Red-Eyed Vireo - Blast From The Past Finds

Red-Eyed Vireo is your classic autumn yank rarity, guaranteed to turn any day from mediocre to brilliant in a flash of green and silvery white. 

Hilariously, the Incompetent Rare Bird Committee that is the IRBC accidentally left this species out of it's recent rare bird appendices revision, meaning that currently, Red-Eyed Vireo is not a rarity in Ireland. 😂😂

They can't seem to admit that error or correct it either (which would be an admission) and so the entire country trundles on pretending not to know. 😂😂😂😂

I've seen many REVs over the years in Ireland, but my only self found one fell on the 19th of October, 2011.

We had rented our usual house on Mizen Head for October, and Shane "The Faddler" Farrell was staying down with us for a weekend of birding.

We had worked quite a few locations around the head in the morning and it was looking like just a couple of Yellow-Browed Warbler and a Siberian Chiffchaff were to be the best on offer.

That changed when checking Joe's Garden and, stood on the ditch looking into the field opposite the entrance, I suddenly picked up something silvery rising to the top of a nearby bush.

Expecting a Blackcap, my heart stopped when it popped out in full view, revealing a blue cap, bright green upperparts and a supercillium that was visible from space!

I screamed "Red-Eyed Vireo!". Shane jumped up on the ditch beside me and obtained great views, whilst Conor and Don came running out of Joe's just in time to grab a glimpse, before the bird dove into Joe's Garden itself. 

There was no worry though, as the bird gave itself up in Joe's for a period of several days. 




Red-Eyed Vireo - Jez Simms

The bird was widely twitched over that time, providing good shots for a number of people.

Again, I suspect there was more out there which have now likely disappeared from websites now gone.











I really enjoyed this bird over the course of it's stay and it remains the one I got the best views of, at one point hopping around my feet in a ditch. 😍

You just can't beat finding a yank. Doesn't matter what kind. They stay with you. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

White-Rumped Sandpiper - Blast From The Past Finds

Image
White-Rumped Sandpiper is a pretty consistent rarity in Ireland, with frequent autumn influxes building a base for return migration birds in late Spring and Summer. I've found 3 individuals over the years, all away from the wader center of Tacumshin. October 2002 My first self found individual occurred at Rogerstown, Co. Dublin.  Visiting the hide midweek with the old man, thorough scanning up and down the channel wasn't producing much, except for an interesting head which, amazingly, was popping up from behind the mud right below us. The bird walked out into the open and revealed itself to be a pristine juvenile White-Rumped Sandpiper. The bird gave excellent view for us for close to an hour, before it moved further up the channel and was lost to view. A pretty good Dublin find, if I do say so myself. Ballycotton, September 7th, 2006 My second self found bird came again on another bit of midweek sniping, taking a geologist friend of mine down to Ballycotton to photograph the ...
Read more

Blast From The Past Finds - Two-Barred Crossbill

Image
Blockers. We love those don't we? There are certain species types which remain unattainable in Ireland. For some reason, very most likely due to Ireland's population geospatial/coastal nature, things like rare thrushes, rare raptors and crossbill species just don't get found very often. The habitat for visiting crossbills is certainly there, but much of it is inland.  28th September, 2008. On the night of the 26th/27th of September myself and Robert Vaughan set off for west Cork, intent on a weekend of hunting migs on the headlands. There had been various bits around, including Melodious Warbler, Common Rosefinch etc so we were hopefull. Things started ominously though,when sometime around 3/4 in the morning a tyre completely exploded somewhere around Urlingford. Rob held the torch whilst I got the spare on, but it was one of those "emergency spares" they give with cars these days, and it meant we would have to stop somewhere and get the real tyre replaced as I w...
Read more

A History Of South Polar Skua in Ireland

Image
With the recent sighting of another South Polar Skua in Irish waters, from the Bridges of Ross, Co. Clare, I thought it worthwhile to put together a History of the species in Ireland. Loop Head, Co. Clare. 18.08.2006 The first claim I can source relates to a bird seen by Jonathan Williams and John Gregory from Loop Head itself (as opposed the Bridges of Ross, which is located further back along the north coast of the Loop peninsula).  The description by Jonathan is included below.  Catharacta Skua sp   18th August 2006   Loop Head   County Clare   Observers : John Gregory(JG) and Jonathan Williams (JW)   Time : 09:45 to 10.15   Weather : mostly overcast, light behind observers giving good visibility and viewing  conditions.  Wind : NE Breeze having dropped from a moderate north-easterly the previous  day.   Optics : Swaroski EL 85x42 and 10x42. Kowa TSN4- 30x wide angle and Swaroski ...
Read more