White-rumped Sandpiper

A couple of weeks ago a white-rumped sandpiper spent a few days mixing with the locals down at the breaches at Kilcoole.  I went down on the Sunday afternoon and as luck would have it found the bird within a couple of minutes.  It was mixing with some dunlin and really was very close in, at its nearest no more than 20ft from my viewing point.

Supercilium

It was very similar in size to the dunlin but really stood out from the crowd with its long body, short legged stance.  However the real giveaway was the very white supercilium which no other bird present on the day could match.

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It was spooked twice along with all the other smalls in the hour or so I spent there, lifting and moving a few hundred meters in the direction of the buckthorn, but both times it made its way back to the very spot I'd first found it.  Always a good day when you're eyes are on a Yankie!

Bridges of Ross

The weather forecast was for North, Northwest winds this Saturday, so it seemed as good a time as any in the last few weeks to get some sea-watching in.  The Bridges of Ross were chosen as the destination of choice, the forecasted winds should have helped ensure decent numbers of seabirds, and who knew a rarity or two fingers crossed.

The car was packed Thursday night ensuring a direct run from work to Co Clare Friday evening picking up Steve M along the way.  The plan was to get to the bridges with about an hour of light left and get a bit of sea-watching in before finding a spot to pitch the tent.  However when we arrived at the bridges light was very poor and the winds had whipped up quite a bit, there would be no sea-watching being done this night.

Every cloud has a silver lining blah blah blah.... we headed off to the Lighthouse Pub just down the road in Kilbaha.  NTK and Joe A were there to greet us along with a group of Finnish birders and some regulars from the UK.  Over the next couple of hours some pints of the black stuff were consumed as rounds were exchanged and I for one got merrier and merrier.  After the festivities Steve M took the car keys as he was the designated driver and we headed back to the car park at the bridges to get the tent up and the heads down.  But the winds had picked up even more and the rain was getting heavier, after spending about 10 minutes trying to get the tent up the plan was abandoned and we decided to get some shut eye in the car.



"what time is breakfast?"

Saturday arrived, the weather had calmed down and we joined about 20 other birders out on the bridges at about 6.30am.  The forecasted winds were North-westerly and that's just what we had, however the winds weren't coming in from that direction from very far out to sea, apparently they were changing to North-westerly from quite close in, the result was not the fall of sea-birds in the numbers we'd hoped for.  It was a slow start to the morning session, some winds and rain, dull overcast skies and not very many birds!

When the session ended for breakfast at about 10:30am we'd had plenty of manxies, some Arctic, Pomarine and Great (Bonxies) Skuas.  There were a couple of Sabs (I didn't get eyes on), some Puffins, Gannets etc etc.

Back to the Lighthouse Bar for a full Irish and a chance to catch up with some of the other birders who'd appeared.  Stomach full and a trip up the road to Loop Head Lighthouse produced an hour of uneventful sea-watching and a rather embarrassing incident involving a Juv Dunlin (all I'll say is that those who were there know what I'm on about! MORTO or WHAT?  I couldn't get that Jim Diamond song from the eighties out of my head for the rest of the day, the one that goes "well I should have known better....!)

The weather turned "too good" in the afternoon

Further on up the coast we'd got word that a Black Tern was on show so to kill an hour before the afternoon session on the bridges we headed up and found the tern, a juvenile, mixing with a mixed group of terns and gulls.  It was now heading for 2.30pm so it was time to head back to the bridges and get settled in for the afternoon session.

The weather was much brighter, warmer and less windy than the morning had been, making conditions even less favourable for sea-watching.  The afternoon continued as the morning had finished, that's to say SLOW.  The Skuas (not long-tailed, although there was a shout for them late on, this was changed to Arctic on further examination) continued to show, so too did the manxies, a couple of Sootys and Balearics (my shout on one of them) some more Puffins, Gulls etc.

It was so slow in fact that rather than wait till the light faded we decided to pack up and hit the road for home at about 6.00pm.  It was a trip worth making, the craic was good, the birds okay but the weather was just too good for serious sea-watching.  I did however take something from the trip, a life lesson shall we call it and that life lesson is;

CONSULT YOUR F***ING COLLINS GUIDE BEFORE YOU MAKE A HOLY SHOW OF YOURSELF IN FRONT OF ONE OF THE COUNTRY'S BEST BIRDING DYNASTIES - THE FOLEY TRINITY!

To get the counts for the day visit NTK's excellent blog "A view from the headland" linked here.
http://seabirdwatchireland.blogspot.ie/

Grasshopper Warbler

I took a spin out to Howth earlier today to see what if any chats and warblers were to be had.  I'd spent a couple of hours on Clougherhead yesterday and although I had plenty of sonechat and wheatear etc, I couldn't get a view of the very noisy grasshopper warblers which were present and calling in at least two locations on the head.

