A flock of Seagulls has visited this district constantly for a good many years past, leaving in the autumn and returning in the spring. Some time about the year 1890 a few white birds, led by a redoubtable Columbus of the air, appeared out of the mists that capped the hills north of Draperstown and penetrated the Moyola Valley as far south-west as the old church at Ballinascreen. The natives were astonished to see the pioneers of a Gull invasion, and not knowing at what kind of birds they really were they gave them the name “Geese Hawks”. The invaders found food plentiful, and for a few years they paid this district a flying visit annually. On one fateful occasion a wise old Gull after the arrival of the flock flew to Lough Patrick, whose gleaming waters had somehow caught his eye, to have a morning bath; and when so engaged his attention was drawn to the stretch of marsh covered with a rank growth if rushes, grass, and water plants, and dotted with little hillocks that lay along the western shore of the lough. The brilliant idea struck him that it would be an ideal spot for a camping ground during the nesting season, so he hurried to the valley below and reported his discovery to his feathered friends. In a short time there was much beaking and squabbling and noisy screams of “Who dare tramp on the point of my wing” around the little hillocks that dotted the Lough Patrick marsh. The colony flourished, and after a number of years had increased to such proportions that only the fiercest warriors could retain their claw-hold on their own particular hillocks, so that many of the less combative ones were forced to seek fresh swamps and hillocks. New colonies were soon established at the other little loughs in the neighbourhood – the Cow Lough, the Mill Lough an the Teal Lough. These Loughs are all on the top of the Owenreagh and Tullybrick Hills. They have also taken up the marshy bottom of a portion of cut-out peat on the top of Owenreagh; at this point alone I counted nine nests on the 22nd May and about twenty birds hovering in the air. On May 15 I counted on Lough Patrick over 120 Gulls sitting and about 100 in the air, also a few on a little island in the lough. The nests were raised about eight inches above the ground; those convenient to inspect contained three eggs each. They were composed of bits of grass, heather, and rushes. On the 18th May I was at the Mill Lough. The Gulls were hatching, and when disturbed I counted about 150 in the air. I could see a good number of birds hovering over the other two loughs, but did not visit them. I again visited Lough Patrick on May 27th and I found a flock of tame Geese on the lough and the grass in the marsh, cropped down considerably, exposing many Seagull’s nests; but the eggs were gone, probably hatched out, as the old birds were still on guard and resented fiercely any intruders. The young birds remain about the loughs until sufficiently feathered to fly down to the valley below. They appear in the vallley about the beginning of July; but I have no dates for this, and will try and ascertain same. – G. B. Mc Keown (Draperstown).
[These birds are, of course, Black-headed Gulls – Editor.]
George Barnett 