local birding

Been slogging Galley on a pretty much daily basis as time allows but apart from a brief richard's pipit and my 3rd Galley yellow-browed warbler of the autumn at Shite Lane last weekend, its been pretty quiet of late.

Did manage to catch up with some just off-patch rares this week though, in the form of a juvenile american golden plover

That's it asleep at the back, honest!

and a juvenile spoonbill at Muckross this pm. Which was nice.

Old spoons yesterday

Local twitching

With Galley really not being very good lately, despite regular checking for bee-eaters and orioles and the like, its fortunate that some good stuff has been turning up close by.

Out of the blue a couple of nights ago news broke of a fine drake blue-winged teal at the Cul-de-Sac pool, near Clonakilty. Wowzers. An Irish tick no less. And it was too - took me about 10 mins to get there and we had it skulking in the reeds round the back going to roost - Excellent! Nearly got an amazeballs phone-scoped shot of it, but my phone spazzed out at the crucial minute so here's a snap of a coaster that we have in the house that has been goading me for years - on my list at last tho!

OML ya bas!

And I even managed to pick out the male green-winged teal new in at nearby Clogheen Marsh on the way home, before it got totally dark. Marvellous.

And then more twitchy fun in the form of a black-winged stilt at White's Marsh yesterday (still there today). Which was nice...

Hopefully it'll behave like the last one & relocate to Kilkeran Lake, thus securing me a much needed patch breakback on almost everyone!

Lady Elvis

Having spent several of my formative years birding the north-east coast of Scotland, I got fairly blase about seeing Elvis, the resplendant male king eider that spent most summers loafing about on the Ythan Estuary & getting jiggy with all those females. It was always a great bird to see, but you'd usually end up bumping into it several times in a year.

Fast forward er a few years and its a different story. Up till today, I'd seen one king eider in Ireland - a male at Lady's Island in August 2008. So, I've been quite tempted by the female thats been loitering around on the Beara peninsula the last few weeks. This afternoon everything fell into place - finished work and Beara was kind of on the way home - give it a lash!

And lashing it was! And the wind was getting up too. Still, I struggled across a field or two and scanned the bay at Cahermore. After a while I noticed a duck. Through the scope I could see it was the queen eider swimming into the bay. A  bit of repositioning and the views were good, although it wasn't long before she turned around and started swimming out of the bay again. Still, I'd had a good look and it was still raining! Four (count 'em!) glaucous gulls were duly counted and I saddled up for home, as conditions deteriorated further.

Queenie herself (Photo: C Cronin)

A grand day out for a Cork tick! Sadly it was too wet to attempt any dodgyscoping, so here's a snap taken the following day by Old Spoons.

christmas globby

News of a glossy ibis only 10 minutes from the in-laws this afternoon was a welcome distraction from the kids and the lego! Didn't have long tho cos had to be back in time to watch Superman The Movie with the kids - tv heaven!

adhering to rule #162

As Wanstead Birder puts it "Always go and see shrikes". So when news of a woodchat shrike at Ross came in, I did. And it was nice! As was the male blue-headed wagail in the same field! Self-perpetuating hot-spot! Who'd have thought?



Certainly put the measily whitethroat I had on patch this morning in the shade (90)!

off-patch pec

Not a lot doing at Galley today although 3 tufted ducks on the lake yesterday and 1 coot there today show there's still a bit of movement going on. News of a pectoral sandpiper at White's Marsh dragged me over there for great views, (and a bad photo). Good to see another one, its been a while!

Another record shot!

here be dragons...

Still no birds on patch so here's a pic of a male keeled skimmer that I took in Kerry last week. The seawatching will be starting very soon, with any luck!

ivory gull - baltimore

A welcome phone call late morning about a 1st w ivory gull flying around Baltimore harbour was followed by excellent views of it a short while later. What a cracking bird! I've only seen one other, in Fraserburgh in October 1997, so its been a while! Keep up the good work, Julian!

Photo: C Cronin

Back on the patch, the white gull theme continued with a 1st w iceland gull on the lake for a while early afternoon. Happy days!