Great white Egret - Sandfield Marsh ,Liscannor

Driving along the road the Great white Egret caught my eye on the marsh at Sandfield.

The bird was in cover walking about and I could not get a clear view from the road.

I parked up roadside a few hundred metres down the road with intention to walk down to it and hope for the best but the bird flew upto me and landed 15m away from the car and seemed to not be bothered that I was there .and carried on the search for what looked like Newts

 

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.

Great White Egret at Inchiquin

It was nice to go out in hope of 

finding a Great white Egret on the Loughs and lakes around Corofin and actually find one at the end of lough Inchiquin giving great views of it fishing near the river entry at the other side. I found the patience to attach the phone to scope to obtain some video 

Great White Egret in the Dark

A few weeks back a friend of mine from the Hen Harrier project told me he seen what he thought was a GWE on Lahinch Marsh. The bird eluded me for a few weeks then I saw it near the Links Golf coarse last week and again on Lahinch beach yesterday

Since November 2016 there has been 9 or 10 recorded Great white Egrets in Clare,.

Ballyallia Lake Ennis, Shannon airport Lagoon, Lough Grady, Lough Atedaun Corofin, Doonbeg and now Lahinch Marsh.

Its a special moment when we discovered the bird in the dark at roost with the Little Egrets 

I hope we have a keeper!

 

Great white Egret and Hare at Lough Atedaun

  After finding and viewing  Great white Egret from the opposite side of the lake over in the remote swampy drainage area of Lough Atedaun , and that meant it was going to be a challenge to get anywhere near this bird to get any decent record photos. I sneaked down a few lanes tried a few fields gathered some permission to cross land through a wood and I was in a whole new rather untouched Burren lowland area full of Hare.

Along the Salt marsh

Back in Wales visiting.
A morning drive along Wenffrdd salt marsh gave us Great white Egret. Green Sandpiper, Merlin, Little Egrets and plenty more.
The tide was a mega low and could not even be seen on this flat open Marsh land. Not the place for close photos, but the viewing is always really good.

Great White Egret - Ballyalia lake

I was at Ballyalia lake near Ennis early to see if I could catch up with the Great white Egret that was seen yesterday. It  took me a while, checking the corners etc then I cast a scope out toward the island down lake that the Little Egrets roost on and this white head on long neck appeared in the reeds, found ya, now try to figure out how to go about getting a shot or 2.

Wenffrdd Marsh,...morning 2 & the Great White Egret

On our 2nd morning we  were greeted to the marsh by 5 Little Egret and a Great White Egret.
 With the tide being out Photography was difficult

 

 

Great white Egret

 

 

 

 

Little Egret

Common Gull

 We also saw 2 Ruff,a flock of Golden Plover and plenty of Shelduck and Carrion crow ,Lesser black backed gulls and a not so common Common gull