Quick visit to Lough Neagh (and chough!)

A quick stop-off at Lough Neagh by Antrim on Saturday morning produced a good return of eight colour-ringed birds, including 2AAB, 2AAD and 2ADJ pictured below. There was also metal-ringed juvenile present, and thankfully I was able to get some shots which allowed me to piece together the ring number...but more about it in a future posting.

Reassuringly, this is the first site this summer where I have seen relatively large numbers of juvenile birds, I was beginning to wonder where they all were!

Metal ringed juv BHG - more about this bird in future post

We were on our way to Donegal for the day and I thought I'd post this photo of a flock of chough we saw at Five Fingers Strand, Malin.  The photo shows 19 of the 24 birds in the flock, and although that has nothing to do with the BHG study, when else am I going to get an excuse to post it?!

Chough flock at Five Fingers Strand, Malin