Dermot Breen's Blog: greater scaup

Showing posts with label greater scaup. Show all posts

Friday, 10 April 2020

Winter birding early 2020.

Thought I'd give South America a break for the time being just to post a few pictures from the past few months. Yet another poor winter for gulls again. Since I came back from my month away my best bird in the subsequent three months has probably been the first-winter/second-calendar Ring-billed Gull that I found feeding in fields adjacent to Lough Fahy on Omey Island. They are still extremely rare out here in Connemara. A handful have been seen at Rossaveel and I've only had two here myself since 2008, both at Ross Beach which may have even involved the same adult which might have returned. They continue to decline in at the former stronghold of Nimmo's Pier. There was just one sighting of one in all of February with none recorded in all of March or April. There used to be a small increase in numbers in Spring associated with the northward movement of Common and Black-headed Gull back to the big breeding colonies on the great western Irish lough and even maybe up to Scotland. I managed to see a grand total of one Glaucous, three Iceland (all at Ross Beach) and one Little Gull in Galway this winter!

Around the same time of the Omey Ring-bill, there was a male Ring-necked Duck on Lough Fahy. Not often you get two Aerican vagrants here during the winter months. This may well be the same the same Ring-neck that I had on a smaller adjacent lough on the island back in September/October. I got my best shots ever of the species then which I must upload here at some stage. This was the first Ring-necked Duck I've ever seen out this way which is a little odd considering they're not even considered a rarity in Ireland now.

Also on the wildfowl front Barnacle Geese have started to utilize a mainland site in county Galway for the first time in living memory this winter at Rinvyle Point. They are regularly found on most of the offshore island around Connemara. The last national aerial survey recorded 1,948 birds across seven different sites in Galway alone. The total Irish population then was 16.237 birds. Maybe I might have an opportunity to pick up the first Cackling Goose for Galway finally.

Adult Glaucous Gull, Aillebrack, 14th January 2020.

Second-calendar Iceland Gull, Ross Beach, 20th February 2020.

Second-calendar Ring-billed Gull, Omey Island, 20th February 2020.

Second-calendar Ring-billed Gull, Omey Island, 27th January 2020.

Barnacle Geese, Rinvyle Point, 24th February 2020.

Greater Scaup and Ring-necked Duck, Omey Island, 27th January 2019.

Greater Scaup, Omey Island, 27th January 2019.

Ring-necked Duck, Omey Island, 27th January 2019.

Leucistic female Eurasian Wigeon, near Moylough, 23rd February 2020.

Woodcock, Connemara National Park, 6th March 2020.

Twite, Rossadillask, 20th February 2020.

Common Dolphin, Sky Road, Clifden, 20th February 2020.

Common Dolphin, Sellerna Beach, 4th February 2020.

Common Dolphin, Aillebrack, 14th February 2020.

Wind blown sand over machair on Omey Island.

Tuesday, 24 March 2015

California 13th February 2015

So I was to be in my own company for the next week. This is how I usually bird for the majority of my time out birding anyway. As much as I enjoyed the tour and the participant's company I have to say it was a bit of a release not to be on other peoples timetable and trying to round up tour members into the van which was like trying to herd cats at times ;-) As I've mentioned before my aim for this week was to spend a bit more time by the coast and concentrate on some target species. I would also have a lot more time to spend on photography and found the quality of my shots increased during my solo week.

I had flown into San Francisco the previous evening and was out at the Lucy Evans Baylands Centre first thing in the morning. This is right by San Francisco Bay and the saltmarshes here are supposed to be a favourite spot for Ridgway's, Virginia and even Black Rails (rarely seen). The boardwalk across the saltmarsh beyond the Interpretive Centre was closed when I arrived as it looked like it was falling apart. So that was that plan for rails out the window! However the area around here was still excellent. I was amazed at how common Golden-crowned Sparrows were here and just about everywhere else during the week in Northern California. During the first two weeks we had only seen the species once up in the San Jacinto Mountains. There was a decent amount of duck about also. I really wanted to get acquainted with Canvasback on this trip. We had already seen numerous Canvasbacks on the trip already but I had some really nice close views of them at this site. Some of the birds seemed to digging around in the mud at the bottom of lagoons for food as a few came up with their foreheads covered in black mud. A few male Greater Scaup were also giving great views on the Duck Pond as well. Interesting wingbar pattern on one bird which flapped while I was there.

From here then I left the "Bay area" and headed west up into the hills which stand between the bay area and the Pacific coastline. I hadn't planned on stopping here but as I was making good time I dropped into Purisima Creek Redwoods Open Space Preserve. Some nice large redwoods here which was a habitat that I hadn't yet visited. I had been hoping to add new species such as California Quail (surprisingly missed it on the tour), Pacific Wren, Band-tailed Pigeon and Townsend's Warbler. Although I didn't get any of these here (got all later in the week) I managed one tick in the form of Chestnut-backed Chickadee, which proved to be common during the week. There were a few ther good birds here as back-up like a showy Wrentit, Pygmy Nuthatch, lots of Steller's Jays and Hutton's Vireo.

I hit the Pacific coastline next and headed south until I got to Pescadero State Beach. This proved to be a productive spot for me. My main reason for visiting here was the presence of male Harlequin Duck. It's an area of rocky shoreline and with a minute of setting up the scope I had ticked Surfbird and Black Oystercatcher along with the bonus of seeing more Black Turnstones. Following a tip-off from another birder on site I picked up the male Harlequin beyond the breakers. Harlequin's are far from common in this area of California so it was a good one to see. Most of the stuff was just too distant for photography unfortunately.

I continued south stopping off at Lake Lucerne which is just off the Cabrillo Highway. There wasn't a huge amount of birds on the lake although there were about 50 Mew Gulls washing in the freshwater, the biggest gathering of Mews that I had seen yet. They proceeded to fly overhead as they made their way back out to the coast which gave a good opportunity for photos. It was good to get an idea of the variation in the wing patterns of several individuals. Surprisingly of the 50 or so birds present there was only one second-winter and no first-winters at all.

The final stop of the day was Pigeon Point Lighthouse. This is know as a seawatching spot with the right conditions and I was hoping for possibly a few auklets and/or murrelets offshore. The conditions while I was there weren't obviously up to much as it was very quiet. Some nice views of Bottle-nosed Dolphins passing close by the point though. I spent the night in Santa Cruz.