We went to N. Ireland for a few days on the Stranraer-Belfast Stena Line boat. The TSO is Belfast Born & Bred so we go there every year. What fun we had during the Troubles ... the best bit was when we watched a huge shoot-out .... the MOB were all on the far side of the road, and the army were cowering in our front garden. The whole shooting match lasted about 40 minutes, and I've still got a few cartridges as a souvenir of those happy, carefree days But moving on..... over the first day of driving miles and miles and miles then Birding from-the-Boat and 2 days of Birding Around Belfast I got 69 species and then did the whole caboodle again in reverse order..... urgh. 69 isn't that bad considering that most of our travelling was to see all the TSOs Friends-And-Relations ... spread out all over the place. Strangford Loch is a mirror-image of Belfast Loch... and both are excellent for birds ... the ones in the water, and the birds on the surrounding land. We also revisited the most "easterly" point on the mainland ... and the row of houses there were very swish, with huge picture mega-windows ...and all but one of them had dirty great jellyscopes inside. What sort of sad-cake didn't ? We've been to the most northerly and easterly and westerly AND southerly bits as well. Ubiquitous ..that's us. Here's one odd thing .... spotting birds from the boat at the big windows, quite a few birds were right close by the boat at times ... and I was seeing them from directly above. And with some of them it was quite tricky to ID them ... I could only see their backs. You might remember an "invented "book that I wrote about " Birds from Above" .. it would have come in handy. I'll see if I can find it ... 114-how-i-lost-my-first-pair-of-binoculars.html ( A sad story) 133-the-loch-erne-mystery-bird.html (A silly story) 532-belfast-based-birding.html ( An absence) I haven't found the "Birds From Above" story yet ... maybe I never got round to writing it. My dinky mp3 player is stacked up with German music at the moment .... ... and this beautiful song is one of them ... Echolot ... ... and ... it has the words ..so you can sing along with it.... ... and remember it for the rest of your life !! Here's a few snaps ... well, a measly 4 .. my camera is crap .....
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AuthorThat's the author up there ... I was young and sprightly then. Archives
October 2022
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