Wednesday 26 September 2012

Plovers R Us

A few more shots of the adult American Golden Plover from last Friday and a few record shots of the juvenile American Golden Plover at Aillebrack on Monday. The adult AGP was also with the same plover flock at Aillebrack on the same day. Quite difficult to view the plover at Aillebrack at the moment. The commonage here has only been grazed by a small herd of cattle which results in a much more diverse make-up of flora with a resulting higher sward unlike the close cropped sheep grazed Truska. Aillebrack almost looks potentially good for an Upland Sandpiper... Almost expecting a Dotterel to some up at some stage on either Aillebrack or Truska.
I checked the two small marshes yet again at Truska on Monday without turning up anything. Will 2012 be the first year since 2008 that I fail to have any Pectoral Sandpipers in there?
Did have at least one Lapland Bunting typically flying over. Adult Peregrine also sitting up on the high area between the two marshes on the east side of the machair where the Buff-bellied Pipit showed up in 2010. Massive turn out of three Galway birders for this bird at the time, all of which dipped! Just goes to show the massive change in the species' status in Ireland since 2007. 14 of the 16 Irish records have occurred since 2007.
I ran into a local farmer here a while back who told me about the big white owl that used to sit up on the hill during the day watching the rabbits years ago, wonder what that could have been?!

Adult American Golden Plover, Truska, 21st September 2012.

Adult American Golden Plover, Truska, 21st September 2012.

Adult American Golden Plover, Truska, 21st September 2012.

Adult American Golden Plover, Truska, 21st September 2012.

Juvenile Grey Plover, Truska, 21st September 2012.

Juvenile American Golden Plover, Aillebrack, 24th September 2012.

Juvenile American Golden Plover, Aillebrack, 24th September 2012.



Monday 24 September 2012

Muckrush and Achill (why?)

Checked Muckrush on the East side of Lough Corrib on the off chance that the water levels may have dropped with the dry weather over the last three weeks or so. To my surprise they had thankfully with a decent muddy stretch around the edges with most of the waders managing to feed in the middle of the main bay around the rocks. No hoped for American waders but it was great to get a colour ringed juvenile Greenshank. I managed to get the ring details after a bit (lime ring over dark blue ring on the right tibia and dark blue over black ring on the left tibia). I got news quickly back from Raymond Duncan about this bird. It had only been ringed eleven day previously at Tarty in the Ythan Estuary in NE Scotland! The Grampian ringing group have already had ten Greenshank resighted in Ireland to date, the nearest being in Kerry and Donegal.
Also at Muckrush on the Saturday were two Ruff, three Knot (site first?), five Dunlin, six Black-tailed Godwit with a few Snipe, Curlew, Redshank and Lapwing.

Colour ringed juvenile Greenshank, Muckrush.

Colour ringed juvenile Greenshank, Muckrush.

Two juvenile Knot and Snipe, Muckrush.

Juvenile Ruff, Muckrush.

Juvenile Ruff, Muckrush.

Took myself up to Achill on Sunday again in the hope of some Yank waders. It was pretty much a complete waste of a day all told. First stop of the day produced what was probably the best bird of the day (it all went quickly downhill from there out ;-) )- Lapland Bunting. It was feeding out on the salt marsh with a group of at least a hundred Meadow Pipits and a a few Rock Pipits. Too distant for any shots. Half a dozen roosting Ringed Plovers were the only "smalls" present. Also here continuing on from the Greenshank was a colour ringed Curlew. It had a yellow ring on the left tibia. I'm assuming there was a code on this single ring but due to the distance I just couldn't make anything out.
On to Achill island then and first site was the Keel golf course. Had a good look around but the only waders present were three Oystercatchers and ten roosting Ringed Plover around the small pools on the East end (looks good for Pec) not far from where the ridiculously tame Lesser Yellowlegs was a 2 - 3 years ago.
At least one Black Duck hybrid a Sruhill Lough which looked like a female. Good clear white leading and trailing edges to the speculum despite looking very good otherwise from a distance. There was another Black Duck type asleep out on one of the small islands but I just didn't get clear views to rule in or out the genuine thing. One female-type Merlin also here, they really can cover an incredible distance in a hurry when they want. One "scaup-faced" female Tufted Duck on Lough Doo and half a dozen Lapwing on the nearby machair. The tide was in so most waders spots for the first half of the day were write-offs.


Common Gulls, Keel Golf Course.

Red-breasted Mergansers, Sruhill Lough.
So enough of Achill. I really do dislike the place, I don't know what I thinking - I blame J.Jones and R.Bonser!
Onto Corragaun Lough where there were just 30 or so "smalls". They didn't hang about for very long as a juvenile Buzzard appeared out on the machair. An odd bird for this part of Ireland. I've only seen about three or four out in Connemara in four years. Water levels at Roonagh had thankfully dropped a bit but didn't seem to make much difference to the birds with nothing of note seen. Finished up the day at Gortnagarry Strand which is about 2km South of Roonagh Point. This usually holds the best numbers of waders along this stretch of coastline around low tide. I could make out two different colour ringed Sanderlings here but couldn't get the details as they were very flighty and just keep getting further and further away in the dying light.

