Northern Ireland: Fair Head

Day one of our Northern Ireland holiday and a trip out to Fair Head. We were staying at Maddybenny campsite just outside Portstewart, so a decent trip out, but well worth it for the scenery and to avoid the weekend crowds - especially given the glorious day it was! 

Looking back west, along the coast.

Looking across to Rathlin Island with Islay and the lighthouse at Port Ellen in the far background. 

The 600 plus feet tall cliffs .....

Not unsuprisingly Fair Head, was featured in 'Game of Thrones'. 

Cottongrass.

Cliff top.

Looking east.

Ailsa Craig.

Rathlin Island in the sun.

Inland...

Little Grebe - nest building....

Little Grebe.

Smardale: Northern Brown Argus

As the sun came out, so did the Northern Brown Argus butterflies....not easy to photograph in a breeze or when they drop down behind blades of grass...but we got there!

..and the flowers weren't bad either..

Melancholy Thistles.

Common rock-rose and Bloody Crane's-bill.

Fragrant Orchids.

Waitby Greenriggs Orchids

Our first trip of the year down to Waitby and Smardale - to be fair - our first chance on a decent sunny day! We caught the end of the fly Orchids, Fragrants were just coming out, as were the Common Spotted. The Marsh Helleborines, all but a couple, are still in bud.

Ox-eye Daisies along the railway.

Fly Orchid.

Yellow Shell  Moth.

Large Skippers.

An assortment of Fragrant Orchids (Common Spotted in the background).

Marsh Helleborines.

Northern Marsh x Common Spotted; Common Spotted and Lesser Butterfly Orchids.

Lesser Butterfly Orchids. 

....and more Ox-eye Daisies.

Laverock Hide, Langholme

What a super hide this - and very welcome cover during a downpour!

Rain!

Siskin and below.

Greater Spotted -Woodpecker and below.

Redpoll and below.

199 Spotted Flycatcher

After our visit to Longtown and our Yellow Wagtail we headed up to Langholme and the Laverock Hide. Laverock Hide is on the single track road to Cronksbank. We parked at the hide and headed down to the river, crossing lovely marshy lands with lots of Foxgloves and Thistles - and a couple of Small Pearl-bordered Fritillaries. Down by the river we were treated to a super display of Spotted Flycatchers doing what the do.... In addition it was nice to see a Grey Wagtail - contrasting with the Yellow Wagtail we had seen earlier in the day. Given the colour of the sky - we headed back to the hide. arriving just as the first large raindrops heralded the arrival of a downpour! 

Through the Thistles - Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary.

Spotted Flycatcher ....and below.

Spotted Flycatcher is our 199th UK bird species of the year...no idea what 200 will be!

Grey Wagtail.

198 Yellow Wagtail

This year we set ourselves the challenge of seeing 200 wild British birds within the bounds of the UK. A trip to Longtown, North Cumbria, provided species numbers 198. Walking along the Esk, north of Longtown we saw a Yellow Wagtail - our first ever in the UK at all. It's on the red list for UK Birds of Conservation Concern and breeds mainly on arable land in the South and East of England. The map below (https://www.bto.org/understanding-birds/birdfacts/yellow-wagtail ) shows breeding records 2008 - 2011..couple this with the graph below showing its decline and I'm guessing the current map isn't so dotted. We were lucky to see one. 

The Esk.

It was also lovely to watch and photograph a Kingfisher - albeit at a distance.