Back when I was still living in New Mexico and shortly after we found out that we would be moving to Ireland, PBS aired a special on the River Shannon in Ireland. The family watched it in order to learn a bit more about the country. The program featured two birds, the Common Kingfisher and Corncrakes. The bit about the Corncrakes was sad. The host mentioned how steep a decline in their numbers had occurred and how hard it was to find them in Ireland today. I was enthralled and really wanted to at least hear one while I was in Ireland. After arriving I found out how thin they were and how hard it was to find them, there's estimated to be only 150 pairs left in all of Ireland.
The best bet was a small island off the north coast of County Donegal: Tory Island. I worked out a weekend that I could get away and spend some time looking for them. I booked a room at the island's lone hotel and looked up the ferry schedule. I was up very early on a Saturday morning to make the four-hour drive to the port. I made it in plenty of time to make the boat and headed for the island on a very bumpy crossing.
Approach to Tory Island
Tory Island is small, only 5 km long and 1 km wide and shaped sort of like a bowtie with the main harbor right in the middle. There are two towns, West Town and East Town and a hundred-odd residents. There's even a King of Tory Island, who greets everyone as they leave the ferry and seems to arrange the evening Craic. I met some birders from Dublin on the ride over. They were twitching a pair of Hooded Mergansers that had been seen on the Island for the last few days. A common bird for me in New Mexico, but a rare vagrant to Europe. Being the local 'expert' on Hooded Mergansers, I told them that I would catch up after I had dropped my bag at the hotel. As we parted ways I could already hear Corncrakes calling from behind some houses.
After checking in at the hotel I headed off towards the pond where the Mergansers were seen. I was hearing Corncrakes everywhere, on both sides of the road from various clumps of stinging nettle, their favorite hiding place. I stopped where I heard one calling really close to the road, and then another one across the road behind me. I slowly turned around and scanned a thick clump of nettles that were growing around a low wall. And before I knew it a Corncrake had jumped up onto the wall and called away.
Corncrake - Tory Island, Co. Donegal
It dove back down for a second, and then reappeared a bit further down the wall and strutted along without a care in the world.
Corncrake - Tory Island, Co. Donegal
Corncrake - Tory Island, Co. Donegal
Corncrake - Tory Island, Co. Donegal
I watched it long enough to take even more photos and even a video of the bird calling.
I couldn't believe it. The Corncrake was my Grail-bird for Ireland. I was just hoping to hear it and maybe get a scope view of it, and here was one less than 5 meters away putting on quite the show.
I reluctantly moved on to try and help the lads ID the Mergansers. I found the birders near the island's South Pond scanning the various ducks on the water. The majority were Tufted Ducks with a few Mallards and a pair of Mute Swans mixed in. But they had already spotted the pair of Mergansers making frequent dives throughout the pond.
Hooded Merganser (male) - Tory Island, Co. Donegal
Hooded Mergansers (F-left, M-right) - Tory Island, Co Donegal
We were watching the mergansers from a spot surrounded by nesting Ringed Plovers, Oystercatchers and Northern Lapwings; who were not very happy with us getting so close to their eggs and chicks.
Ringed Plover - Tory Island, Co. Donegal
As we were watching the Mergansers diving and feeding, a squall moved in and I had to put my camera away. I spent the rest of the time with the Dublin lads looking for more Corncrakes before they left on the afternoon Ferry. As we were listening to one Corncrake, we heard a Starling doing it's best impression of a Corncrake calling from a nearby roof. I guess it was missing out on all of the attention. I would return to the hotel wet and took a little nap before dinner while it continued to rain throughout the evening
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I woke early Sunday morning with the intention of exploring the east half of the island where some seabirds nested on high cliffs. I was also looking for some Redpolls and Tree Sparrows, both of which would be lifer ticks for me. An odd facet of the island is that birds who are common throughout Ireland are not found on Tory Island. There are no Robins, Blackbirds, Jackdaws, Rooks, Chaffinches, Magpies, or any type of Tit. And only 1 or 2 of the Sparrows are House Sparrows, the majority of Tree Sparrows. And the number of trees on the island could be counted on fingers and toes.
