White-tailed Eagle. Amazing.

An early start today saw M.P. and myself at Wexford Wildfowl Reserve at 7:45 in search of the White-tailed Eagle that was reported yesterday by Alyn Walsh and spotted once or twice the previous few days. A cold, wet and windy morning greeted us but the forecast predicted finer weather in the afternoon so we contented ourselves watching the courting/mating Hare and the selection of wildfowl (incl. 10 Barnacle geese), unfazed by the rain, in the hope that the Eagle was more likely to appear in more forgiving weather.

Our breakthrough came six hours later, a little after two o'clock, when I picked out a bird moving from the trees on the Raven and down below the sea-wall. It was only fleeing but i knew I was onto something so, using the scope I kept an eye on the area the bird was last seen and after about five mins I picked it up again, this time moving south along the tree line. The bird was very mobile and, given it's size, surprisingly tricky to keep track of as it stayed out at the Raven, soaring the treetops or ducking down to the dunes. M.P. managed to relocate the bird on a number of occasions but unfortunately binocular and scoped views were all we managed as the distance proved prohibitive to taking pictures, the two best i got barely constituting 'record' shots.

The best of the rest were views of a passing Hen-harrier (given up on when the eagle re-appeared), a Kestrel, hunting the sea-wall, just opposite the pumphouse hide and two sand martin viewed from the Pat Walsh hide.