Dermot Breen's Blog: dotterel

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Thursday, 24 September 2015

Dotterel update

I returned to Slyne Head yesterday to find the two Dotterel again present in the usual spot along with a few European Golden Plover nearby (no American Goldies quite yet). I headed off to retrieve the trail camera which I had put out in the marsh a few nights previously. I put it out to see if anything interesting would show up on it, who knows maybe a crake species or Solitary Sandpiper? Not surprisingly it didn't quite pan out like this but it was nice to pick up a Water Rail and a few Snipe. After checking a few other spots I returned to have another look at the Dotterel. On the way I inadvertently flushed two Pectoral Sandpipers from a very small pool in the car ruts near the surfers beach. I then noticed that there was a Peregrine sitting further along the car ruts. It flew off and as it did so it appeared to be carrying a largish bird, it couldn't be, could it? A quick search failed to find either Dotterel. I followed the Peregrine but before I could get close a farmer herding cattle flushed it. When I reached the spot at which it had been feeding I discovered a few feathers and even a lower and upper mandible. It was one of the Dotterel. I must say I was disappointed that one of these great little characters had been taken but then again this is the sort of danger that Dotterel like every other species in nature faces every day. There's been no sign of the remaining bird since and it has probably wisely moved on. It's been relatively quiet in the gardens on Slyne Head. The best have been a Pied Flycatcher, Spotted Flycatcher and a male Blackcap in the Trident/Ballyconneely Holiday Homes garden. The first two have been present there for over a week now.

Dotterel scapular feathers.

Assorted Dotterel feathers including primaries and secondaries.

Dotterel bill

One of the Slyne Head gardens, this site hasn't been farmed in years which has resulted in a dense carpet of Dwarf/Western Gorse.

Pied Flycatcher

Male Blackcap doing his Black-and-White Warbler impression!

Woodpigeon

Snipe

Water Rail

Monday, 21 September 2015

Dotterel 18/9/2015 Part 2

This is the second of the two juvenile Dotterel I had at Truska last Friday. The video below is actually of the first individual. I returned today and while both were again present it didn't end up well, more to come in another post...

Second Dotterel from Dermot Breen on Vimeo.

Sunday, 20 September 2015

Dotterel 19/9/2015 Part 1

I found two nice juvenile Dotterels down at Truska last Friday. They were without doubt the tamest Dotterel I've ever encountered. Most Dotterel that I've found associate with Golden Plover which makes approach often difficult. Some have given good views but these two were something else, often showing down to four metres. After a "trip" of up to eight adults only this Spring in the same area, this makes it TEN Dotterel in just one year. As I think I've mentioned previously this has to be the number one site in the country for this species in recent years. These two now make it seventeen birds from the Truska/Aillebrack area (five juveniles and twelve adults). Amazingly there is only one previous accepted county record from Inishbofin, June 1992. There's also an unsubmitted winter record from Rahasane Turlough. I've included a poor quality video of one of the birds here as you can just about hear the birds soft contact calls at the beginning of the video. They were usually quite relaxed but surprisingly the one thing that did seem to spook them were over flying and vocal Chough for some reason. All the shots in this post relate to one of the juveniles which was darker and more colourful of the two. I'll make another post on the other juvenile in a day or two and upload a higher quality video.

I'm fully expecting to find an American Golden Plover down at Truska/Aillebrack shortly enough as there have been a few found on the west coast in recent days. Apart from AGP's the American wader season has been hugely disappointing. So far in September there have been zero records of any regular vagrants such as White-rumped, Baird's, Semipalmated Sandpiper, Lesser Yellowlegs or Long-billed Dowitcher. There has been a single Buff-breasted Sandpiper which is simply crazy! We should really be in peak mode at the moment for a lot of these species. We all thought it couldn't be as bad as 2014 for waders but there you go! I suppose we are all still a little spoiled with the crazy year that was 2011. Thankfully the reappearance of the Hudsonian Godwit on Inishmore during the week certainly livened things up. I'm assuming this must be the same individual that I had in July. The bird has significantly progressed in it's moult making comparison very difficult. The simple fact two different individuals would show up within 35km and two months of each other for the first time ever with less than ten Western Palearctic records would be highly suspect. I never made it out myself as I got caught up with manual handling training and trying to trap a family party of Pine Martens. The godwit proved to be highly unreliable in it's appearance and several high Irish listers missed the bird having made two different trips out to Inishmore along with dipping the bird in July. Well done to the Punkbirders for picking it up on Tuesday and giving a lot of Irish twitchers as second chance.

Juvenile Dotterel from Dermot Breen on Vimeo.

Friday, 24 April 2015

Dotterel 23.4.2015

I was lucky enough to come across a "trip" of four Dotterel down by Aillebrack yesterday. The Slyne Head area has proved to be a relatively regular spot for the species in the last five years or so. It's probably has had the most records for one site in Ireland during that time. I've added all the Dotterel records for county Galway below;

• One, Inishbofin, 1st June 1992 (K.P.Collins).
• Male, Aillebrack, Slyne Head, 23rd to 26th April 2010, photographed (D.Breen et al.).
• Juvenile, Aillebrack, Slyne Head, 10th October 2010, photographed (D.Breen).
• Juvenile, Truska, Slyne Head, 22nd to 29th September 2011, photographed (D.Breen et al.).
• Juvenile, Aillebrack, Slyne Head, 24th to 30th October 2011, photographed (D.Breen et al.).
• Three, Aillebrack, Slyne Head, 26th April to 4th May 2012, photographed (A.Ó’Dónaill et al.).

It's interesting to note that I found my first Dotterel at the same site on the very same date in 2010. They have a reputation for turning up at the same traditional sites at the same time most years. I'm sure many more go unnoticed on other machair commonages, fields and mountain tops each year.

These birds were hanging around with seven European Golden Plovers. These are presumed Arctic breeding birds as the local Connemara birds have been on their territories for well over a month now.