South Slob

Took a spin out to the South Slob in Wexford today to see if any summer birds were still here or any of our over-wintering birds had arrived. Luckily there was both. In the field by the small bridge near the lake I picked up two Wheatear and one late Swallow. Further out in the same field were a flock of 19 Whooper Swan and as I was watching them 6 Brent geese flew over towards the north slob.

Whooper Swan

There were large flocks of Reed Bunting and several flocks of up to twenty Goldfinch moving between thistle patches. These flocks came in useful as on two occasions when they rose up noisily they alerted me to the presence of a couple of raptors- firstly a Sparrowhawk near the causeway, then a Hen Harrier around the pines near the farm.

Sparrrowhawk

Sparrowhawk

Moving on, I headed for the bridge over the channel where I've seen Kingfisher before but haven't been able to get a pic. Today must have been my lucky day. Sneaking up at a near crawl I scanned the over-hanging branches and rocks. I found what I was hoping for and got a couple of decent shots before being noticed.



 

 

 

Moving on I found a lone Golden Plover in the field after the roofless barn and scanning the farm, fields and trees from the railway bridge I found 2 high circling Buzzard, 9 more Whooper and another Wheatear. Crossing the causeway on the way back I saw two Grey Plover, 6 Red-breasted Merganser and 13 more Brent.

 

Golden Plover






Saltees Trip

Having seen reports of migrant Wryneck around the Irish coast and on the Saltees in particular I couldn't resist a trip over to chance my luck at another lifer. Two yellow-browed warbler had been spotted on Saturday but were a no show on Sunday unfortunately.
Just as the boat landed I noticed a few seal pups on the shore, with their mothers paying close attention from the water.

 

Heading towards 'the throne' I picked up a kestrel hunting near the far gannet colony as well as a hen harrier hunting along the hedges and bracken along the northern coast. I had a was a possible lesser whitethroat near 'the throne' but I only got a fleeting glance in poor light so no tick there for me i'm sorry to say. Two chough, a couple of whinchat -my first in Ireland this year- and a single wheatear (not forgetting the hundreds of swallow and large numbers of meadow pipit) were the best from the south side of the island.
I had been given directions for where the wryneck was previously spotted but, after more than an hour searching it was nowhere to be found, however as I headed back towards the house, just as the house/boat paths diverged I noticed movement in the bracken and there it was- feeding along the old stone wall near the path.

 

I headed back towards the house and garden through the palms where I found Blackcap, Chiffchaff and Spotted Flycatcher.

 

I was told there had been a garden warbler seen to the right of the house so went to check it out. Ten minutes in and around the house yielded nothing so I headed down the path towards the boat. Scanning the elderberry trees  I noticed a few more blackcap and then, there, low in the bush was the garden warbler. It stayed here for a time before moving into the sycamores, a nice end to the day and a second lifer!

Barn Owl

Myself and M.P. were given a great opportunity tonight to go and view (and hopefully photograph) three Barn Owl before they were released into the wild. This was my first attempt at manual focus in the dark and it proved quite tricky but I managed to get a couple of shots. What a fantastic bird!

Cherbourg Trip

Myself and M.P. got a chance to go to Cherbourg during the week so tried to do a little birding on the way. Ferry left at nine so the sea-watch began in earnest around 7am the next morning. We didn't have much luck with very little passage of note, the best being 4 Great Skua.
We docked at three and made our way via (very expensive) taxi to gatteville lighthouse. We only had a couple of hours here and unfortunately not much action here either bar 8-10 loafing sandwich tern, a few med gulls and a pair of whinchat.
Trip home was no better with a migrant Dark Sword-grass moth on board and two more great skua and a few manx shearwater being the highlights at sea. Noted a juv. GBb gull with an unusual meal in rosslare harbour!

Dark Sword-grass

Great Skua

Mediterranean Gull

Mediterranean Gull

Whinchat

Lighthouse at Gatteville

Manx Shearwater

Manx Shearwater

Juv. GBb Gull (with Shag head)

Grey Seal

Captive/Released Birds

Just a few snaps of birds that you wouldn't necessarily see in the wild in Ireland.

Hooded Merganser (M) - Blessington Basin, Dublin





Mandarin Duck (M) - Blessington Basin

Mandarin Duck

Hooded Merganser (F)

Silver Bahama/White Cheeked Pintail - Blessington Basin

White Cheeked Pintail

Smew (F) - Blessington Basin

Mandarin Duck (F)

Wood Duck (M)

Greylag, White-fronted and Barnacle geese - W.W.R.

Pheasant (M) - Carrig-on-Bannow, Wex.

Eagle Owl - Private Collection, Gorey

Harris Hawk - Private Collection, Gorey

Buzzard - Private Collection, Gorey

Back to Tacumshin

Took a quick trip to tacumshin today to try get a look at a few of the passing waders. Arrived at about eight and was greeted by a nice hen-harrier near the high car park. That set the tone for birds of prey for the day as I also saw 3 buzzard 2 kestrel and 2 peregrine, 1 juv. and 1 adult.

There was large movements of wagtail (c.40- mixed pied and white), also 40-50 meadow pipit as well as hundreds of swallow, house martin and sand martin all feeding on the thousands of flies and insects at the waters edge. A few sedgies and wheatear were also present.

Wader species I saw included ruff, lapwing, black-tailed godwit, curlew, sanderling, little stint, buff-breasted, curlew, pectoral and wood sandpiper (Pectoral and Wood being lifers for me!) and of course the ubiquitous dunlin. Semi-palmated sandpiper was reported but escaped me.
Hawker dragonflys (Brown and Migrant) made up the best of the rest.

Here are a few pics from the day:

Peregrine (Adult) - Phone-scoped

Peregrine (Juv) - Phone-scoped

Hen Harrier

Hen Harrier

Pectoral Sandpiper

Buff-breasted Sandpiper

Peregrines (Distant- juv on left)

Peregrine (hunting amid on flocks of hirundines)

Pectoral Sandpiper

Pectoral Sandpiper

Pectoral Sandpiper

Wood Sandpiper

Wheatear

Wood Sandpiper