Peter Phillips
Well-known member
9th June
I had my first visit to Tacumshin during the week when a family holiday brought us to Kelly’s Hotel in Rosslare.
I decided to do a tour of the hotspots and started at Tacumshin at 6.30 in the morning. It was difficult to find and an hour later (should have taken 20 minutes), I found myself at the white hole at the west end. I had checked the web the night before and was delighted to see that a White-winged Black Tern (east end pool) and Turtle Dove (Tomhaggard) had been seen in the area. The wetland looked fantastic and after Grey Heron at the car park the next birds was a calling Water Rail, two singing Reed Warbler (and a female type Marsh Harrier. It was a great start to the day. The west end reed bed was quiet and after getting lost again (checking every Collard Dove along the way) I eventually found the forgotten corner and the high car park over looking the east end pool. It was still early and the pool was very quiet. No sign of the White-winged Black Tern, Forster’s Tern, 2 Marsh Harriers, 2 Little Gulls or any of the 5 Garganey reported. I left after an hour or so a bit disappointed and headed back for breakfast. I had planned to go to Lady’s Island lake and on to Carnsore but decided to give the east end another go. On arrival I bumped into Dick Coombes who had the White-winged black Tern on the sand. After a few minutes the bird moved out over the pool and spend a half an hour or so at a time picking up insects off the blanket weed and would then go back and rest on the sand before continuing the routine for the entire day. We got fantastic views of the bird from the island for the next few hours. Three Garganey eventually swam into view and three Little Gulls where also feeding over the pond and a female type Marsh Harrier started hunting over the reeds. At one time I had all these species plus the White winged black Tern on view through my bins! It felt more like a wetland in southern Europe than Ireland. A fly over 2cy Med Gull and a calling Cuckoo added to scene.
The Forster’s Tern made two brief visits to the pool at about 16.30 and 18.00. As the evening started to close in we were joined by Paul Hillis and Sean Farrell and the White winged Black Tern was soaking up the last of the sun on the sand with up to eight first summer Little Gulls. At this point I had to leave.
I had my first visit to Tacumshin during the week when a family holiday brought us to Kelly’s Hotel in Rosslare.
I decided to do a tour of the hotspots and started at Tacumshin at 6.30 in the morning. It was difficult to find and an hour later (should have taken 20 minutes), I found myself at the white hole at the west end. I had checked the web the night before and was delighted to see that a White-winged Black Tern (east end pool) and Turtle Dove (Tomhaggard) had been seen in the area. The wetland looked fantastic and after Grey Heron at the car park the next birds was a calling Water Rail, two singing Reed Warbler (and a female type Marsh Harrier. It was a great start to the day. The west end reed bed was quiet and after getting lost again (checking every Collard Dove along the way) I eventually found the forgotten corner and the high car park over looking the east end pool. It was still early and the pool was very quiet. No sign of the White-winged Black Tern, Forster’s Tern, 2 Marsh Harriers, 2 Little Gulls or any of the 5 Garganey reported. I left after an hour or so a bit disappointed and headed back for breakfast. I had planned to go to Lady’s Island lake and on to Carnsore but decided to give the east end another go. On arrival I bumped into Dick Coombes who had the White-winged black Tern on the sand. After a few minutes the bird moved out over the pool and spend a half an hour or so at a time picking up insects off the blanket weed and would then go back and rest on the sand before continuing the routine for the entire day. We got fantastic views of the bird from the island for the next few hours. Three Garganey eventually swam into view and three Little Gulls where also feeding over the pond and a female type Marsh Harrier started hunting over the reeds. At one time I had all these species plus the White winged black Tern on view through my bins! It felt more like a wetland in southern Europe than Ireland. A fly over 2cy Med Gull and a calling Cuckoo added to scene.
The Forster’s Tern made two brief visits to the pool at about 16.30 and 18.00. As the evening started to close in we were joined by Paul Hillis and Sean Farrell and the White winged Black Tern was soaking up the last of the sun on the sand with up to eight first summer Little Gulls. At this point I had to leave.
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