Hel Hath No Birdies

Shrikes.  You've had a good day if you can settle into the pub after finding any Shrike species in Ireland. The two comonnest Shrike species, Red-Backed Shrike (commonest) and Woodchat Shrike , can turn up in both Spring and Autumn, with Woodchat more biased towards Spring and Red-Backed biased towards Autumn. Surprisingly, of the two Woodchat Shrikes I have found in Ireland, both were autumn juveniles (not for lack of trying to find spring birds). 20th October, 2006 My first self found Woodchat Shrike was found at Ballymacrown, Co. Cork. It had been a pretty spectacular day, seeing Ireland's 2nd Hermit Thrush on Cape Clear. Hermit Thrush - a bird that gave itself up, showing down to a meter at times, hopping around our feet. Coming off the island that evening, I figured I had just enough light left in the day to check one location. Figuring that twitchers coming for the Thrush had likely worked Baltimore itself pretty well, I opted for Ballymacrown.  I aimed to start ...

 "Buff-Bs".  There are few birds which sing Autumn migration to Irish birders quite like Buff-Breasted Sandpiper . Unlike most Irish Birders, I saw my first Buff-B, not at Tacumshin, but at Swords, Co. Dublin, a most unusual location for said species. I have seen many at Tacumshin since, but for a very long time, finding one of my own was proving challenging. Tacumshin just wasn't doing it for me. Even when I worked in Wicklow and could nip down to Wexford after work with relative ease and speed, I just couldn't seem to connect with a self found bird of my own.  A simple case of a place that is worked by far too many people on a near daily basis, the odds of being the one who happened to be there for a yank waders arrival was naturally low. Kerry, on the other hand, was a virginal paradise. Her untouched beaches and saltmarshes were a well kept secret and I soon realized the opportunities they held. September, 2008 My first self found Buff-Breasted Sandpiper finally ...

Barolo Shearwater (though I still habitually refer to them as Little Shear) is one of those fantastic stable, old school rarities that people crave for their finds lists. I've been lucky enough to find two of them over the years. It's an incredible thrill, when after 100s of hours looking through thousands upon thousands of Manxies you suddenly see these silvery little gems. August 28th, 2005 On the Sunday 28th of August I had planned on sleeping in after finding my first Bee-eater in Ireland the previous evening, However, after receiving a text stating that the winds had picked up for Galley Head, a horrible fear of being 'gripped off' descended on me and I dashed down to Galley — just in case. I had expected to find several birders already there, but arrived to a barren headland. I could see that passage was actually very good, with good numbers of Manx Shearwaters moving through, together with 3 Great Shearwaters and 8 Sooty Shearwaters, all within 15 minutes of obs...

Gull-Billed Tern. Despite now having seen them around the world in numbers, from Ireland to Arabia to North Africa and the Americas, it remains one of my favorite Irish rarities. When I started out birding they were a true mega. Birds had been few and far between, with twitchable individuals such as one at Rosslare being the stuff of legend. When one turned up at Courtmacsherry, Co. Cork I was unable to get to it, and they were not going to be an easy species to catch up with. 2 birds present at Tacumshin, coincided with my Leaving Cert and had to be left to their own devices. Their status has of course now changed. They are now a multi annual species in Ireland. Still rare of course, but not quite on the mega radar as they once were.  In the end, as fate would have it, I never twitched one. I've seen 3 in Ireland and each of them was self found. July 11th, 2004 My first Gull-Billed Tern was an unexpected deep Summer find. A day trip down to Wexford, intending on twitching a Short-...

A conference in Boston meant myself and Dara Fitzpatrick took an extra few days for a bit of American birding. Dara insisted on the true American Road Trip experience, complete with sporty red convertible. 😂 This made us more Thelma and Louise than Dukes of Hazard, but was fun nonetheless. The Dude Mobile We arrived in Boston, picked up the Dude Mobile and made our way North to the town of Newburyport. On the drive up we saw birds like our first Red-Tailed Hawk, Red-Winged Blackbird, Turkey Vulture etc. Red-Tailed Hawk Turkey Vulture - "T.V" We checked into the historic and rather nice, Clark-Currier Inn and headed to a riverside restaurant for food. We enjoyed a deluxe Surf & Turf meal of lobster and steak, whilst we watched Cliff Swallow, Tree Swallow, Northern Rough-Winged Swallow, Chimney Swift, Purple Martin, Black Duck ,  Blue-Winged Teal, American Wigeon, Great Blue Heron, Snowy Egret, American Crow, Fish Crow, Laughing Gull, Ring-Billed Gull and Bonaparte's ...