Karl Martin bird blog: Belfast Birds

This year was my first year at University, and I’ve been staying in student accommodation in Belfast. A benefit of this is that I am a very short walk away from the River Lagan, which has presented me with some great birds and great photo opportunities. The area around the two statues, the ‘Big Fish’ and ‘Nuala with the Hula’ in particular is excellent for Black Guillemots, which can be seen on the water and in holes in the walls of the river, and Common Terns, which nest on a small raft in between the Lagan Weir Footbridge and the Queen Elizabeth Bridge. Both these species have been very obliging to the camera the last few times I have been out, and they tend to land in the same spots and allow me to get very close. In addition to the Common Terns I was lucky enough to see a pair of Arctic Terns in the same area on one occasion and they allowed great shots which you can also see a few posts back. I’ll post the best photos I’ve taken around this area over the three or four times I’ve been. There are also photos of various gulls, which are pretty used to people at the best of times, so as you can imagine they sit nicely for me every so often.