30-MINUTE BIRDER
Thirty-minute birder Amanda Tuke discovers exactly what makes the Northern Irish capital city so special for birds...
I speed-walk along the road and skirt the perimeter fence of the nature reserve. I’m crossing my fingers that I won’t be too late. I’d be crossing my toes, too, but don’t, as that would slow me down and I’m desperate to say farewell to the visitors before they set off. It’s like that clichéd film closing scene – the hero/heroine races to an airport, train station, or harbour, to intercept the person they’ve idiotically only just realised is their soulmate. And, with more than a dose of ‘main character syndrome’, I’m feeling a bit of an idiot, too.
Trotting along a shady path past an inviting-looking bird hide, I emerge on the sunny edge of Belfast Harbour. It’s a vast expanse with slickly-flat water stretching nearly half a kilometre across to the other side. It all seems hopeless. There’s nothing to say goodbye to, not even a gull, despite this harbour being the backdrop of many a poignant farewell.
Two weeks ago, in my usual impulsive fashion, I decided to travel to Belfast. There was just time to ask for advice on birding sites within 30 minutes of the city centre – and compile a list of target birds – but I blithely ignored the fact that summer was slipping away. And there was one summer visitor I was particularly hoping to see.
Yesterday, my first day in Northern Ireland’s capital, I joined city biodiversity officer Orla Maguire for a trip up the Lagan River. Our guides from the river team, Peter and assistant Martin, were keen to show us their efforts to support the river’s birdlife. They told me that neither had been particularly interested in birds before they started working on the Lagan, but have become bird enthusiasts. Their work programme now includes managing reedbeds but also constructing nesting rafts for Common Terns, and installing nest boxes for Tysties – the northern name for Black Guillemots.
Tysties, most field guides tell you, nest at the base of cliffs, particularly on remote islands where they’re protected from rats and other nest disturbance. Belfast is one of only two places in the British Isles where they nest in the heart of a city (the other being nearby Bangor). Here in Belfast you can lean over a footbridge in summer on your way to work or the shops and see these charismatic birds up close.
