Murlach Cattle Egret

A few more random shots from the past Autumn including Galways only second record of Cattle Egret. The bird was picked up by David Rees on 30th September down by Murlach. It hung around for at least two weeks.
A few shots of some of the returning Icelandic colour ringed Oystercatchers which will very shortly be heading back North. Also a young Peregrine which was unsusually perched on telephone wires.

Cattle Egret, Murlach, 30th September 2018.

Cattle Egret, Murlach, 30th September 2018.

Juvenile Peregrine, Murlach, 13th October 2018.

OO-W(PA) colour ringed Oystercatcher, Bunlough Strand, Co. Mayo, 14th September 2018.

OO-W(PA) colour ringed Oystercatcher, Bunlough Strand, Co. Mayo, 14th September 2018. Ring already damaged on one side, only ringed in May 2017.

RL-W(AA) colour ringed Oystercatcher, Inner Mannin Bay, 10th August 2018.

Streamstown Hooded Merganser

The big bird news from Connemara this Autumn was the male Hooded Merganser that I found in Streamstown Bay just north of Clifden town on 25th September. I count this site each month during the winter for the Irish Wetland Bird Survey. It never has much in the line species diversity or quantity of individuals. It can have a nice collection of Greenshank numbering close to 20 birds but otherwise isn't a particularly outstanding hotspot. In ten years I think the best bird I've had here was a Curlew Sandpiper. To say I was a bit surprised to see a male Hooded Merganser swimming around in the tidal creek in the middle bay at low tide on Tuesday 25th September was an understatement! The light as per usual was very poor but I couldn't see anything obvious on a brief glimpse of the legs when it climbed up on a muddy bank. I couldn't be 100% sure if it was ringed or not but it looked good at the time. It also had pristine wings and was capable of flight. This is a species that is plagued with doubt when a potential vagrant turns up on this side of the Atlantic. They are a popular species in captivity and colour ringed birds have turned up in Ireland before which would strongly cast doubt of the origins of said birds. A pair of Hooded Mergansers that turned up on Tory Island, Co. Donegal in May 2015 were accepted as being of wild origin. A few Scottish birds in recent years have also been accepted as wild. I released news and decided to let people make up their own minds if they wanted to come over to see it. The Streamstown bird remained on site until the 6th October allowing many birders to come and see the bird. Obviously the bird spent most of its time swimming in the water which made checking the legs rather difficult. A few days later Tom Tarpey and Kieran Grace were able to independently confirm that it appeared to have a metal ring on the right leg. This was the first time that there was good light allowing anyone to fully check out the legs. Metal rings are extremely hard to see at a distance in overcast conditions but flash and shine nicely when they catch good light, especially if it's a new ring. Some could and are making the point that the fact that it has a metal ring doesn't necessarily discount the bird as being wild as small numbers are ringed within their native range in North America each year. Personally I think the possibility of being a captive bird cannot not be fully ruled out so it won't be featuring on my personal Irish list and I couldn't blame the IRBC for not accepting it as a wild bird either. A female type Hooded Merganser turned up in Spain during October which was sporting an orange ring on the left leg and another male was seen in Scotland but it didn't appear to be ringed. Regardless it was a nice bit of excitement in what was generally a very quiet September here. It seemed to fare very well for itself in the brackish waters of the inner section of Streamstown Bay and feed almost exclusively on small flatfish presumable Flounder. Also nice to join up with a much larger Red-breasted Merganser on one occasion.

Male Hooded Merganser.

Male Hooded Merganser.

Male Hooded Merganser.

Male Hooded Merganser.

Male Hooded Merganser.

Male Hooded Merganser.

Male Hooded Merganser.

American Golden Plover, Truska, 6th October 2018

I picked up my second adult American Golden Plover of 2018 back on 6th October at a favourite AGP spot - Truska on the Slyne Head peninsula. This area has proved to be the best site in the county for this vagrant with this being the ninth record. Saying that though this is the first record since 2014. They seem to have gotten a little bit more irregular like all American wader species in recent years. Disturbance has been an issue like all of these coastal sites due to increased tourist numbers largely thanks to the whole Atlantic Way tourist trail that was started in recent years. Surfers and golfers are also sources of disturbance and Golden Plover are now largely missing form these sites until the tourist season is over which is now generally in October. The tourist season used to finish in very early September but I've now noticed the season starts earlier and finishes later in the year now due to the increased tourist numbers. Like all human activity this has an effect on the natural world and rarely if ever is it a positive effect in my experience.

I think this is a different individual that I found up on Omey Island Strand a few weeks previous to this bird. https://dermotbreen.blogspot.com/2018/11/american-golden-plover-omey-strand.html

American Golden Plover and Eurasian Golden Plover with Surfers & Campers on machair in background.

Adult moulting American Golden Plover.

Adult moulting American Golden Plover.

Adult moulting American Golden Plover.

Adult moulting American Golden Plover.

Adult moulting American Golden Plover.

Juvenile Eurasian Golden Plover.

Eurasian Golden Plover.

Moulting adult Eurasian Golden Plover.

American Golden Plover and Eurasian Golden Plovers.

American Golden Plover and Eurasian Golden Plovers.

