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.

Black winged Stilt - lough donnell

 A Black winged Stilt was found at Lough Donnell by JNMurf on Wednesday, I was at the location within the hour but did not get to see the Stilt or the Garganey in 4 hours. I left Tormented.

I arrived back at Lough Donnell Thursday morning early. It took a while ,a few Teal to go through , 1st Swallow of spring, a Wheatear and thent the Stilt slowly came to the edge of the reeds where it gave absolutely awful views from opposite side of the Lough.

Lough Donell

Very rareley is Lough Donnel low in water.When this happens it opens up a new wetlands area .

This afternoon I got to see 2 Spotted Redshank,1 Little Stint,3 Ruff ,12 Knot and plenty of more common wading birds.

Ruff

               

The Linnet and the Sand martin

With mid-summer upon us and very little movement with birds a couple of more common birds are busy around Lough Donnell

Flock of Curlew Sandpipers

An unusual flock of Curlew Sandpipers , normally you have to pick a Curlew sand out of a large flock of Dunlin .
Today was the opposite 12 to 5

Little Egret at Lough Donnell

One Little Egret at Lough Donnell , feeding non stop amongst the gulls...

Buff breasted sandpiper ,Lough donell

Buff breasted sandpiper with Dunlin

Ruff

Lough donell on a monday morning containing one Buff breasted sandpiper two Ruff and over 50 Snipe, nice to see a vagrant from the americas early in the season , a hard bird to see ,blends in well with the soroundings ,aggresive towards the Snipe