Work In Progress

Arrived in County Donegal yesterday after a pretty hairy landing in high winds at Derry Airport. I'm not the best flyer in the world anyway, so I was mightily relieved to be back on terra firma. Not much happened after that apart from my Dad's garden bird feeding session which consisted of marauding hoards of Chaffinch, Blue Tit, Great Tit and a Pheasant. There was also a Sparrowhawk over and we found some Fieldfare flocks in the fields near his cottage.

This morning we borrowed Dad's car and firstly headed off to the new bird hide we'd heard about at Inch Lake on Lough Swilly. Along the way we saw several Hooded Crows, a year tick and a very welcome sight after a few years. A field near our destination held about 20 Whooper Swans (Lifer), lots of Greylag and scanning of the further goose flocks revealed small numbers of Greenland White Fronted Geese (year tick). Stonechat, Meadow Pipit, Goldcrest, Bullfinch and Reed Bunting were some of the birds keeping us entertained on our walk to the hide.

When we got to the hide we found the area covered by it was very vast and it was quite overwhelming. Also our time here was limited so we contented ourselves by focusing on the nearer birds....found a little gem here - a redhead Smew! She was with the Goldeneye, there were also Teal, Wigeon, Little Grebe, GBBG and lots of other birds which were too far away to see.

Next we headed for Inch Island. This is connected to the mainland by a small causeway. We weren't exactly sure where to go here so we drove round stopping off at various spots which looked like they might have some potential. Sightings around the island included Fieldfare, Common Gull, Brent Goose, Redhank, Bar Tailed Godwit, Knot and Oystercatcher.

Next stop Fahan Harbour. Highlights here (and these were good highlights) we had a GN Diver preening, continuing the great run of divers we've had of late. We then noticed some small brown jobs on the rocks....they were pipits. Powers of deduction and of course great birding expertise (hmm) helped us ID them as Rock Pipits (Lifer). For handy comparision a Meadow Pipit was considerate enough to land right behind the Rock Pipit in my scope, making the difference obvious to see. That Pipit deserves a pint of Guiness :)

Tommorrow we're off to Killybegs to look at some gulls....lots of Iceland and Glaucous Gulls seen there lately, also a Kumliens Gull (not quite sure exactly what that is - its not in Collins). Will then spend the rest of the day either round Donegal Bay or take the Trip to Gleveigh National Park (home of the Golden Eagle Reintroduction project).