The Bridges

 So it was the 1st weekend of westerly winds and Seawatching season takes off.

I made it down early friday morning at 7:30 ,the visabilty was poor and the wind was still SSE birds were few but a splash and Dorsal Fin of a large Blue fin Tuna was good by 9am the wind shifted to WSW and the Manx Shearwaters and Sooty Shearwaters were coming past in good numbers. Handfuls of Great Shearwaters were in with a couple of Storm Petrels and a Sabines Gull, then of to work

I missed Saturday , but made a brief apperance on Sunday but passage was generaly slow, a few Bonxie were close in as were a pod of Bottlenose Dolphins

Spring at Loop Head with Dolphins

Surprisingly it was quiet on The Loop for a Sunday morning.

I wandered behind the lighthouse checking for birds.

While watching a Chiffchaff and a Robin along the fence a Lesser Whitethroat flew over my shoulder and into the bracken beside briefly, moving off ,after 20 mins it came back but stayed low and was impossible to get a shot of.

I sat at the tip of Loop enjoying the peace and a calming ocean with a pod of Bottle nose Dolphins for viewing."magical".

A few Wheatear were about as the song of the Skylark, A Peregrine was on a post surveying the Fodry .

A Purple Sandpiper was a Ross bay

Clahane evening -Hightide and flies

The Flies

Redshank covered in flies

 Billions of flies were pushed up onto the sea walls at Clahane ,producing food for a variety of birds on land and in the sea, there must have been an abundance of feeding  fish as well to attract a Bottlenose Dolphin.

Bottlenose Dolphin

A large flock of Herring Gull and Kittiwake had come into the cove for the feeding and  50 Pied Wagtail were along side the road.

Kittiwake

50 Pied Wagtails

 The wading bird and the birds that roost on the shoreline here had lost there place due to the hightide, pushing them up close the road , they searched for roosting areas late into the evening,

Oystercatchers

View to Hags head from Clahane

Theres nothing like an evening at your local patch.