Dunmore East, Co. Waterford

I made an eight hour round trip down to Dunmore East in Co. Waterford on Sunday with the hope of seeing the first-winter Caspian Gull found by Paul Archer there over a week ago. It hadn't been the easiest of gulls to see by most accounts as it would only drop into the harbour for short periods. John Murphy had seen it on Saturday evening so I decided to take a chance. I spent a few hours at Dunmore East first before heading over to Duncannon beach in Wexford for a short while to check the gulls there. There were a few hundred gulls present but I think there may have been far greater numbers recently present here. Most of the gulls present on the day were Black-headed and Common Gulls with hundreds more feeding offshore mostly on the Wexford side of Waterford Harbour. I headed back again to Dunmore East on the car ferry in the hope that the Caspian Gull would show up again in the evening as it had done in previous days. Unfortunately it didn't quite go to plan as there was no sign of the Caspian but I did finish up the day with two first-winter Glaucous and a second-winter and first-winter Iceland Gull. The last bird threw me for quite a while. I originally called it a Glaucous Gull on brief views. I later saw it in the company of a monster of a Glaucous Gull and noticed the very long primary protection strongly suggesting Iceland but still the entire jizz still pushed me in the Glaucous direction. After a bit of discussion with a few other larophiles here we opted for Iceland Gull .

First-winter Glaucous Gull, bird no.1

First-winter Glaucous Gull, bird no.2

First-winter Glaucous Gull, bird no.2

First-winter Glaucous Gull, bird no.2

First-winter Glaucous Gull, bird no.2

First-winter Iceland Gull

First-winter Iceland and Glaucous Gulls.

Second-winter Iceland Gull

First-winter Kittiwake

First-winter Herring Gull

First-winter Herring Gull

Duncannon gull flock

Razorbill