March 2018

A few random shots from the last month or so. Some shots of various Redwings (including one possible Icelandic candidate) which turned up during the recent "Beast from East" cold weather incident which effectively closed down the entire country for four or five days. We had less than 24 hours of snow in Connemara so it really didn't hit us significantly.

Just back form a ten day trip to Taiwan so expect of plenty of shots from there over the next while.

Irish Hare

Irish Hare

Oystercatchers

Male Pied Wagtail

Male Pied Wagtail

Male Pied Wagtail

Meadow Pipit

Redwing

Redwing

Redwing

Redwing

Redwing

Redwing

Redwing (possible Icelandic bird).

Redwing

Redwing

Inishmore October 2015 Part One

I just spent a week out on Inishmore, 11th to 17th October. The Arctic Warbler was by far the best bird I had during the week. Otherwise it was pretty quiet with about eight to nine Yellow-browed Warblers, 1 Lapland Bunting and long staying and unseen Reed Warbler being about the best of the lot.
While Inishmore has probably become best known for it's American passerines in recent years that possiblity just wasn't going to happen during my week. Ireland has been stuck in a high pressure system for the last while so if it was going to happen it was going to come from the east. I can't exactly complain about a self found Arctic Warbler I suppose! The high pressure resulted in unseasonably good weather. For the first time ever I didn't have a single drop of rain all week. While the wind never reached gale force it did get a little strong towards the end of the week and first time you could really feel the winter chill in the wind.

Yellow-browed Warbler

Yellow-browed Warbler

Yellow-browed Warbler

Yellow-browed Warbler

Chiffchaff

Dunnock

Dunnock

Robin

Robin

Blackbird

Fieldfares

Meadow Pipit

Pied Wagtail

Chough

Adult and young Woodpigeon.

Rock Doves

Goldfinch, one of the 4.4 million of them on the island along with Linnets which were even more numerous!

 

Redpoll



Linnet

Lapland Bunting

 

22nd March 2015

I was out birding last Sunday around Galway city. Before leaving Clifden I had a rather approachable Redwing in the garden. It was actually singing away. Can't recall ever hearing them singing in Ireland before. It was a very quiet song which sounded almost like a distant flock of Starlings. I've noticed lots of Redwings and to a lesser extent Fieldfares on the move over the last week or so, I assume they are now on their way back to Scandinavia. Haven't seen many out here in Connemara this winter. Good numbers of Meadow Pipits moving through also at the moment and back on the bogs already. I've had Golden Plovers on their breeding grounds about three weeks back so Spring is definitely here.

I had a look at Lough Corrib to see if there was much around there. Still a few hundred diving ducks present including a few Greater Scaup but as per usual all were seen at a vast distance so trying to pick anything amongst them was impossible. I could make out the Great White Egret in Muckrush Bay from Angliham. This bird has now been present for a few months at this stage. I later had it in Muckrush Bay. It was easy knowing that I was back in Europe as it proved to be extremely skittish and I just couldn't get near the thing. If this was the States this usually wouldn't be a problem. Plenty of Black-headed Gulls setting up for the breeding season on some of the small islets also.

Waterside was typically quiet but a few Lesser Black-backed Gulls were present which are usually the first migrants that we get on the West coast in the Spring. They are quite scarce up here during the winter unlike the south coast of Ireland. Some of these birds may well have been Icelandic birds passing through. I just had a single first-winter Iceland along with a first-winter and adult summer Ring-billed Gull at Nimmo's Pier afterwards.

Redwing

Great White Egret

First-winter Iceland Gull

Iceland, Ring-billed & Black-headed Gull

First-winter Ring-billed Gull

First-winter Ring-billed Gull

First-winter Ring-billed Gull

First-winter Ring-billed Gull

Meadow Pipit

First-winter Rook

 

Renvyle Shoreline

It's been a while since I've done a blog post. This is mainly down to a) the lack of birds and b) the very rough and continuing bad weather which doesn't exactly help when looking for birds. The gulls have gotten off to a rather disappointing start with very few white-winged gulls around at the moment. Nimmo's Pier is having another quiet winter and most of the other gull spots seem to be holding very low numbers of gulls. Considering the huge numbers that were in Galway Bay in November, you have to wonder where those huge numbers came from and then promptly disappeared into the ether?

I was out by Renvyle yesterday and several common species gave good views along the shoreline beside Renvyle Castle.
I should have plenty of photos for the blog come late February as I'm off to Arizona and California for three weeks in a fortnights time, really looking forward to it. The weather will certainly be an improvement anyway!



Male Stonechat

Male Stonechat

Male Stonechat

Male Stonechat

Male and female Stonechat.

Female Stonechat

Female Stonechat

Female Stonechat

Meadow Pipit



Rock Pipit

Rock Pipit

Second-winter Common Gull

First-winter Herring Gull with the remains of a crab.