rocks - grey heron, cormorant, red-breasted merganiser, herring gull, black-headed gull, greater black-backed gull, brent geese, oystercatcher. Common seals.
Killard Point Nature Reserve - there is an old sand martin nesting colony here. After seeing the sand martins earlier I had hoped to see them here, but there was no sign of activity. Birds seen - willow warbler, rock pipit, brent geese, greylag geese, shelduck, oystercatcher, swallow, pied wagtail, starling, red-breasted merganiser (never seen as many in old day before), black-headed gull, herring gull, common tern (one with fish in mouth mobbed by herring gull but tern won!).
Strangford - after seeing common terns at Killard I headed to the harbour as terns normally nest on the small island, but none to be seen. Birds seen - brent geese, oystercatcher, redshank, shag, goldfinch, rooks.
Garganey had long been a bogey bird of mine - nice to see that you saw one today. Little Gulls are always nice but a spring bird especially so.
Posted by: tony at April 19, 2004 03:14 AM