I was walking towards the East side of the island and scanning the various gulls flying over. I watched a Peregrine Falcon soaring around the north end of the island. I then noticed some large, dark gull-looking birds flying over. I did a double take when I recognized them as four Great Skuas. If you can embiggen this photo, you can see the white patches near the wing-tips.
Great Skuas - Tory Island, Co. Donegal
I kept on towards the East of the Island looking for sparrows. I came upon an older pier and saw a raft of Black Guillemots out in the bay. Something made them fly off towards the pier where they may have nests.
Black Guillemots - Tory Island, Co. Donegal
I made my way through an anti-sheep fence towards the top of the cliffs and was again hounded by nervous Ringed Plover and Oystercatcher parents. I finally reached edge and looked down to an amazing sight, a huge hole under the headlands.
Tory Island - Co. Donegal, Ireland
I noticed some some Common Murre and Razorbills huddling on some of the rocks, and a raft of 30 or so Atlantic Puffins down on the water.
Atlantic Puffins - Tory Island, Co. Donegal
I also noticed a Herring Gull feeding on a dead sea star.
Herring Gull - Tory Island, Co. Donegal
I turned around and made my way back towards the towns. I staked out one of the few trees on the Island in the hopes of seeing Redpolls. Instead I watched some Barn Swallows flying around.
Barn Swallow - Tory Island, Co. Donegal
And finally some Tree Sparrows. A half-dozen were flying around from the lone tree to various houses along the lane where I was standing.
Tree Sparrow - Tory Island, Co. Donegal
I wanted to visit the south pond again before breakfast to make sure the Hooded Mergansers were still there. I stopped by the harbor on my way to see what was there. There were many gulls about, Great Black-Backed, Lesser Black-Backed, Black-Headed, Herring and Common (Mew). A few small waders were present too.
Common Ringed Plover - Tory Island, Co. Donegal
Ruddy Turnstone - Tory Island, Co. Donegal
Dunlin* - Tory Island, Co. Donegal
(*I miss Identified the bird above as a Grey Plover, it was a Dunlin the entire time.)
Retracing my steps from the previous day, I again heard Corncrake calling from all around West Town. I stopped to scan a patch of nettle where some calls were coming from and I finally managed to see it.
Corncrake - Tory Island, Co. Donegal
Unfortunately, the Mergansers were no longer at the South Pond. I ran into another birder who was also out looking for them and told him that I hadn't seen them on the Eastern half of the Island either. It looked as if they had finally moved on. I would run into a group of birders getting onto the ferry as I was getting off who were heading over to Tory to try and see them and told them the potentially bad news.
Before going back to the hotel for breakfast (after being out for over 3 hours already) I looked into the harbor again and saw a Common Loon (Great Northern Diver) swimming close to the pier.
Common Loon - Tory Island, Co. Donegal
After some delicious scones and much needed coffee at the hotel restaurant I grabbed my things and headed for the ferry. The sea was the roughest that I've ever seen and the ride back was amazing. The boat rocked in every direction and I got covered in spray a few times. But in between the more intense moments I got to see some Northern Gannets, Puffins, Razorbills, Fulmars and Manx Shearwaters (another lifer for me) flying about.
Approaching Ferry - Tory Island, Co Donegal
If you are interested in visiting Tory, you can find the ferry schedule at Tory Island Ferry's website. And I stayed at the Tory Island Harbor View Hotel, but there is a hostel and a number of B&Bs on the island too. You can also find loads more photos of Tory Island on my Flickr page.
Hopefully the Corncrake numbers can recover and future generations can enjoy them like I did. Maybe even without a boat ride.
My family took a week-long trip to Bavaria in Germany during my daughter's spring break. We went over the week after Easter looking to spend a few days in Munich and a few more in the Alps. Birding wasn't a goal of the trip, but I did bring my binoculars and got a few chances to see some birds. I had a couple of species that I really wanted to see, but I would only end up seeing one.
