We get the ferry across the lough at 9.30am and a remarkable days birding begins. One of the species we are most interested in are the slavonian grebes which have been reported in small groups on the lough all week. Five minutes out of Strangford and we park up on a headland with good views of the lough. A quick scope of the scene reveals a small group grebes some distance out, closer inspection confirms we have our first target of the day in the bag. Slavonian grebes confirmed.
As we move further up the coast we make several stops on the way and tick off gadwall, greenshank, eider, greylag goose and literally hundreds (if not thousands) of goldeneye. In and around the Greyabbey to Chapel Island area is where the day really takes off.
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| Golden plovers - Strangford Lough, 4 of a flock of hundreds! |
Firstly we get numerous sightings of common buzzard, but its the rough-legged variety were after. Can we get our second rough-legged buzzard in Ireland this year (after Glenroe)? On one of the many stops we make a local birder tells us that the possible (not very possible) saker falcon has just been spotted on Chapel Island only a kilometer up the road. We don't need telling twice and its off we head. Wellies on and across a very boggy field to the coast facing Chapel Island.
There it is (whatever it is). Perched on a post at the front of the island we have it in our objective lenses for about 10 minutes. Its definitely a falcon of some sort, but common opinion on the ground is that its either an escapee saker from some falconer, or an as yet unconfirmed pale morph peregrine of sorts. All I know for sure is that this was one of the species we wanted to see today, so that's another off the list. If by some miracle this bird gets confirmed as a saker that'll be a life tick for both myself and Steve. If however as is likely it never gets truly identified it'll always just be another bird of little or no consequence.
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| This bird has the experts stumped! I dont know why. From what I can see from the above photo this is defenitley a saker falcon so why all the doubts??!! |
Chapel Island also gave us a hunting short-eared owl, two common buzzards and our third target for the day the rough-legged buzzard. It was hovering and hunting in full view on the left hand side of the island and was generous enough to stay in full view for about five minutes. Not a bad return for one hour of the day scoping a not very big Island.
Back to the car and the goose hunt could begin. We easily located the greylag flock, so we headed around the back of them were the view revealed a larger flock than was apparent from the road. Our targets here were white-fronted and russian (sib) white-fronted. I don't even have to tell you do I? Two more target species in the bag and a year list getting a good stretch. But it didn't end there, four canada geese flew in to join the flock (locals say some of these canada geese can be feral up here) but as its impossible to tell for sure and as they were associating with wild geese I'll give them the benefit for the year list (my rules) until I get them somewhere else in the coming months.
The day was moving on so we decided to head for Hillsborough and get the cattle egret which was the last target of the day (previous post). All in all a great day, all targets achieved and a mysterious bird sighted just in case it turns out to be officially identified as a little bit special (unlikely)!
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