March 06, 2006
Believe in the Force Ya Bas
The force is back ladies and gentlemen! Oh Yes.
On saturday i went up towards mallow hoping to see corks first tundra Bean goose (rossicus).
Stopping off at mallow sugar lagoons on the way i was delighted to find a stunning male Ring necked duck on the deep pools. This bird gave cracking views for a good hour.
Then i moved on to Kilcoman reserve, a fantastic marsh hidden away from prying eyes.
I managed to relocate the Tundra (it had not been seen since thursday) in a field not too far away from the reserve entrance and watched this bird for a good hour (although the bird didnt give great views) and a half before moving into the reserve hide itself.
I had barely set up my scope when i found myself looking at a gorgeous male Black Duck! This bird was fairly close and gave excellent views...except that it didn't show its speculum or underwing that evening.
It seemed i had to come back the next day to clinch the ID....
I took young Sean Ronayne up with me the next morning.
3 minutes into the hide on sunday morning and the bird preened, showing the speculum and then flapped showing the underwing...typical...but it was worth it...It was a classic drake Black duck...A real tank of a bird!
If you were hungry there would be good eating on that bird.
We then watched the bean goose again for about half an hour and then onto mallow sugar lagoons so Sean could tick RN duck.
I then drove on to cobh, figuring that we could check the dump and cuskinny before i dropped Sean home.
The dump was barren of gulls...but cuskinny...
I parked on the pier and saw that there were a good few gulls on the small beach there.
I scanned through them with my bins, first seeing a ring billed gull, and then noticing a small dumpy looking gull at the far end of the beach...it looked as if it had pink legs and small dark bill.Uh Oh.
I put the scope on it and sure enough it was an amazing looking adult Bonapartes gull!
Another tick for Sean and another finders tick for me!
The birds were spooked quickly after this and all the gulls fecked off.
But luckily DOS managed to relocate it on the marsh in the evening for his cork year list!
Best weekend birding this winter in cork for me!
Many Thanks to Paul Moore and Sean Ronayne for their shots of these birds.
Pariah
Worth while links
Irish County yearlists page 2006
Carmo Police
My (outdated) website