Thank you very much Owen, i'll buy the book of Eric.
Oh...you say ther's not rare waders in august, but reading on the net the Buff-breasted, Dowitcher, A.Golden Plover, Sandpipers (baird's, white rumped, semipalmated) are quite "common" in the second half of august and for us, italian birder, they are very rare
So, ther's not a website with GPS coordinate like holland waarneming??
http://waarneming.nl/index.php
Paolo
Ciao Paolo!
You can also look here for up to the minute Cork bird news. (Irishbirding.com is kind of rubbish!)
http://twitter.com/corkbirdnews
As for american waders. August is generally poor for them, you may get the odd one somewhere, but September sees the real bulk of american wader rarities. Last year I had a pretty good weekend scoring, with Semi palmated sandpiper, Bairds Sandpiper, 2 Buff Breasted sandpipers, Pectoral Sandpiper, Grey phalarope and sabines gull on the weekend of the 30th of August...but that was early and I was very surprised by that showing of birds.
My advice to you would be to base yourself on the bridges of Ross. Here you can expect to see excellent seabirds such as Manx and Sooty shearwaters (easy) , Corys and Great Shearwaters (quite likely), Storm petrel (easy), Sabines gull (quite likely), Arctic, Pomarine and Great skuas. With good odds on seeing rarer species such as wilsons petrel, Long Tailed skua and maybe even Fea's petrel if you are lucky. You will also see Common and Black guillemot, Razorbill and puffin, Kittiwake, Gannet, fulmar, Various terns and gulls etc etc.
As said earlier, north westerly winds with drizzle are the best weater conditions, but its allways worth looking, especially in early morning or evening. Any birds moving can produce rarities. Any kind of westerly wind should have you spending the day there.
From here, if its quiet, you can check out various wader sites nearby, including Doonbeg, poulnasherry bay and even as far back as Shannon airport lagoon. Also, if you wish to try your hand at wader hunting in kerry, the kilrush-kilimer ferry is only a short drive away, and you can be at black rock strand in about an hour, and continue on south to barrow harbour, blennerville and on out the dingle peninsula and its various wader sites.
This whole section of coastline from clare to Dingle etc is scenically spectacular and worth a visit for the views alone.
You can also seawatch from Brandon point if in the area.
Feel free to send me a PM closer to the date of your visit and I will give you more up to date information on whats around. At this time of year I am usually seawatching most weekends, so I may even be able to meet up with you at the Bridges or some other likely seawatching point.
All the Best
Owen