Cyprus 4th & 5th September 2019

Last full day and a bit in Cyprus. I had an early flight back home on the 5th but I had enough time to check Oroklini Lake first thing in the morning. No sign of the Terek Sandpiper. Less water and even less waders. I had an impressive list of 23 species of waders though during the trip which I wasn't quite expecting.
I had another look at Larnaca Sewage Works on the 4th. A few nice additions there.
https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S48284606

I ended up recording 116 species for the trip. It's a spot that would worth my time doing a Spring trip at some stage to experience Spring migration in full swing along with the possibility of a few lifers such as Cyprus Scops Owl, Caspian Plover and Ruppells Warbler. Full trip list below.

Garganey

Northern Shoveler

Mallard

Eurasian Teal

Ferruginous Duck

Chukar Partridge

Black Francolin

Greater Flamingo

Little Grebe

Great Crested Grebe

Rock Dove

Common Wood Pigeon

European Turtle Dove

Eurasian Collared Dove

Laughing Dove

Common Swift

Pallid Swift

Water Rail

Common Moorhen

Eurasian Coot

Little Crake

Demoiselle Crane

Black-winged Stilt

Spur-winged Lapwing

Greater Sand Plover

Kentish Plover

Common Ringed Plover

Little Ringed Plover

Whimbrel

Ruddy Turnstone

Ruff

Curlew Sandpiper

Temminck's Stint

Sanderling

Dunlin

Little Stint

Common Snipe

Terek Sandpiper

Common Sandpiper

Green Sandpiper

Common Greenshank

Marsh Sandpiper

Wood Sandpiper

Common Redshank

Collared Pratincole

Slender-billed Gull

Black-headed Gull

Yellow-legged Gull

Lesser Black-backed Gull

Gull-billed Tern

White-winged Tern

Whiskered Tern

Great Cormorant

Grey Heron

Little/Dimorphic Egret

Western Cattle Egret

Black-crowned Night Heron

Glossy Ibis

Griffon Vulture

Bonelli's Eagle

Western Marsh Harrier

Pallid Harrier

Northern Goshawk

Long-legged Buzzard

Eurasian Hoopoe

Common Kingfisher

European Bee-eater

European Roller

Common Kestrel

Eleonora's Falcon

Peregrine Falcon

Red-backed Shrike

Lesser Grey Shrike

Masked Shrike

Woodchat Shrike

Eurasian Jay

Eurasian Magpie

Western Jackdaw

Hooded Crow

Crested Lark

Sand Martin

Barn Swallow

Red-rumped Swallow

Common House Martin

Coal Tit

Great Tit

Short-toed Treecreeper

Eurasian Wren

Cetti's Warbler

Willow Warbler

Eastern Olivaceous Warbler

Eurasian Reed Warbler

Great Reed Warbler

Zitting Cisticola

Eurasian Blackcap

Lesser Whitethroat

Cyprus Warbler

Sardinian Warbler

Spectacled Warbler

Spotted Flycatcher

Blue Rock Thrush

Whinchat

Northern Wheatear

Cyprus Wheatear

Isabelline Wheatear

Common Blackbird

Western Yellow Wagtail

Tree Pipit

Red-throated Pipit

Common Chaffinch

European Greenfinch

European Goldfinch

Corn Bunting

Ortolan Bunting

Cretzschmar's Bunting

House Sparrow

Eurasian Teal, Garganey, Sanderling,

Garganey

Juvenile Sanderling

Juvenile Sanderling

Adult Baltic Gull with juvenile Yellow-legged Gull.

Adult Baltic Gull

Adult Baltic Gull

Adult Baltic Gull

Third-calender Yellow-legged Gull

Cyprus 3rd September 2018

I headed over to Paphos Headland which is one of the more famous sites in Cyprus. It proved to be one of those famous sites that was a massive let down for me I'm afraid. The site is an extensive and very rich archaeological site and worth a visit for that reason alone. I had great difficulty finding the actual entrance to the site however as there were no signs whatsoever for the place. The entrance building looked like a toilet block and was completely incognito with the one sign saying what it was perfectly hidden by green scaffolding netting. I ended up walking around the entire 4km length of boundary fence trying to enter the site only to come back to where I originally started! When I finally managed to accidentally stumble across the entrance and pay the entrance fee  the staff inside were particularly obnoxious and apathetic. There were a few interpretive panels with bird information but these were in behind locked gates at the lighthouse, kind of defeats the whole reasoning for putting them up in the first place. Combined with the absent of migrants the place definitely left a very bad impression on me! The best birds were actually picked up outside of the site along the coast when I was trying to get into the place which in the form of a small group of Greater Sand Plovers. These were a new addition for my Western Palearctic list. The other new WP additions from the trip included Spur-winged Plover and Marsh Sandpiper.
I headed inland from here and checked Kannaviou Dam, Evretou Dam, Pikni Forest, etc. and apart from a Bonelli's Eagle, Long-legged Buzzards and a Masked Shrike there wasn't much of note. I saw about three of the latter during the entire trip but all were either seen as I was driving or were very brief.

Greater Sand Plover

Greater Sand Plover

Greater Sand Plover

Greater Sand Plover

Greater Sand Plover

Kingfisher and Whimbrel

Whimbrel

Long-legged Buzzard

Long-legged Buzzard

Cyprus Wheatear

Northern Wheatear

The covert entrace to the Paphos Archaeological Park.