Gobbins and Copeland - a mini wildlife extravaganza 22 June 2023

 

The Crew:  Bob, Katie, Joanne, Katie, Ben and Jove

This was an opportunity to take a few of Katie’s friends for a short wildlife watching trip to the Gobbins and the Copeland Islands.  At 18.30 on a wonderfully calm and sunny Thursday evening we left Bangor and headed north. A bird list was started.

As we crossed the Belfast Lough the Gannets gave a dramatic display of soaring, searching and plunging after their fishy food.  They’re reinforced skulls being tested to the limit. As we passed first Whitehead and then Blackhead the number of auks began to increase until we reached the busy metropolis of the Gobbins - Puffins, Guillemots, Razorbills, Kittiwakes and Fulmars filled the cliffs and sky and water with their beating wings and energetic calls.  It was dramatic and thrilling to see and hear.  We got close, but not close enough to get a whiff of their aroma (that might have been a sensory stimulation too far).

The Gobbins at early evening 

We lingered only briefly before turning southeast to head for the Copeland Islands - about an hour’s motoring at our steady 9 knots.  The Crew, sharp eyed as ever, were keeping a lookout for cetaceans - they had been all the way from Bangor - and to good effect.  Katie spotted a surfacing first, got everyone looking in the right direction, just in time for everyone to see a really clear and not too distant view of a surfacing Minke Whale.  We were ecstatic!  Mr Minke obviously thought he had done his bit - he didn’t surface again.

Onwards towards Copeland and the number of Manx Shearwaters began to increase. There were feeding groups and then large rafts of shearwaters - waiting for darkness so that they could go ashore in safety to visit their underground nests on Lighthouse Island (the base for Copeland Bird Observatory).  We went close to the rocks where Puffins were breeding - historically they did not breed on Copeland, but a project started about 9 or 10 years ago, used decoys and an acoustic system playing happy-puffin sounds, to encourage the Puffins to visit and stay.  And they did.  They are now regular breeders.

On Mew Island just opposite the Puffins were a group of loafing, lounging and singing Grey Seals and Harbour Seals.  They put on a great display of lethargy.  Quite exciting for The Crew but we kept our distance and let the seals chill.

Mew Island lighthouse about an hour before sunset 

Next we rounded the outside of Mew Island to the sound of calling Oystercatchers and the sight of the island’s gulls tooing and froing in their colonial busyness.  We slowly slogged our way against a 3 knot tide between Big Copeland and the two outer isles, on to Briggs buoy where the tide had eased, past the large ships anchored and awaiting entry to Belfast docks (Jonas Oldendorrf and Mamry) and back into Bangor.

Our final surprise was as we entered Bangor harbour.  An Otter made an appearance swimming at the edge of the entrance and it made sure everyone saw it.  Quite amazing! It was a few minutes from sunset.

What an evening!  We had seen four mammal species - Minke whale, grey seal, harbour seal and otter - and 22 bird species. Brilliant. A great experience for everyone.

Full bird list (without the capitals ‘cos there would just too many for easy reading) in the order they were seen: gannet, lesser black-backed gull, guillemot, Manx shearwater, common tern, black guillemot, curlew, herring gull, razorbill, puffin, shelduck, cormorant, shag, fulmar, kittiwake, feral pigeon, great black-backed gull, jackdaw, starling, oystercatcher, Arctic tern and sandwich tern.

Our route: