November 29, 2005
The Black North is full of Quacks
On Saturday myself and harry went down to ballycotton and saw the first year laughing gull seen there last weekend.
I made my way up to dublin on the train that evening, had a few pints with the ladz and next morning myself, Cas, The Beast and de Da made our way up to downpatrick to see the Barrows goldeneye at Quoile pondage.
The bird gave itself up and gave great views quite close.
A female Ring necked duck was also present here providing a year tick for the other tarts in the car.
We moved on to newcastle where we ticked Mandarin duck...which suprised me with how attractive they were for an escaped feral piece of Gank!
Then we moved on to Market hill near newry and saw the 2 bean geese amongst a flock of whooper swans.
Its been years since i saw a bean goose and i enjoyed these birds immensely.
Then we went to lough acton and year ticked a drake smew which also gave good views.
Then we got the hell out of the black north before all the weirdos turned crazy!
A great day!
Pariah
Worth while links
Carmo Police
My (outdated) website
but the truly genuine Mandarin ducks are spectacular flying in a large flock in off the sea...magical sight... hopefully Stellars Eagle will be in the bag this weekend!!
Posted by: Carmo at November 29, 2005 02:07 PMGank
Posted by: Pariah at November 29, 2005 04:01 PMCan you indicate exactly where the Bean Geese and Whooper Swans were seen? I usually edit an annual report for the County Armagh Wildlife Society which includes a Bird Report and I would be very interested in further details. Are you absolutely sure these were not Greylag Geese, etc? The Bean Goose is I understand very rare in Ireland.
IAN RIPPEY 21.3.2006
Posted by: IAN RIPPEY at March 21, 2006 03:12 PM