I was surprised at the density of birds present. We took secondary roads from the airport to our hotel (thanks to whomever had the car before us and had "avoid highways" checked deep in the car's SATNAV settings). I saw a Kite, a Falcon and some Buzzards in just a short amount of time. Once we were set in the hotel, we decided to get some lunch at the Hofbraukeller, which was within walking distance to where we were staying. As we were sitting outside enjoying liters of delicious beer and fantastic pretzels, while our kids were playing in the most convenient playground ever, I heard some drumming coming from the nearby park. I looked around and saw a Woodpecker high up looking for some food.
Great Spotted Woodpecker - Munich Germany
I was floored, I had seen 2 in Ireland, but they were both quick, fly-over looks. After our lunch we explored the wooded park that adjoined the biergarten and saw some Chaffinches and even some Eurasian Jays at someone's feeder.
Our 3rd day in Munich we stopped by Nymphenburg Palace. The scale of the palace was amazing, but the grounds were also impressive. Mute Swans, Greylag and even Barnacle Geese were everywhere. I was hoping to see Short-Toed Treecreepers or Eurasian Nuthatches there. I did see some Treecreepers, but they flew off before I could determine which type they were. But I did get to see a Nuthatch, and had really wonderful looks at it too.
Eurasian Nuthatch - Munich Germany
Eurasian Nuthatch - Munich Germany
What a great looking bird, maybe my favorite looking one. My first "ice cream bird" of the trip and one that I wished would live in Ireland.
Our next stop after Munich were the German Alps. I got to see some nice birds near our hotel in Oberammergau, but nothing that I got good photographs of. I added Siskin and Common Redstart as ticks. We also visited the beautiful Castle Neuschwanstein, which was about an hour from where we were staying.
It was quite busy but I still manged to see some birds and even get some more lifer ticks. There was a beautiful lake there, the Alpensee which had some Great-Crested Grebes swimming on it.
Great-Crested Grebe - Bavaria, Germany
I would also see a Eurasian Nutcracker while we were riding a horse-drawn wagon to Castle Neuschwanstein and some Alpine Swifts flying around the towers of the castle. But no Wallcreepers like I had hoped. We were also supposed to take a tram to the top of the Zugspitze (Germany's tallest peak), but we spent way too much time at Neuschwanstein to do anything else but drive back to our hotel for dinner.
We had a really late flight home to Ireland from Germany, so we decided to spend another day in Munich. We had planned on visiting the BMW Museum, but it happened to be closed on the day that we were there. So we explored the nearby Olympiapark instead. The buildings from the Olympics, 40 years ago, were really impressive. There were lots of trails and paths, but it was a bit colder than we were expecting. So we decided to take a road-train tour of the park. As we were touring along I saw an odd duck swimming from the window of our car. It was a Garganey, and a beautiful male in breeding plumage. I really wanted a photo, so after the tour was over, on the far side of the park from the duck, I jumped out and ran back to where I saw it leaving my wife and kids to jump on some giant trampolines.
Garganey - Munich Olympiapark, Germany
There were quite a number of nice birds in the area, and we had a few hours before our flight. So I went into photography mode for an hour or so.
Great Spotted Woodpecker - Munich Olympiapark, Germany
Greylag Gosling - Munich Olympiapark, Germany
Mute Swans at nest - Munich Olympiapark, Germany
And another scarce bird in Ireland that was just hanging out in a public park.
Common Merganser/Goosander - Munich Olympiaprk, Germany
Germany was a great trip. The food and beer were wonderful, the roads were a pleasure to drive on. People were friendly and I only saw a fraction of the birds that were there. I would really like to go back and visit some day. Maybe when my kids are much older, or even with just my wife and I.
I just wanted to share a photo from a trip to Wexford. We reached the South Slobs just as the Sun was rising and one of the first birds that we saw was this Hen (Northern) Harrier cruising around.
January was fairly busy. I still don't get out as much as I'd like, but such is life. I started off the month by participating in the County Dublin Bird Race, basically a big day competition within Dublin County. It was a really long day, but fun. I got to meet some new people, but didn't take any photos. Part of that was due to the weather, lots of rain, and just being in a hurry. But out first bird of the day ID'd was a Peregrine Falcon and our last bird was a Lesser Yellowlegs.
One of the birds that we had looked for during the race, but dipped on, was a Black Redstart. They are rare visitors to Ireland, but tend to show up each Winter along the East Coast. I returned to Dun Laoghaire the following week with my son to see if we could see one, and sure enough, there it was on the rocky beach.
