Common Terns Lough Atedaun

 A pair of Common Tern were hawking the Lily pads and resting on the lake boulders at Lough Atedaun during the afternoon

The water is low and vegetation is high. Hundreds of Mute Swan and Mallard were along the edges on the far side with Curlews and Lapwing

A female Kestrel was chaperoning a youth high above calling, as were Willow Warblers in the hedgerows

Cormorant and a large Wrasse

This Cormorant landed in Clahane with attitude, it caught the eye as I was watching Gulls.

A smalll while later I had to swing the camera onto it as it took on a challenge of a good 2lb Wrasse

 

Two Adult Med Gull -Clahane

 I was delighted to find a stunning adult Mediterranean Gull on the seaweed picking on the Kelp fly explosion. A Med Gull still remains a decent bird to find along the Clare west coast. 

I enjoyed the quite showy bird and moved along the front to an oncoming adult Med Gull , surely 2 adult Meds aint happening, and now I need to turn around go back to the seaweed dump and check and yes another has joined the other ....this one with slightly `oranger` legs.

So this leads me to why and where from? Could be a failed clutch, could it be young have fledged and now its time to wander feed up. 

Yellow crowned Night Heron photo gift

 So your in a dark riverside lane before light , its lightly lit and your trying to watch a super rare Yellow crowned Night Heron as it preys on Crayfish, looking, watching through bins or a scope, there is just no light to shoot a camera

It becomes a waiting game....

 As you follow the bird, you just dont expect it to fly upstream toward you, land then walk around on river rocks that the morning light is shining on through the tree cover in front of your eyes and force you to take off a 1.4 converter as its just to close to full frame..

Yellow crowned Night Heron -Belcarra Mayo Ireland

 SO..A Yellow crowned Night Heron has been found in a creek in a small village of Belcarra.

An American Species thst has crossed the Atlantic Ocean. Awsome

There was all sorts of logistics, reasonability, hurdles to overcome to make it up to Mayo to see this exceptional bird. So myself and my son left home at 2am to be on-site in Belcarra before light, after all it is a Night Heron.

4.15 in the dark with no one atound we walked onto the Riverwalk looking up-stream in the dark when the bird jumped down out of the tree onto a rock in the river only a couple of metres away and proceeded to walk the opposite bank in front of us but really quite hard to see in the dark .It felt kinda cosmic and a unique experience to be in the dark with a Yellow crowned Night Heron, and believe me they are very active in the dark

OMG.

As the light came up we were joined by 2 Dublin birders and a few locals that were showing massive interest and the village overall was impressive..... after a bit the Heron moved down to the river bridge where it stood on a log below for over an hour not doing much and seemed ready to roost for the day.

8:15 we headed for breakfast and we were back on the road home delighted in what we had seen.

More photos 

http://www.alifeattheshoreline.com/2024/05/yellow-crowned-night-heron-photos.html

Greenland Wheatear pushing through at Clahane

 This stand out Greenland type Wheatear has been hanging around the river entry area at corner in Clahane for about a week, and will probably push through with west coast with the last of the |Waders such as Whimbrel , Dunlin and Purple Sandpipers

Grasshopper Warblers incoming

The shrilling wanndering repetant call of the Grasshopper Warbler can be heard in all the right places such as bogs ,Tussock grass fields to low forestry. 

Now is the time to see them as you can hear them before they go quiet and low into the undergrowth.

A couple of photos this week from Dugmore beach, Ballyea forestry and Doonagore bog