Eider

I spent a morning last Sunday week out in Skerries hoping for a sighting of the Eider's that I've been told call that part of the world home.  Not a species I've had in Dublin, hence the trip.

It was bitter cold, the sea was choppy and there were very few walkers around.  Shane F turned up about an hour in, he had the same idea as me, so together we spent a couple of hours scoping the bay area over towards the islands and beyond.  No show, d'oh!!!  I only had half the day, I could have gone somewhere else and not been so cold.  Shane left and headed to Kilcoole (later on he got a Glossy Ibis over Broad Lough).  I hung around another 30 minutes or so before packing up and heading home.

Not to be beaten I headed back to Skerries the following Friday.  It was an altogether better experience.  Cool, not cold, and the sea was much calmer.  I took up position on one of the benches on Red Island looking out across the bay towards Colt Island.  I scoped the shoreline of Colt from right to left and hey presto!!  Just off the shoreline between Colt and the large rocks to the left as you view it from the headland was the unmistakable sight of a male Eider.  A quick zoom in revealed two more Eiders, female/juvenile, just too far out to be sure which.  So Eiders in Dublin, a first for me.

All the while the scope was zoomed in on the ducks, I was also being entertained by a flock of 30 odd purple sandpipers just below my position, flying up and down the shoreline off Red Island.

I moved on towards Gormanstown after that but apart from a flock of common scoters well offshore the place was very quite.