The other godwits

Things have been fairly quiet since the Hudsonian Godwit a month ago. Not that surprising really as we generally don't get many American waders here until the second week of September. There was a juvenile Black-tailed Godwit keeping company with a juvenile Bar-tailed Godwit out on Omey Strand during the week. Black-tailed Godwits are very scarce in Connemara and I'm lucky to see one a year on passage. Only a handful of Bar-tailed Godwits winter here. Despite some record numbers of Ruff in other parts of Ireland this autumn I've yet to see one here in Connemara yet this year. There seem to be good numbers of common waders at the usual spots though which included my first juvenile Sanderling  of the year at Omey on Thursday. I had a colour ringed Sanderling there on 27th July that was originally ringed at Punta Balea, Cangas, Spain on 11th September 2011. It has also been seen on Tiree, Scotland by John Bowler on 6th May 2014 and in Gardskagi, Reykjanes peninsula, Iceland on 8th June 2014. I haven't seen it since. It probably just dropped in briefly on its way back south to its wintering ground which may well be west Africa? Another regular colour ringed Sanderling which spends the winter at Omey Strand has arrived back. It has wintered here every year since August 2011 having been only ringed in Iceland three months earlier.

Juvenile Bar-tailed and Black-tailed Godwit

Juvenile Bar-tailed and Black-tailed Godwit

Juvenile Bar-tailed and Black-tailed Godwit

Juvenile Bar-tailed Godwit

Juvenile Black-tailed Godwit

Juvenile Black-tailed Godwit

Spanish ringed Sanderling

Male Wheatear

Male Wheatear

 

Inishark 7th & 8th May 2015

I camped out on Inishark on Thursday night last. I had been out with a school trip on Inishbofin during the day and after finishing up with them I headed on over to Inishark/Inishshark. I wanted to get a better handle on some of the birdlife of this island which is a both a Special Area of Conservation and a Special Protection Area. My few previous trips to island were always rushed affairs with no time to properly examine breeding birds, so it was great to have the island to myself for 24 hours.
My main focus were the cliff breeding species. I find this survey work to be both hard work but very rewarding. The three Bonxie pairs were again on the island although none had yet laid any eggs. It was nice to see one pair in the middle of displaying which involved the female bowing to and moving around the male with a lot of calling from each bird. A pair of Peregrines breed somewhere on the island and finding this pair was one of my main objectives for the trip. I had the adult male on three occasions including one where it was joined a second calendar male. The latter bird was giving begging calls and there was no aggression from the adult bird. This was probably a juvenile bird from last season. Apparently it's not unknown for adult birds to feed their young a year after hatching even with new young in the nest! Given the extent and height of the cliffs it wasn't possible to confirm breeding on this occasion unfortunately but I have no doubt that the female was sat tight incubating eggs.
Despite wild and unfounded accusations by one regular visiting birder to Inishbofin, Ravens were not present in "unnaturally high" numbers on the island. There is only one pair on the entire island although I would have expected two pairs given the size of the island. Try as I might I just could not see the nest as it was at a spot that wasn't visible although the aggressive reception I got from the adults proved that they had chicks. This is a late enough clutch as most Raven chicks have now left the nest. I managed to find a new pair of Chough on the island also. The female was busy incubating. There was also a second pair breeding on the island but again I just couldn't pin them down.
On the seabird side of things I counted approximately 430 apparent pairs of Fulmars, 93 Guillemots, 41 Kittiwakes, 13 Shag nests and 18 Black Guillemots (latter incomplete count). Great Black-backed Gulls were thinly spread out across the island with single figures of Herring and Lesser Black-backed Gulls breeding on one spot on the west cliffs. I heard a calling Manx Shearwater in the middle of the night and I'm sure that a few pairs breed on the island along with Storm Petrels. Ringed Plovers were the commonest breeding wader by far with probably a few dozen pairs on the island followed by Oystercatchers and a handful of Snipe in the wet spots.
I heard no Corncrakes during my time on the island. There were 2 - 3 pairs here last summer. The nettle bed in which they hide are still very low which may explain their absence so far. We might be able to put some temporary fencing around some of the nettle beds give the Corncrake a better chance next season with the agreement of the landowners.
I flushed a Tree Pipit just below the highest point on the island. It called once or twice but I never saw or heard it again. This is only the third one I've seen in the county (two others on Inishmore). The only other modern county record comes from Inishbofin. Other than a single Willow Warbler and a few Sand Martins and Whimbrels, those were all the migrants I had on the island. The only other breeding land birds seen were Rock Dove, Swallow, Wheatear, Meadow Pipit, Rock Pipit, Pied Wagtail, Stonechat, Skylark, Blackbird, Wren, Hooded Crow and Starling.
While walking around the island I was again amazed at the numbers of fallen livestock on the island. Between ewes and lambs I must have come across 40 dead sheep on the island. It was obvious that some had died while lambing, some had fallen off cliffs (I saw half a dozen live sheep trapped on cliffs and isolated coves) but I would imagine that most succumbed to the harsh winter conditions and lack of care. Sheep are left on the island over the winter in the full knowledge that it will not be possible to land on the island over the winter months due to very dicey landing conditions. You would have to wonder if its ethical to leave stock out in those conditions..

