October 02, 2006
Yank wader bonanza hits cork proper
On Friday evening I caught up with the summer black necked grebe at ballycotton (first for the site in 30 years apparently).
On Saturday I had a lazy start, and left quite late in the morning for the Old Head of Kinsale. Checked the beach first. A single curlew sand here.
A quick check of the various gardens produced very little. Not even a phylosc.
I then caught sight of a flock of starlings on the far side of the head.
I could see a pale starling in with them, but couldn’t make out the bill.
Wary of a possible leucistic starling, I hopped back in the car and drove around hastily.
The flock had moved from the wires, into some fields at the center of the head. As I was walking into the fields to get to them I heard a "tlu-ee" call from behind me. AGP!! (American Golden Plover for the non birdy types)
I looked around and caught him flying by me, in off the sea. He continued to call as he flew over and on inland towards the pier. Fantastic bird.
The fourth individual i have found.
A massive down pour saw me running back to the car, and I then drove back down to the beach in the hopes of finding the plover on it. But it was still too manky out, so I dashed into the blue harbor bar for a bowl of soup and a pint whilst I waited it out....for an hour!
A massive flock of starlings was by this bar, and I couldn’t look through them all.
When the rain eased off I went back to the beach. No joy here. Just the same flock of smalls.
The pier didn’t fare much better, no sign of the plover at all.
As I was putting my scope away, I suddenly heard a funny noise.
Was that a bird call? Or the sound of the leg of my scope grating into position?
"Spizzzz"
Tree pipit!! The bird flew up out of the caravan park. And headed off in the direction of the beach.
I tried to refind it here, and on the pitch and putt course, but it had probably dropped into a field somewhere.
I chased starling flocks around for another while, but they were not helpful, and I never managed to look through them all.
I then heard that some sniping git had found a juv long billed dowitcher on my patch at loughbeg!damn.
So I drove back home in the hopes of seeing it on the rising tide.
No joy Saturday evening however.
On Sunday morning I picked up young shop at the ferry and we went down to see the dow. It was giving itself up in the reserve, but constantly being harried out of the marsh by a sparrowhawk. When looking for it on the outer estuary from the causeway I suddenly spotted the lesser yellowlegs (or a lesser yellowlegs) in with the shanks.
2 yanks together on my patch. Class!
Long Billed Dowitcher (juvenile) - Owen Foley
Long Billed Dowitcher (Juvenile) - Owen Foley
Long Billed Dowitcher (Juvenile) - Owen Foley
Long Billed Dowitcher (Juvenile) - Owen Foley
Long Billed Dowitcher (juvenile) - Owen Foley
Long Billed Dowitcher (Juvenile) - Owen Foley
(I will have to do some investigating this evening however, just to make sure that there are not 2 individuals concerned as the other one may still be on the carrigaline estuary.
However it’s more likely that these 2 estuaries are linked and that the high tide roost for both is at loughbeg.)
We moved on down west to toe head to get shop a tick in the form of hoopoe.
The bird was giving itself up along the loop, allowing us to approach to within 10 feet in the car. At one point we wanted to just move on and look for stuff, but he would just constantly fly in front of the car. In the end another vehicle came in the opposite direction and flushed him around us and back onto the loop.
Hoopoe - Sean Ronayne
Hoopoe - Sean Ronayne
We then moved on to rosscarberry, a Ring billed gull and a few meds were the best here.
Ring Billed Gull - Owen Foley
Ring Billed Gull - Owen Foley
On to clonakilty, and we hit clogheen first. I parked the car by the wall, and hopped out to have a gawk in with my bins.
In amongst the lapwing I spotted this gangly looking wader, silhouetted against the sun. As it moved into an area of shade I could see it looked very clean white below...hmmm. I set up my scope knowing what I would find....ANOTHER LESSER YELLOWLEGS!
How good can things get?;)
We watched this bird on the mudflat with several little stints for about 30 mins and set off for home.
Excellent weekend for finds.
Excellent weekend full stop.
Sin é
Pariah
Worth while links
Irish County yearlists page 2006