I opted for Howth as its only 20 minutes from Ashbourne and it can be very good this time of year for getting your first yearly sightings of various summer visitors.  The weather today was mild with intermittent downpours of hail and rain!  I parked up and headed for the headland right after one of the downpours, the break in the rain had all manner of smalls out and signing as is often the case on days like these, stonchat, dunnock, wren, wheatear, whitethroat and even a pair of bullfinches.

I took the cliff path for about about five minutes and cut inland just about were you come to the second seabird colony on the cliffs (the one after Balscaddan Bay).  I had only walked up and in for about two minutes when I first heard the unmistakable long reeling notes of the grasshopper warbler. 



Grasshopper Warbler, Howth Head

It didn't take too long to spot the owner of the call as he moved about a small hollow from bramble to bush and back and forth.  Also present within sight and earshot were wheatear, stonchat and whitethroat.  Its amazing to stand there listening to the gropper call, it really can project its voice a great distance, and it appeared to bounce of the rocks and come from more than one direction at times.

Grasshopper Warbler in full song

I spent about 30 minutes (and one very heavy hail shower) in the hollow before moving on.  There wasn't much else to see and after yest another downpour I headed for the shelter of the car and on out of Howth to the Bull.

Hoopoe

I was just finishing up in work yesterday afternoon and about to head home for a bout of gardening when the phone rang!  It was Steve M.  "Mick, there's a hoopoe down on Pollardstown Fen, some lads down there are on it..... if it hangs around another hour or so it'll be a cert......."  "Okay Steve, gimme two minutes I'll call you back"  Mmmnn, cut the grass, do some weeding blah blah blah or.......  who was I kidding, the car was pointed towards Kildare and heading down the M7 before I even rang him back.

Hoopoe is a bird I was very keen to get.  It was a big hole on my life list and a bird which I've attempted to get in the past but never had success.  It's been recorded close enough to Ashbourne in the past but nearly always recorded as 'in a private garden, or, stayed for the day and left', this one had already been around for at least a day so it was with that tingling in the gut (you know the one) that I headed for the fen.

I picked Steve up on the way.  The topic of conversation the whole way there was, it had better still be there.... this was a big one for both of us.  Steve rang ahead when we were about 10 minutes from the fen, "eh no, we left about a half an hour ago" was the response to the question we both wanted answering.....  "are you still on the bird?" 

That tingling in the gut turned to near blind panic, what if we got there and there was no one else on the bird, would we be able to find it, was it even still around?    We got to the car park at about 7.30pm and grabbed the gear and ran.  Sure what was the panic, I always knew we'd get it (ahem).  A local birder was still in situ and he brought us straight to the hoopoe.

I've spent hundreds of hours over the years browsing the Collins (paperback dog-eared first edition always in the car, hardback second edition on the bedside locker, and the pride of the lot the large format hardback second edition pride of place downstairs bookshelf) and the hoopoe really is a bird that looks like no other.  It really is unmistakable.  But I never imagined my first ever views would be so good, I'd have settled for a medium range 10 minutes or so, but we got the exact polar opposite.

We got within 10 metres of the bird as it just completely ignored us and fed on the soft ground of the fen.  It was feeding on worms and insects as it moved slowly back and forth over a patch of ground right in front of our noses!  Mike, the local birder even encouraged us to get closer, he had earlier, but we declined for fear of spooking the bird. 

What followed was over an hour in the company of the hoopoe.  Never once did it take one bit of notice of us, an experience I last had with a very tame snow bunting in Anagassan harbour a couple of years ago, the bunting allowing me within 3 or 4 feet! Eventually the hoppoe took flight to a nearby tree, opened its crest a few times and then disappeared out of view.  I didn't mind too much at that stage as the light was beginning to fade and my stomach was beginning to rumble like a Massey Fergusson struggling to start on a cold morning.

Best of all (not for anyone else interested in seeing it), our sighting was the last recorded one as I write this post and that was 48hrs ago, so perhaps on this occasion I was lucky enough to be one of the few to get the view and not one of the many to have missed out.....

Black-winged Stilt

Not to be outdone by the incident in the ditch (you have to read the previous post or you may get the wrong impression here) I headed back down to Tacumshin a couple of days later.  I met John M at forgotten corner and we set about locating the Black-winged stilt.

There was no sign of the stilt at the forgotten corner but we were kept occupied by two hen harriers, a male was quartering the fields below the wind turbines whilst a female flew low and slow across the entire opposite bank of the lake lifting everything she passed as she went.  The small teal flock was in the middle of the lake and a quick inspection gave up the green-winged teal.

Green-winged teal, Tacumshin

After a while we headed up to the East end.  It didn't take long to spot the black-winged stilt, it was moving slowly along the shoreline in front of us.  However as is often the case "something....." caused the entire shoreline to lift and the stilt moved further out into the middle of the lake.  We hung around for about 20 minutes but the stilt was moving further away all the time.  This was my first ever black-winged stilt and it was worth heading back down to Tacumshin to get it, incidentally, as I write this it has only been reported once more (the following day) so this weekend will tell whether I got it just in time.