Bonxie with the mainland in the background.

Bonxie

Bonxie

Bonxie and Skylark

Bonxie and Skylark

Bonxie

Hooded Crow sitting on the old church.

 

Distant male Peregrine

 

Common Guillemots and Kittiwakes.

Male Blackbird collecting food, only one pair on the entire island.

Male Wheatear

Migrant Willow Warbler

Dead Barnacle Goose

Dead first-winter Iceland Gull, Inishbofin.

Dead Raven inside one of the abandoned houses.

Turf rack

West end of Inishark looking back East.

 

Inishmore Sept 2014 part 3

A selection of some of the rest of birds I had out on Inishmore last weekend, mostly passerines. A fairly quite trip on the passerine front with only around half a dozen Chiffchaffs, ten Goldcrests, Spotted and Pied Flycatchers seen. I was a little surprised to see a covey of eight Red-legged Partridge on the island. Some shooter or group of shooters obviously has brought the birds out onto the island probably in notion of improving the avifauna of the island. It's about as beneficial to conservation as introducing giraffes onto the island!

Wheatear

Wheatear

Chiffchaff

Goldcrest

Pied Flycatcher

Pied Flycatcher

 

Starling

Red-legged Partridge

Inishbofin 18th April 2014

I got the evening ferry out to Inishbofin on Thursday evening to get a full day out there the following day. The first ferry doesn't arrive out until 12 o'clock and leaves again at 5 so trying to get anything done out there is always done in a rush. I managed to get to most of the spots I had hoped to, it was around an 18km round walk, two sore feet by the end of the day! The sea cliffs are the real attraction for me at this time of year on Inishbofin. Two of the three Raven nests were successful with two and three large chicks respectively. This is a little on the low side as the average clutch size of chicks this year was around four chicks. The female Peregrine was also around but doesn't appear to have laid eggs yet which she really should have by now. The Peregrines here never seem to be very successful for some reason. It certainly can't be the lack of food so it's hard to know why? I also had probably three nesting pairs of Chough around the island, even managed to see part of one of the pairs nest wedged into a crack in a cliff.
There was a Black-throated Diver giving good views with around 20 Great northern Divers off the sandy beach at Westquarter. I  think this is the first proper island record for this species. Anthony McGeehan has seen one from the ferry in the past though. Also in the same area were two female Merlin which were seen interacting with each other. One actually called as it flew over me. These are presumably migrants, possibly Iceland bound? Males which are always first on the breeding grounds (that is if they ever leave) should be on territory for a month at this stage. Quiet on the migrant front 3 Chiffchaffs, 1 Blackcap and a few Wheatears including one female Greenland type.

Fulmar

Fulmar

House Sparrow

House Sparrow

Rock Pipit collecting nest material. Note the pink flush to the throat and the sparse underpart streaking which are features of littoralis Scandinavian Rock Pipit. However it did lack a noticeable whitish supercillium.

Rock Pipit. This shot was taken in the rain so the exposure is a bit off but again note the pink coloration to the breast, bluish tones to the head, sparse underpart streaking and white supercillium. This would probably be called littoralis by some. This bird seemed to be paired up with another much more typical looking petrosus Rock Pipit, so is this natural variation amongst the local population or what??

Skylark

Shag nesting on sea stack.

Sanderling moulting some of the wing feather tracts into summer plumage.

Typical looking local female Wheatear

Female Wheatear, most likely the leucorhoa Greenland race, note the colour tone difference between the two.

Three male Wheatears, probably migrant birds. All three fairly typical looking so probably not heading too far North.

Puffin and Razorbill skulls. The Puffin skull was a little mangled, I think the lower mandible has been twisted upside down. That's the upper mandible of the Puffin on the left which was detached.

Dead adult male Otter. Not sure what happened to this poor fella. Found in an isolated spot so certainly not a road casualty. It didn't appear to be a young animal as it was missing some front incisors and the canines were worn.

Front pad of the Otter.

 

Duach beach, some erosion here same as all sandy beaches on the West coast after the winter storms.

There used to be a lovely stone pier leading out the derelict fish curing station here, not anymore after the storms!

Prísún/The prison, an impressive blow-hole land bridge. The bigger rocks washed up by the sea probably weigh a few tonnes each.

Davillaun

Inishturk