Blue-Winged Teal - Blast From The Past Finds

Blue-Winged Teal is a true "birder's bird" especially when you find them as juveniles in some far flung western location. 

I first saw Blue-Winged Teal in Dublin, at the North Bull Island, a bird that would prove to be a regular winter occurrence for many years.

Blue-Winged Teal - Bull Island - Robert Vaughan

September 12th 2010

My first self found bird popped up at Shannon Airport Lagoon after a great weekend of seawatching at the Bridges of Ross.

After two days of seawatching, good numbers of Leaches Petrels, decent numbers of Sabine's Gulls, Grey Phalaropes, the odd Black Tern and a couple of Wilson's Petrel whilst seawatching, and a Buff-Breasted Sandpiper on the headland itself, I was feeling pretty good on the drive back to Cork.

I decided to stop into Shannon Airport Lagoon to, it being a bit to early to jump on the Mallow road. 

Just a minute or two on site, and my attention was drawn by that "Teal wanting to be a Pintail" appearance and with that lovely face pattern, Blue-winged Teal jumped on my finds list.

Blue-Winged Teal - Shannon Airport Lagoon 

Blue-Winged Teal - ClareBirdwatching

18th September 2011, Shannon Airport Lagoon 

My second self found Blue-winged Teal fell just a year later in similar fashion, except it fell after one of the best days of Irish seawatching ever.

The decision to hit the Bridges was made off the back of a record count of almost 400 Sabine's Gull, with an excellent count of 35 Long Tailed Skuas on Friday the 16th of September.

With the wind shifting to north west on Saturday, surely the passage would be even better? Bridges of Ross it was. 

I arrived at the Bridges car park at ~7.30 a.m to find several cars already in situ, and a groggy Shane Farrell kitting up to head out. People were already settled in and counting, with Sabine's gulls, Long Tailed Skuas and a Wilson's Petrel having already been added to the tallies. 

The sea was simply heaving with birds. Sabine's Gulls stretched along the entire field of view, ranging from just off the slab to the horizon, consisting of a delightful mix of immaculate summer plumaged adults, moulting adults, winter adults and juveniles, and Long Tailed Skua's were constantly on the move, sometimes in groups of 2 or 3. Arctic Terns would move through in large flocks, always with a few skuas harrying them. 

It was not hard to pick out the odd Black Tern or Little Gull in these flocks adding extra variety to the seawatch. Grey Phalaropes were not hard to find either with flocks of 3 to 6 often mooching through, sometimes sneakily close. Leaches Petrels and Storm Petrels were unfortunately lacking in serious numbers but a few Leaches did approach for excellent close viewing. 

Highlight of the day for me was the close approach of 2 Juvenile Long Tailed Skuas, one a strikingly pale individual, which gave itself up to the group, a real beauty, all cream and bars, and another intermediate individual, steely grey and cold as ice. Many of the Adult Long Tails were beginning to moult, becoming dusky and speckled on the cheeks, neck and breast. Arctic Skuas were moving in good numbers also, though Bonxies were far fewer in number and Pomarine Skuas numbering just 3 for the day. 

All the while, Sabine's Gull became relegated to being a backdrop bird. In fact, up until a brief period of about an hour or so in the evening, people simply stopped calling them. For that one hour of lull, Sabine's were again called when encountered, in a solid effort to further increase the record tally to massive proportions. 

However, once the lull ended, presumably passage held up further north by some heavy weather, counting began again in earnest and Sab's again became a backdrop bird. 

By the time we had all retired to the Lighthouse Inn for a well deserved feed and a few pints, the amazing tally had reached 865 Sabine's Gulls. A count that was likely a tad on the conservative side, due to a prolonged feeding flock in the early morning holding up counting for a little while. An excellent count of 76 Long Tailed Skuas was an excellent reward for a full day's seawatching. All in all I reckon I found a third of these myself, and it was an absolute joy to have so many on offer (to me it was even better than all the Sabs).

As an additional bonus, the flock of resident Buff Breasted Sandpipers (which had been am impressive 15 birds but now reduced to 9 individuals) and an American Golden Plover were present on the Fodry fields, with one of these Buffs (or a new bird) doing a flyby at the Bridges Car Park late evening. 

Sunday morning saw yet more birders arrive on site in the hopes of similar numbers. However this day the wind had shifted slightly to the north north west. Whether this had the effect of decreased numbers or the passage had simply run its course, I do not know, but certainly numbers of birds were down. 

Increased spray on our lenses was suddenly a real problem, but after a relatively slow start, a good trickle of Skuas began to move through again against a backdrop of a (somewhat reduced) Sabine's passage. 

Conor Foley picked up the first Long Tailed of the morning, with a dark juvenile attempting to sneak by real close with 2 dark arctic skuas. An intermediate Juvenile Long Tail was soon picked up after this a little further out, and these were followed by a few more adults and then 2 gorgeous pale phase Pomarine Skuas were picked up, one still retaining full spoons as they attempted to stealthily traverse the seascape low down in wave troughs. 

The real excitement of the morning came when when confusion between observers over the exact location of the only Leaches Petrel of the day, resulted in Conor making the realisation that he had found a cracking Wilson's Petrel right below us in the bay, whilst the Leach's was being observed elsewhere. 

All present enjoyed brief but excellent views of this cracking bird as it bounced on the water below us off the point. Passage then began to die off at around 9.30 a.m and we made the decision to partake of the Full Irish at the Lighthouse Inn. 

Whilst we finished our few cups of tea, we received news that a juvenile Common Rosefinch was in one of the Kilbaha gardens and we made our way up to view the little charmer, associating with Greenfinch in a patch of weeds at the back a house. With passage off shore dramatically slowed, I made my way up the Clare coast, hunting after some Yankee waders at Doonbeg, but despite a reasonable number of smalls in the bay, nothing of note was to be had here. None of the Clare bays, or loughs seemed to have any Sabine's Gulls present in them, suggesting that this mega movement of Sabine's was indeed migration as opposed to a wreck. 

The weekend finished up with a quick check of Shannon Airport Lagoon where I had a real deja vu moment. As I walked down the track to the lagoon, I saw Richard Bonser scoping the lagoon at the far end of the embankment, and I suddenly had that feeling there would be nothing to find here.

The usual conversation was had.

"Anything doing?" I asked.

"No, nothing much." The response.

I set up my scope however, and within seconds I found a lovely Blue-Winged Teal, a real flashback to the previous autumn where I had found my first self found BWT on the 12th of September.

A brilliant weekend of seawatching, this record count of both Sabine's Gull and Long-Tailed Skua has stood the test of time so far! 

The BWT was seen again the following day (19th) but was not reported again subsequently (it was probably there but not searched for).

29th October, Ballycotton, Cork

My 3rd self found Blue-winged Teal was found later in the same Autumn of 2011.

A bad storm had come in from the west, and Ballycotton lake was teeming with birds, as gulls, waders and wildfowl seemed to take shelter from what was going on out past the cliffs.

Watching from the gate on the road to Ballycotton Village, and looking through big numbers of Teal and Mallard on the channel, I was delighted to find yet another juv Blue-Winged Teal swim out of the channel on the left and make it's way around the bend and up onto the bank. It slept there briefly, before a passing Peregrine flushed everything up. 

Some good flight views were achieved, before birds buried themselves back in the channel or indeed, some headed off to Shanagarry.

Sadly I didn't find it again after that and wasn't going to brave the beach in that weather. 

Those two years were the record years for BWT at that time and I really made the most of it with 3 individuals. 

I wouldn't say no to finding a male bird though!