Winter Waders in Limerick City

The city stretch of the Shannon is not noted for waders. Apart from the 100 or so Oystercatchers that routinely feed on the open area in King's Island and small numbers of Snipe in the wetlands adjoining the river, there is usually very little else to see.    In some years very small numbers of Redshank can occur along the river anywhere between Corbally and Barrington's Pier.  The occasional wintering Common Sandpiper may also be found.   We went one better last Saturday (8/12/2018) when with a fine winter plumaged Dunlin showing up at O'Callaghan's Strand in close proximity to a Common Sandpiper and a lone Redshank.  The Dunlin and the Common Sandpiper were new recruits since the previous week.

Dunlin

 

Common Sandpiper

    The Redshank wasn't as obliging when it came to posing for the camera!

Stilt Sandpiper

I struck it lucky on Friday (5/9/14) when business took me to Dublin and I got a chance to pick up a new life tick with the Stilt Sandpiper at Broadmeadows on the Swords Estuary.  The bird was first seen on the previous day (Thursday), hot on the heels of another Stilt Sandpiper found by Killian Mullarney in Wexford on Tuesday.  Assuming the Swords bird is a new bird, it is the 14th Irish record of this rare North American species.

The bird was very active and a bit nervous and it moved around quite a bit. The light conditions were not great making photography a bit of a challenge.  However the bird was quite well marked and seemed to be  in transition from adult summer to winter plumage.

Broadmeadows is good spot for getting close to waders and there was good selection there on Friday. Lapwing and Redshank are often very nervous and difficult to approach but these birds below were a bit more relaxed and approachable than normal.

Lapwing

Adult Lapwing