Dermot Breen's Blog: Winter birding early 2020.

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.