Mediterranean Gull

With the short days and poor weather recently opportunities to get out and take some photos have been fairly limited.  Today (December 22nd) was exception so I got an chance to see if the recent storms had deposited anything new locally in Limerick City.  I picked up a first winter Mediterranean Gull on the pond at Healy's Field in Corbally.  This site attracts small numbers of roosting gulls and on occasions can also have a  a range of waterfowl. Several Shoveler, Mallard, Coot and smaller numbers of Tufted Duck, Mute Swans and Little Grebes were also present.   A Chiffchaff feeding in the willows at the edge of the marsh was a nice additional extra.

First winter Mediterranean Gull

Shoveler

 

Mallard

There were good numbers of Herring Gulls, mostly juveniles and sub-adults, and smaller numbers of Lesser Black-backed Gulls along the Shannon between Thomond Weir and O'Callaghan's Strand but no signs of any white-winged gulls.  As expected the annually returning Ring-billed Gull showed up at the latter site.

Adult Ring-billed Gull

Snipe

I was back at my local patch in Coonagh last Saturday morning along with Tony Mee.  The tide was high so we were expecting to see good numbers of waders roosting in the lower lagoon.  We did have a flock of Lapwing but surprisingly few Black-tailed Godwits and Redshank.  A Common Sandpiper on the river bank was a nice surprise as they are not particularly abundant that far up the estuary.  We also picked up a few Snipe including this one below lurking at the edge of the small intermediate pond.  

Snipe ©Tom Tarpey

There was a nice variety of duck present including two small parties of Shoveler and a few Wigeon that we assumed were recent arrivals, although a lone Shoveler had been seen there on a few occasions over the summer.

Shoveler  ©Tom Tarpey

We also had party of five Gadwall and brief views of what appeared to be a pair of juvenile Garganey.  Both of these species have been present at the site over the summer so it is tempting to think that they may have successfully bred. In the case of the Gadwall this was the third summer that the species has been present at the site.

Gadwall ©Tom Tarpey