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
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November 14, 2005
Allow me to be Frank
Whilst house hunting on friday night i came across a gorgeous barn owl in carrigaline. It was a good omen!
I found a new place to live!
And the next morning myself and harry made our way to galway and saw the 1st year franklins gull!!!
Oh yes!
Then galway city itself produced an adult laughing gull at waterside. Giving stunning views.
we moved on to Ballyvaughan were there were several Black throated divers on show providing a welcome year tick!
On sunday i had a 1st year little gull at kilkeran lake and an unidentified hirundine at castlefreke...Doh...my spidersense was tingling bigtime on that one!!
Pariah
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My (outdated) website
November 07, 2005
Siblings have uses.
Siblings...occaisionally...very occasionally...do have worthwile benefits!
On saturday myself and H.H. went gulling, prompted by the massive influx of haha gulls and franklins gulls into britain.
It was a dismal day with little other than 20 or so Med gulls...at 3.30 pm my brother rang me.
The beast: "can you spell white billed diver?"
Me: .......what?you are jokin?
The beast: no.Ive just found one off skerries.
Me: you Jammy £*&K.You dirty B&£("%*....ok gimme the details.
Myself, Andre, Ciaran and Harry left Cork at 3am and were on site for first light.
After looking at a few great northerns i picked the bird up flying in from about 1 mile out. As the bird came in i could start to see detail on the bill and sure enough it was a fabulous summer plumaged white billed diver!
After some dissention in the ranks as to wether i was correct in my identification of the bird, the light improved and the bird just got better and better.
We left after an hour and went to the north bull island to tick blue winged teal. The bird was found very quickly bt Andre and gave great views.
It was really more attractive than i had expected of this species and plumage and i was most impressed.
A great day all in all.
Nice one bro!
Owen
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November 01, 2005
Chim chimeny
On saturday evening we received news from DF that he had found 2 chimney swifts on sherkin island but they had been harried off by a sparrowhawk.
The next morning HH and myself were in baltimore in the hopes of relocating the birds.
No more than 2 seconds out of the car then one flew by us and proceeded to give incredible views for the remainder of the day!
A second was found elsewhere in baltimore and another in clonakilty by other birders.
We stopped in clonakilty and i got a brief view of this bird.
Lter that evening we had juvenile turtle dove at Knockadoon and a flyover unidentified marsh tern
On monday we headed down to baltimore in the hopes of getting across to cape clear for the Yellow Rumped warbler found there sunday.
We amanaged to charter a boat but the bird was not to be seen despite having been there earlier in the morning.
The grey cheeked thrush (found thursday)gave incredible views for the entire day however and was a real treat to watch.
A ist winter grey phalarope was also present in the south harbour viewing down to a few feet and was the first i had ever seen up close...almost as good as a tick!!
Pariah
Worth while links
Carmo Police
My (outdated) website