Belclare Todd's Canada Goose

I visited Belclare Turlough on Sunday to try and finally see the Canada Goose that Eamon Delaney found here earlier in the winter with the Greenland White-fronted Goose flock. This was my fourth time visiting the site to try and catch up with this Canada. On the last two visits there was no sign of the goose flock at all. Like most turloughs in east Galway, Belclare has been without much water at all. This winter has been one of the driest that I can remember.

Thankfully I picked up the bird with the GWFs in the usual fields immediately to the west of the turlough, just below the Primary School. It looked good for an interior Todd's Canada Goose to me. It certainly was slightly larger that the adjacent flavirostris but didn't particularly dwarf them. It was also proportional longer bodied but not necessarily as comparatively as heavy. The neck was very giraffe-like especially when alert. It also had a good broad throat strap.

Unfortunately after 30 minutes the flock became increasingly stressed by an extremely noisy passing convoy of rally drivers and their minion boy racers in supped up cars, some of which regularly backfired mimicking gunfire. The flock took to the air and circled the site several times and looked like they were keen to return to the same fields to resume feeding. Not unsurprisingly the constant barrage of noise eventually drove the birds away from the site and were last seen flying high and to the west.

Black Reds & GWF's

A selection of different species from the last fortnight or so. I had two Black Redstarts on the roofs of the Trident Ballyconneely Holiday Homes on Monday. These are actually the first "Black Reds" I've seen at Slyne Head. The last record for Slyne comes from 1893! The species has always been relatively scarce compared to the south of Ireland and even adjacent county Clare. While like many scarce species, records have increased during the last decade or so, they are still years where none are recorded at all.

I was delighted to see a flock of 23 Greenland White-fronted Geese flying into Mannin Bay near Ballyconneely on 27th October. They were flying east just offshore presumably after following the coastline south. When I last saw them they were heading into Roundstone Bog but I doubt they stopped. Sad to say that these were the very first "GWFs" I've seen in my ranger area since I started in 2008. Historically there were several different flocks in what is my area (west of Maam Cross). Roundstone Bog held one of the last remaining flocks up until around the late 1990's. All gone now. There is (was?) only one flock numbering in the single figures left in Connemara which I've written about previously http://dermotbreen.blogspot.ie/2014/03/the-very-last-greenland-white-fronted.html I suspect this flock may have been heading onto Rahasane Turlough. I had a flock of 15 birds there on 24th October and this had increased to exactly 50 birds on 1st November. Nice to see around three pairs with juveniles although there were 60 there last winter. The results from 2014/2015 International Census of Greenland White-fronted Geese was only just recently published. The long-term future of Greenland race of White-fronted Geese doesn't appear all that great in contrast to most geese species.The full report can be seen at the link below and I've pasted the summary here.

The global population of Greenland White-fronted Geese in spring 2015 comprised 18,854 individuals, a very sharp 9.6% reduction on 20,797 in the previous spring. This is the first time the population has fallen below 20,000 individuals since 1985. Half of the decline could be accounted for by the loss of 1000 geese on Islay between years, and another 500 from elsewhere in Britain; 10,266 were counted in Ireland, 8,588 were counted in Britain. Reproductive success was very low at only 6.1% in Ireland, but 12.9% in Britain.

 http://gwfg-conservation.wikispaces.com/file/view/Greenland%20White-fronted%20Geese%20in%20Britain%20%26%20Ireland%202014-15.pdf/564727409/Greenland%20White-fronted%20Geese%20in%20Britain%20%26%20Ireland%202014-15.pdf

Yellow-browed Warbler, Slyne Head.

1st win male Black Redstart, Slyne Head.

1st win/ad female Black Redstart, Slyne Head.

Reed Bunting, Slyne Head

 

Reed Bunting, Slyne Head

Icelandic Redwing, Slyne Head.

Greenland White-fronted Geese, Mannin Bay.

Greenland White-fronted Geese, Mannin Bay.

Greenland White-fronted Geese, Mannin Bay.

 

Greenland White-fronted Geese, Rahasane Turlough.

Great White Egret, Rahasane Turlough.

 

The very last Greenland White-fronted Geese of Connemara?

We came across these two Greenland White-fronted Geese about a fortnight back south of Maam Cross in amongst three Whooper Swans feeding out on open blanket bog. The species has rapidly declined here in this part of Ireland. The following is taken for Mayor Ruttledge's Birds in Counties Galway and Mayo "In April 1989 a synchronised ground and air census of the Connemara bogs located seven flocks of White-fronts, totalling 134 - 137 birds." Even at that stage the number had drastically crashed. It's quite sad to see all of these distinct flocks which used extensive areas of blanket bogs go by the wayside over the last few decades. They were often referred to as the "Bog Geese" by local people. Feral Greylags have now established themselves in some of the former Connemara haunts of the GWFs. Aonghus who covers this area which has had the last remaining flock, has seen their numbers dwindle with each passing year. He only had seven GWFs earlier in the winter and this pair most likely came from that same flock. We were saying that I should get some record shots of them as there may not be another opportunity after leave in April for Greenland...

 

Random late winter pics

A few shots from the last fortnight or so. Highlight of today was undoubtably coming across the pair of White-tailed Eagles. Great to see that the female has survived the winter. She hadn't been seen in a few months but no doubt was probably in the area all along. We knew the male - Star was still about thanks to his satellite transmitter but even he was proving difficult to see in the field. We know that Star at least has now been resident here for about a year now with the female present around a similar period.

Female four year old White-tailed Eagle, undisclosed site.

Greenland White-fronted Geese, lower Lough Corrib.

Greenland White-fronted Geese, lower Lough Corrib.

Pair of Shelduck, Kilcaimin.

Male Eurasian Wigeon, Nimmo's Pier.

Male Eurasian Wigeon, Nimmo's Pier.

European Shag, Ballyconneely.

American Coot with Eurasian Teal, Murlach.

Grey Heron, Ballyconneely.

Eurasian Oystercatcher with mussel, Nimmo's Pier.

Eurasian Oystercatcher, Nimmo's Pier.

Dunlin, Nimmo's Pier.

Redshank, Nimm's Pier.

Bar-tailed Godwit, Nimmo's Pier.

Lough Mask colour-ringed Black-headed Gulls, Nimmo's Pier.

German colour-ringed Mediterranean Gull, Ballyconneely.

Ring-billed Gull, Nimmo's Pier.

Ring-billed Gull, Nimmo's Pier.

Winter plumaged Sandwich Tern, Nimmo's Pier, 3rd March 2013.

Winter and summer plumaged Sandwich Terns, Nimmo's Pier, 3rd March 2013.

Sandwich Terns, Nimmo's Pier, 3rd March 2013.