Tuesday 18 September 2012

American Golden Plover

Found this adult American Golden Plover down at Truska yesterday. It was with around 80 Eurasian Golden Plover and a single juvenile Grey Plover which initially caused a bit of confusion. A rather odd location for Grey Plover. Previous to yesterday there were only five Eurasian Golden Plovers hanging around the area this Autumn. The whole flock was very flighty and never allowed close approach, hence the poor cropped record shots. American Golden Plover is nearly expected at this location now from mid September to early November. Between here and Aillebrack (only a 2km away) there have been six previous records for the area.

·         Juvenile, Aillebrack, Ballyconneely, 11th November 2002 (A.O’Dónaill).
·         Juvenile, Ballyconneely, 29th September to 1st October 2006 (A.O’Dónaill et al).
·         Juvenile, Truska and Aillebrack, Slyne Head, 6th to 10th October 2010 (D.Breen).
·         Juvenile, Truska, 10th to 18th November, (D.Breen).
·         Juvenile, Truska, 23rd September to 30th October 2011 (D.Breen).
·         Adult, Truska, 4th October 2011 (D.Breen), seen earlier in Clare.


Adult American Golden Plover, Truska, Slyne Head, 18th September 2012.

Adult American Golden Plover, Truska, Slyne Head, 18th September 2012.

Adult American Golden Plover, Truska, Slyne Head, 18th September 2012.

Adult American Golden Plover with Golden and Grey Plover, Truska, Slyne Head, 18th September 2012.

Adult American Golden Plover with Golden and Grey Plover, Truska, Slyne Head, 18th September 2012.

Adult American Golden Plover, Truska, Slyne Head, 18th September 2012.

Adult American Golden Plover, Truska, Slyne Head, 18th September 2012.

Juvenile Grey Plover, Truska.

Juvenile Grey Plover, Truska.



Wednesday 12 September 2012

Ortolan Bunting

Mega bird for Galway found on Inishbofin by Criag Nash on Monday 10th September. I headed out on Tuesday for a look. My last Irish Ortolan was way back in October 2001 on Hook Head, Co.Wexford. This is first record of Ortolan Bunting for Galway. Previous to this the only buntings on the county list so far were Yellowhammer, Reed, Corn, Snow and Lapland Bunting. So we're still awaiting a Little or even Rustic Bunting, both of which have turned up in Clare. After searching through the local Linnets for an hour or two I got a text from Craig to say it was again present at the original spot just before the Dolphin Hotel. Craig had put down some seed by the roadside so the bird made repeated visits to the roadside. It never joined up with any Linnets and flew into the garden whenever cars or pedestrians passed by.















Monday 10 September 2012

Buff-breasted Sand

Selection of the best of the weekend lot. Had planned to check the Roonagh/Corragaun Lough stretch on Saturday but left it late waiting for the low tide. Got word that Seamus Feeney and Declan Skehan had found a juvenile Buff-breasted Sandpiper at Corragaun Lough in the morning. Caught up with the sandpiper in beside the lake itself with about 130 Ringed Plover and 30 Dunlin. The whole flock was very flighty and I couldn't approach the flock too closely. The whole lot got up and relocated out onto the large open area of salt marsh/machair. I had a juvenile Buff-breasted Sandpiper here last year on 10th September. I think there's another previous record of the species here also.
Checked several of the beaches and Roonagh Lough itself but nothing special doing.






The first half of Sunday was a wash out so took a trip out to Rahasane Turlough in the afternoon. Aonghus had a Pectoral Sandpiper here on Friday, the first autumn Yank wader in the county. Water levels which were worryingly high up until only last weekend have dropped dramatically. All the action was as usual up at the East/Craughwell end. A flock of 50 Black-tailed Godwits were the same that I had the previous weekend at the opposite end of the turlough as they contained the same juvenile colour ringed bird along with a new colour ringed adult, the juvenile Spotted Redshank and the juvenile Ruff.


Juvenile colour ringed Black-tailed Godwit

Juvenile Spotted Redshank in the there somewhere, I swear.

I also came across these two Garganey. Obviously a first year and adult bird. I reckon the young bird could be a male due to the equal width white bars bordering the speculum. Don't think these are broad enough for an adult male, while the forewing colour isn't strong or bright enough either. Great shot here showing from left to right eclipse adult male, (adult?) female, first year male and eclipse adult male.
 
First-year male and adult female Garganey.
  

First year male and adult female Garganey.
  
First year male Garganey