Yellow-crowned Night Heron

The Yellow-crowned Night Heron, first confirmed at Belcarra, Co. Mayo on 26/5/2024, has got to be one of the most spectacular firsts for the Irish list.  It is believed to have been in the area for a number weeks prior to confirmation of its identification.  It has proved to be a most reliable and confiding bird.

The bird appears to be well acclimatised to its new surroundings and has been seen catching and eating crayfish in the Manulla River regularly.  It would appear to be a third calendar year bird based on the presence of a few immature wing coverts.  

Previous records of this species on this side of the Atlantic have been largely confined to the Azores so its very much a new species in north west Europe.  It's largely a migratory species in America, breeding in along the east coast as far north as New England and south to Florida and west to Texas.  It's wintering range extends from South Carolina down to tropical America.  There has been much speculation about its arrival in this part of the world.  It may well have arrived in Europe in mid September 2023 as part of the unprecedented of influx of American vagrants driven by Hurricane Lee.

Common Rosefinch

 The visit to Inishbofin Island on 16/10/23 also provided an opportunity to catch up with some other interesting birds including a Common Rosefinch and an American Wigeon.

Black and White Warbler

I was delighted to catch up last Monday (16/10/23) with the Black and White Warbler found by Jim Dowdall on Inishbofin Island, Co. Galway.  The bird was as spectacular as I had imagined and looked somewhat larger than I had anticipated.

Cape May Warbler

 Here are a few shots of the spectacular Cape May Warbler found by Micheál O'Briain at Corrymore,  Achill Island, Co. Mayo on 29/9/23.  It's a first Irtish record of this American warbler. The shots were taken on 2/10/23.

Greater Yellowlegs

 

This very elegant neartic wader was found on the bank of the Bride River beside Tallow Bridge in Co. Waterford on December 15th, 2022.  It's the 16th record of the species in Ireland and is a much rarer vagrant than its smaller relative, the Lesser Yellowlegs.  It's also closely related to our more familiar Greenshank and has a very similar call.

The bird was found during a period extremely cold weather and I eventually got a chance to catch up with it on December 20th in the company of two other birders, Sean Cronin and Tom Murphy.  We were watching the bird feeding in a flooded depression on the river floodplain when it took off, and to out great surprise, flew towards us and landed in another pool only 20m away from us.  It then relocated to another of it's favoured spots neared the town of Tallow, where it remained feeding, more or less oblivious of our presence,  until we eventually departed. It's behaviour was consistent with many other neartic waders I have seen, showing little fear of human presence, in strong contrast to the extremely nervous or skitish behaviour of our European sandpipers and shanks.

A few Green Sandpipers were also frequenting the area.  This one below was at the river's edge just downstream of  the bridge.  

Isabelline Wheatear

This long awaited 2nd Irish record of Isabelline Wheatear was found at Toe Head, Co. Cork on 24th October 2022 by a local birder, Chris O'Sullivan.  I got to see it two days later (26/10/22) on a very windy day, at what turned out to be a very exposed location.  As it turned out the bird seemed to be quite at home there and was still present at the site a month later.

 

Crossbills

Crossbills are one of the few species that have prospered in commercial coniferous plantations.  Lodgepole Pine and Sitka Spruce seem to be attractive to the species.  The following are a few shots taken recently in west Clare.

2nd year Female

Adult Male

Juveniles

Juvenile