Ah come on, I know its a crap shot but it was in the middle of the lake and moving away!

We headed up to Lingstown, parked up near the rocks and set about finding our next target.  It took about 20 minutes of standing around being entertained by the calls of the various finches busying themselves up and down the lane before we got our first glimpse of the day of a very special bird, the bearded reedling.  These have to be one of the most spectacular species we get on these shores, right up there with the waxwing (in my opinion, and I mean in aesthetics, not rarity).  Two of them went back and forth in front of us for about 20 minutes, rising from the reeds to our left and going down about 50 meters to our right, rising from here and back to where they'd risen on the left...... and back and forth.

I got a text from the lads at Irish Birding reporting the two cattle egrets at Bannow Bay, however time at this stage was running out and I had to hit the N11 and head for home.  Obviously if I hadn't already had cattle egret this year I'd have been straight in to the car and heading away from home...... funny creatures these biders!

Tacumshin

I took a spin down to Tacumshin yesterday, I had a hit list of three to get, BW stilt, LB dowitcher and the GW teal, all would be welcome additions to the year list, one, the stilt would have been a lifer!  Notice the use of the term ".... would have been"

I arrived at 7.45am, there was no sign of anyone else so I headed straight for the forgotten corner hoping to get the stilt and get the day off to a good start.  No show!  I spent about 30 mins in and around the corner with no sign of the stilt.  I headed back to the car for some breakfast, just as Dermot, Noel and John from arrived.  After some chat we headed back over to the forgotten corner for a final check before heading for the ferry and a trip to the Saltees.

We came to the flooded ditch at the end of the track and tested out the solidity of the ground before crossing.  Dermot was the first to cross, no problem.  I was second.  I planted my left welly exactly where Dermots had been only moments before, solid enough....  I passed the scope across.  Now obviously in order to walk you put one foot in front of the other, so my right leg was going to have to follow the left and plant somewhere on the ditch in order to cross it.  What could possibly go wrong?  Dermot had only just crossed and was now safely on the other side.

Around came the right leg, yeah that felt solid enough, water up to the ankle but hey the wellies go right up almost to the knee so no worries.  Then I got my very own Titanic feeling, I was going down and there was nothing I could do to stop it.  My right leg sank and in moments I was left with my left leg on solid enough ground whilst my right leg was knackers deep in thick black stagnant ditch water.  I don't know how the other three didn't just fall around laughing, I would have.  Instead after a few minutes I was pulled from my watery berth and back on solid ground.  Still no one was laughing, I definitely would have been.  Thankfully no one thought of taking a picture, imagine browsing Irish Birding and seeing yourself  ..... a sighting from Tacumshin.... the lesser legged Ashbourne ditch stilt!!

No children or animals where harmed during this dramatic reconstruction!

So there I was, one leg dry, the other covered in black slime all the way to the the afore mentioned crown jewels.  Usually this wouldn't have presented a major problem (not that this usually happens to me) I'd just go back to the car and change into the spare clothes that always sit in the rucksack in the boot.   But I'd taken the clothes out of the car last week and hadn't put them back in!  Disaster.

I got cleaned up as best I could, put a pair of footy shorts on and said my goodbyes.  I wasn't in any condition to continue on, no Saltees Islands for me today, and not one of the three target birds spotted.  It was a lonely drive back up the N11, just me and the smell rising from my left leg of stagnant Tacumshin ditch water.

Iceland gull

There can't be too many birds whose name is as mis-leading as the iceland gull.  Well perhaps the herring gull could be added to the mis-leading names list, I mean most herring gulls live inland, in and around humans, usually on rubbish tips, living off everything and anything the human has decided to discard.  Most herring gulls don't survive on a diet of herrings, in fact there are good reasons to believe that some may rarely if ever dine on herrings!

Now, back to the iceland gull, a gull that doesn't actually breed in Iceland, it breeds in Greenland and Canada.  This has been a very good winter for iceland gulls in Ireland.  We can usually expect sightings throughout most winters, but this year reports have been more numerous than any winter I can remember.

I've seen them at Soldiers Point, Port Oriel, Gormanstown, Rogerstown, Swords, Bray......... like I said, they have been quite numerous this winter, and because of their pale appearance, they really stand out in a crowd.

Last Friday I took advantage of the stretch in the evenings and took a trip out to Swords.  There have been two first winter icelands associating with the other gulls out there for at least a few weeks now.  When I got there the two birds were on show, however by the time I got out of the car and geared up one of them had flown much further down the estuary, leaving just one at close quarters.

1st winter iceland gull, Swords

Across the estuary on the South side two little gulls were also on show, an adult and first winter.  By six thirty the light had gone and it was off home.