Coonagh Nature Reserve

The Coonagh Nature Reserve has been hosting County Limerick's first Glossy Ibis in the past few weeks. The bird is quite wary and generally can only be seen when it is flushed from its feeding area in and around the small pond located between the two large lagoons.  I could only manage a few distant flight shots on Sunday morning last (23/3/14) to add to the few distant shots from the previous week.  It was first found on 7/3/14 and has only been seen there twice since. The third shot below was taken on 14/3/14 while the bird was roosting on the southern shore of the Shannon at low tide, having just left the reserve.

Glossy Ibis

It's a quite time at Coonagh now that the visiting winter wildfowl have departed but evidence of spring is present in the arrival of small numbers of Sand Martins and a Wheatear.  Most of the remaining wildfowl have paired up and hopefully will stay on to breed.  There are at least three pairs of Gadwall, three pairs of Pochard and three pairs of Great-crested Grebes along with larger numbers of Tufted Duck, Coot, Little Grebe, Mute Swans and a few pairs of Mallard, Teal and non migrant Greylag Geese.

Gadwall Pairs

One of three pairs of Great-crested Grebes

Apart from the the spring migrants of the past week the site was also visited briefly by a female Hen Harrier, always a nice sight  to see on any birding trip.  A Jack Snipe has also been seen there on a few occasions recently.

Hen Harrier

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