Black Tern

The Coonagh Nature Reserve hosted two juvenile Black Terns this week following the stormy weather last weekend.  A single bird was found there on Monday evening (11/9/17).  It was joined by a second bird on Tuesday morning and both birds remained at the site until Friday (15/9/17) at least.

Black Terns are scarce passage migrants in Limerick and Coonagh has proved to be most reliable location for them in the County in recent years.   They have been recorded previously at the site on autumn migration, with one in Sept. 2010, four together in Sept. 2011 and one in Aug. 2012.  The site has also atteacted the much rarer White-winged Black Tern once previously in August 2014.

Two juvenile Arctic Terns also spent most of the week at the site.  Arctic Terns are occasional passage migrants at the site, with notable influxes of 63 birds in April 2013 and 13 birds the following September.

White-winged Black Tern

I was back in my local patch at Coonagh during the week to check up on the summering wildfowl and search for autumn migrants.  Following a week of strong winds, starting southeasterly, then moving to southerly and eventually to westerly, there was a good chance of something interesting showing up.  This turned out to be the case when a juvenile White-winged Black Tern was found there today.

This is the third record of the species for County Limerick, the previous ones being 1875 and 1990, and the first for Coonagh.  The site is proving quite attractive to migrant Terns with Common, Arctic and Black Terns all recorded here on a number of occasions in the past few years.