A few random shots from the last month or so.
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| Common Guillemot, Puffin and Black Guillemots, High Island. There are no breeding records of Puffin for county Galway. |
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| Puffin, High Island. |
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| Mother and calf Harbour Porpoise, Inishbofin. |
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| Second adult Harbour Porpoise that was associating with the mother and calf above. |
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| Some of the 1,200 Manx Shearwaters gathered off Inishbofin on the evening of 1st July. Many were calling. They breed on the sea stack called Dún na hIníne off the NE corner of the island. I think the numbers of breeding birds here have been severely under-estimated. |
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| Bilberry, also called fraochán in Ireland and very similar to Blueberries. Only now found in areas with no grazing e.g. islands as they seem to be very sensitive to grazing pressure. They are quite rare now in Connemara unfortunately. |
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| Close-up of a Bilberry, nice little snack while out looking for Merlin in late June. |
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| Common Sandpiper |
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| Common Sandpiper |
Re. the nos. of Manx Shearwaters rafting off Inishbofin in the month of July in relation to breeding nos.. I used to frequent Skokholm with some regularity (1975- 1985) and I do remember that July was the month that non-breeders (< 3 years old) would come up from the South Atlantic and visit breeding colonies (often, but not always natal colonies) playing havoc with census work and leading to overestimations. One of the main tasks at this time (before ringing was halted in '77) was re-ringing birds whose rings had been corroded by the warm tropical water and risked returning to Skokholm to breed as adults with an illegible or lost ring. Modern rings are much better.
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