Black Redstart - Lahinch

 Happy Xmas to all.

Yesterday I took a morning stroll along Lahinch prom to see if the Black Redstart that was seen the day before was about

I could see just along the rocks and outside the Celtic T shirt shop a few Stonechats, Wagtails and  Rock Pipits were feeding  in a certain area, sure enough the Black Redstart was with them.

A very approachable bird that showed no sense of fear toward me, normally these birds just shy away out of sight and return when your gone, either that being over a dune or wall into other gardens.

Lough Donnell GWE & RTD

 I passed down the coast to Lough Donnell to catch up with the Great White Egret that was found yesterday.

 As I pulled up the GWE was obvious and 4 Little Egret were also here

More to the point the lough is low in water which is a rare thing, when this happens Lough Donnell turns into one of Clares best wetlands to view birds.

Plenty of Wigeon,Teal and Shovelar make up the ducks.100s of Snipe a few Redshank, Greenshank, Oystercatcher and Lapwing made up the waders, dont forget the gulls.

A Red throated Diver wss skulking around the the far side.

The Black throated Divers of North Clare

There were days not long ago where you could see rafts of Black throated Divers along the North Clare coast between Black Head , Coolsiva, the Rhine of Ballyvaughn round to Finvarra. 

. I have to say spring is a better time to see these birds in numbers before they go north to breed and you could have often seen 60-100 birds offshore on a mild glassy day.

Stories from the older lads Id say had even larger numbers, but sadly those days are gone.

Yesterday I found  two BTD a long way out of Coolsiva harbour , same with one way out from Carnsafin.

I had come down to the rocks shelf at Black head to photo some Razorbills when all of a sudden 200 metres out five BTD were passing me heading into Galway bay quite quickly. To distant to photo I fought to get some precious video from the Phonescope.

Question is -  Are there anymore? and what year will produce a zero count.

 

Buzzard and Kestrel in the Burren

 A Buzzard was perched up on the flag posts of Caherconnell fort , dead still, surveying the damp field below itself, its mood reflected the damp weather.

As I came through the Burren toward Ballyvaughan a male Kestrel was on the bends at the Corkscrew hill.