July 02, 2005
Losing the head at galley head!
Seawatching!!!YES!!!My favorite thing in the whole wide world...well....after THAT!......Arrived at Galley at 7.35 am...just in time to see a fea's petrel fly out of view!!A truly awesome bird, my closest view of this species and my third encounter with this most enigmatic and delightful seabird.
Fea's petrel is perhaps the most desired bird in the irish birding scene.I dont know wether its the constant imagery used by the IRBC and other publications, or the fact that so many have been recorded by just a few observers but it has become a sort of quest for irish birders to get the mega that is Feas.
This bird was so close we could see its eye and the white markings on the black underwing. With its characteristic bent flimsy wing look as it went around the corner. The first bird i put my scope on that seawatch, it felt like i had twitched the species which was a very strange feeling. For the rest of the seawatch i was in a state of disbelief.God knows how Colin felt, he found the bird after all!
Cory's Shearwaters were streaming by in their thousands!With a scattering of greats and sooties mixed in with them!A few bonxies and arctic skuas. I found two adult sabines gulls and a pomarine skua, both scarce off the south coast!The only bird i missed was the leaches petrel that went by...but ill see them off the bridges later in the year!
At lunch time went back to clonakilty to get a bite to eat...but i skipped lunch after finding a 1st summer laughing gull beside the red benches....i seem to be lucky at that spot...after seeing it fly i realised that it was a different bird to the cork city laugher, having a full tailband, lighter coloured head with brown lores.and a strong carpal bar on the wings.
What were the odds?
went back to galley for the evenings seawatch were we got great views of corys and great shearwaters in the evening again.
All in all a fantastic day, showing galley to still be a seawatching spot par excellence!!
Its days like that when you say to hell with the bridges and its constant barrage of salt water spray and the smell of urine!Galley is still the best!
;)
Pariah
http://pariah.redbrick.dcu.ie