Black Redstart - Co. Dublin, Ireland
We also got to see lots of Ruddy Turnstones and Shags, as well as the usual mix of gulls. But it was really cold and windy, so we didn't spend too much time on the pier. But I did spot some Mediterranean Gulls, some getting their spring duds already.
Mediterranean Gull - Co. Dublin, Ireland
While out driving in Co. Kildare one day I spotted a large bird in the middle of a field. I stopped and went back to see what it was. I pulled off and saw a male Ring-Necked Pheasant standing out in the pasture, but by the time I got my camera out, it had flown. I was disappointed, until I saw why. A Buzzard had flown into the trees next to the field.
Common Buzzard - Co. Kildare, Ireland
On another morning I took my son out to Castletown House in nearby Celbridge. I was hoping to see some Fieldfares and Redwings, but I didn't see much beyond the usual Robins, Blackbirds and Song Thrushes. But a Mute Swan decided to be photogenic for me.
My friend Brian Carruthers invited me out to the National Botanic Gardens in Dublin one Sunday morning. I had not been there yet, and was eager to check it out. I got there to see a really nice cafe and lots of land. Much more than Pittsburgh's Botanical Gardens. Brian had some birds that he wanted to photograph and I just wanted to be out for a walk. We were walking around the Tolka River when I spotted a White-Breasted Dipper on the far bank, a very nice surprise.
White-Throated Dipper - Co. Dublin, Ireland
And we would see another one just downstream a bit. Brian and I may have seen them fly into a nest, but didn't exactly see where they went, or where they shortly reappeared from. As I was looking at some ivy, Brian gestured me over and pointed to a hedgerow. There was a Goldcrest flittering in and out of the leaves and had not a care in the world that we were just a few feet way watching it.
Goldcrest - Co. Dublin, Ireland
I can't say how happy I am at this photo. Those guys do not like to stand still at all. One of the target birds that Brian wanted to see was a Treecreeper. We did end up seeing one, but it flew off before we could get any photos. The other interesting thing that we saw was a bumblebee out in some really cold weather, it was probably 2°C out, but here was a large, black bee visiting some flowers.
Bumblebee - Co. Dublin, Ireland
After we left the gardens Brian took me to an urban pond that was once a water source for Guinness. There were quite a few birds there, including some exotics kept as... "pets"? A Smew, a Hooded Merganser and a White-Cheeked Pintail, all of which had clipped wings, so I wasn't too interested in seeing them. But I got a decent shot of a pair of Tufted Ducks.
Tufted Ducks - Co. Dublin, Ireland
Brian and I went our separate ways and I decided to stop by Phoenix Park on my way home. The Sun was out and it wasn't too cold. I was told that some Wood Ducks could be found at a certain pond, and it would be nice to see my favorite North American duck again. But there were none to be seen. But there were a few Mandarin Ducks about. I'm not sure what their status is, but I know that they breed over in England. Regardless, a really nice duck to look at.
Mandarin Ducks - Co. Dublin, Ireland
I had been seeing reports of Eiders off of the coast of Skerries, in Co. Fingal. I had tried to see them on New Year's Eve, but they weren't there then. Once again I met Brian along the harbor and we went looking for sea ducks. There were many Gulls and Great Cormorants off shore, and lots of Ruddy Turnstones closer in. We walked along the coast for a bit when Brian saw some white birds fairly far out. We weren't sure if they were Eiders or Long-Tails at first, but we finally got a good enough look to confirm Eiders. They were very far out and the Sun was in a bad spot for photos, so we decided to walk down the beach for a bit and try to get a better angle on them. Lucky for us they got even closer in to shore.
Common Eiders - Co. Fingal, Ireland
They shortly flew off and out of sight. As we were walking along a large flock of Sanderlings flew by us and landed on the beach. They were near some Curlews who weren't too happy to be near one another.
Curlews and Sanderlings - Co. Fingal, Ireland
Just some odds and ends that I've seen recently.
