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/