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.
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| First winter Mediterranean Gull |
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Shoveler
Mallard
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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.
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| Adult Ring-billed Gull |
