LowellMills
Is this your Sanderling?
Just made my first trip from Coleraine, Northern Ireland with the visiting parents and my girlfriend across Lough Foyle to the Inishowen Peninsular, County Donegal, Ireland and the birds were so good I felt the need to post in this section for the first time.
We made the crossing in light rain with broken windscreen wipers lunchtime Friday. A Diver sp. was feeding at the ferry pier on the Northern Ireland side at Magilligan Point. We were on the ferry before ID could be made and I was straight outside in the freeze to scan the sea-lough with my dad. Black Guillemots were about on the water, but the first good omen of the trip on entering Greencastle harbour ten minutes later (now in sunshine) was my first ever Iceland Gull, an adult circling the fishing industrial buildings.
With a Sparrowhawk circling above the road, altitude was next quickly gained to the north of Greencastle overlooking the mouth of the Foyle, where Raven and Peregrine made fleeting appearances plus Gannets and the distant unmistakable calls Red-billed Chough. With wipers fixed but no longer needed, the coastal drive that followed saw Wigeon, a quality Great Northern Diver and Curlew bringing us to a halt, and a deceptively blue-looking Common Buzzard had us all wondering what the hell it was until it flew.
Exploration right up to Malin Head - Ireland's northernmost point - the following day yielded additions of Brent Geese from the North American/Greenland breeding grounds, a visual of two beautiful Chough, Goosander, Ringed Plover, Kestrel, Greenland Barnacle Geese feeding at Malin Head itself and further views of Great Northern Diver.
On the final morning a pair of Mistle Thrush were guarding their territory in the waterfall-washed ravine above the B&B, also alive with Long-tailed Tit, Coal Tit and Goldcrest. A cursory inspection of the tideline on the first of two beachwalks that morning turned up deceased singles of Little Auk and Atlantic Puffin, plus Dunlin flocks and more Brent Geese. On returning to the harbour for hometime, I was very pleased to find the adult Iceland Gull still present, which disappeared only for a first-winter Iceland Gull to come off the sea and land on the same perch. The weather had been kind, and provided one last bout of good light on Razorbills, Black Guillemot and Common Guillemot on the ferry crossing before insanely heavy rain dropped the minute we pulled back into Northern Ireland.
Hopefully a good read to those local and distant. Cheers for looking!
Lowell
We made the crossing in light rain with broken windscreen wipers lunchtime Friday. A Diver sp. was feeding at the ferry pier on the Northern Ireland side at Magilligan Point. We were on the ferry before ID could be made and I was straight outside in the freeze to scan the sea-lough with my dad. Black Guillemots were about on the water, but the first good omen of the trip on entering Greencastle harbour ten minutes later (now in sunshine) was my first ever Iceland Gull, an adult circling the fishing industrial buildings.
With a Sparrowhawk circling above the road, altitude was next quickly gained to the north of Greencastle overlooking the mouth of the Foyle, where Raven and Peregrine made fleeting appearances plus Gannets and the distant unmistakable calls Red-billed Chough. With wipers fixed but no longer needed, the coastal drive that followed saw Wigeon, a quality Great Northern Diver and Curlew bringing us to a halt, and a deceptively blue-looking Common Buzzard had us all wondering what the hell it was until it flew.
Exploration right up to Malin Head - Ireland's northernmost point - the following day yielded additions of Brent Geese from the North American/Greenland breeding grounds, a visual of two beautiful Chough, Goosander, Ringed Plover, Kestrel, Greenland Barnacle Geese feeding at Malin Head itself and further views of Great Northern Diver.
On the final morning a pair of Mistle Thrush were guarding their territory in the waterfall-washed ravine above the B&B, also alive with Long-tailed Tit, Coal Tit and Goldcrest. A cursory inspection of the tideline on the first of two beachwalks that morning turned up deceased singles of Little Auk and Atlantic Puffin, plus Dunlin flocks and more Brent Geese. On returning to the harbour for hometime, I was very pleased to find the adult Iceland Gull still present, which disappeared only for a first-winter Iceland Gull to come off the sea and land on the same perch. The weather had been kind, and provided one last bout of good light on Razorbills, Black Guillemot and Common Guillemot on the ferry crossing before insanely heavy rain dropped the minute we pulled back into Northern Ireland.
Hopefully a good read to those local and distant. Cheers for looking!
Lowell