Robin - Co. Kildare, Ireland
Long-Tailed Tit - Co. Kildare, Ireland
Coal Tit - Co. Kildare, Ireland
Jackdaws - Maynooth Castle, Co. Kildare, Ireland
I've noticed that I don't have photos of a Great Tit, and the ones that I have of Coal and Long-Tailed are lousy, so I'm going to go out and try to get those sorted out. I'm also going to try and do the Co. Wicklow Bird Race next weekend and hopefully see some Crossbills and Great-Spotted Woodpeckers. Plus I really want to travel down to Co. Wexford and the Nature Reserve down there before the wintering birds leave.
I'm also going on a trip to Eastern Europe in June which I'm really looking forward too. Hopefully I can get some nice camera gear to take along, but I fear that I'll be stuck with the current camera until we're back stateside in 2016.
I'm looking at performing a facelift on the site soon, so the next time you visit you may be in for a surprise.
It's the time of the year when some lists go back to zero, January 1st. According to Ebird I ended 2014 with 352 species seen on 2 continents. I got to see some really great birds during the year, and can't really pick a best bird for the year. I did have a great end to the year by getting a chance to do some birding with two of the Irish birders that I got to meet so far. I've been really busy lately with the holidays, a quick trip to Paris, having both kids home from school and lousy weather, to do much birding. But my friend Brian asked me if I wanted to go look for a Ruddy Duck that had been seen in various parts of North Dublin.
We met at a petrol station or some coffee and ventured to a private fishing lake (angling club) in Knock. The gate was closed, but a short stroll through some fields brought us to the larger of 2 ponds and we quickly found the Ruddy Duck among some Mallards, Tufted Ducks and Eurasian Coots.
Ruddy Duck - Knock Lake, Co. Fingal, Ireland
Our friend Paul Lynch met us at the pond. We also go to see a Kingfisher and had a Water Rail fly right in front us and into some reeds, not more than 10 feet away from us. And then we got to hear another one calling just a bit further away along a the bank of a smaller pond. We made our way back through the fields where we got to see some Yellowhammers and Sky Larks feeding in a field of stubble.
Paul mentioned that there were some Eider Ducks seen nearby at Skerries. I had yet to see some so I suggested that we head that way and see if they were still around. We made it to the coast and scanned the sea around the nearby Skerries Islands but no Eiders could be seen. We saw a Common Murre and many Shags moving about offshore, but no ducks.
Irish Coast - Skerries, Co. Fingal, Ireland
I did spot some porpoises swimming just off shore, and we watched their dorsal fins break the surface a dozen times, but nothing else exciting. We stopped in Skerries for some coffees and then made our way further down the coast towards Rush. We noticed lots of gulls, but nothing exciting and some shorebirds along the coast. Redshanks, Ruddy Turnstones, Plovers and some Sanderlings were working the beaches and rocks. We were hoping for some Purple Sandpipers, but none were present.
Ringed Plover - Rush, Co. Fingal, Ireland
Sanderlings and Ruddy Turnstone - Rush, Co. Fingal, Ireland
Paul parted ways with Brian and I at this point since it was starting to get dark. Brian was mentioning a Martello Tower north of us and where to look for Short-Eared Owls near there. I asked how long he could be out and then suggested that we just go over and see try to see them then, since we were 45 minutes from sunset anyway. We made our way there and then walked through more farmer's fields and up the coast trail, stopping to see if a Black Redstart was still around, but it wasn't.
Martello Tower and Irish Coast - Co. Fingal, Ireland
We found a spot in the grass to sit and wait for it to get darker while scanning to the north. It was too dark for spotting scopes or my camera so we just waited with our binoculars. And then I spotted 2 big shapes gliding over the grass. The short faces and wing-shapes could only be owls. I decided to put my camera in video mode and crossed my fingers that I could get some usable footage and I did. Here's the video on Youtube.
My friend Brian had a much nicer camera set-up than me and shared some of his photos, which I'm posting with his permission.
Short-Eared Owl - Co. Fingal, Ireland. Photo Courtesy of Brian Carruthers
Short-Eared Owl - Co. Fingal, Ireland. Photo Courtesy of Brian Carruthers
A very fine way to end the year, if I don't say so myself. The owls were lifers for me and one that I missed seeing in Oregon back in the first half of the year.
