Common Dolphin record strandings

Over the last month or so a disturbing number of Common Dolphins have been washed up on the Connemara coastline. This has been mirrored all along the western coastline of Ireland. I've never encountered so many in such a short period during my nine years based here. As the name suggests Common Dolphin are by far the most numerous cetacean that is found stranded here. I've only ever death with one live stranding. Of the six recent Common Dolphins I've seen four appear to have died around the same time period. Two of the animals had broken upper mandibles which has been suggested to be a sign of mortality from fishery bycatch. IWDG have recorded a record breaking cetacean stranding year on year and 2018 already looks like it is going to out do 2017. 267 stranded cetaceans were recorded in 2017. Have a look at this recent piece on this recent mortality event of Common Dolphins.
"Common Dolphins Dying in Ever Increasing Numbers in Ireland"
http://www.iwdg.ie/news/?id=2723

Very young male calf Common Dolphin, Tully Beg, 12th February 2018.

Adult Common Dolphin, Rossadillask, 25th January 2018.

Adult Common Dolphin, Lettergesh East, 21st February 2018.

Adult Common Dolphin, Lettergesh East, 21st February 2018.

Adult Common Dolphin, Aillebrack, 23rd February 2018. Broken lower mandible. Note the ironic marine litter in the background..

Adult Common Dolphin, Aillebrack, 23rd February 2018.

A few other bits and odds during my recent local travels were this very freshly dead Little Auk found at White Strand, Tully Beg while visiting one of the stranded Common Dolphins. I've only had a handful of Little Auks ever. They do seem to be rather rarer in the last decade or so.

I also had the colour ringed AJAT Mediterranean Gull again in Mannin Bay on 14th February. This bird was ringed at Pionierinsel Lühe, Steinkirchen, Stade, Niedersachsen, Germany as a chick on 17th June 2006. I first had it at Mannin Bay on 22nd October 2012. I've had it here on and off since including once up at Omey Island which is only 12km away. It has also been re-sighted at Presall Sands, Pilling Lane, Lancashire England and Wissant, plage, Pas-de-Calais, France in 2006 and 2007 respectively. It returns to breed around the Hamburg area of Germany sometimes on an island on the Elbe River and once on a factory rooftop. 

Iceland and Glaucous Gulls continue to be seen in good numbers throughout Galway. 

A white phase Gyrfalcon was seen sitting on the side of the road beside Bunowen Pier, Ballyconneely by Graham Roberts on 13th February at 0130hrs in the middle of the night. Graham initially thought it was a Herring Gull but on a second look realised it was an unknown bird of prey. He tried taking a photo with his phone but realised his battery was dead so he drove back to the house to collect a camera. Ten minutes later when he returned the bird was still present! It later flew off into the darkness so it was probably just exhausted and not physically injured. It may have been offshore and hit mainland after sunset. Unsurprisingly it was never seen again :-( Another (same?) Gyr was recently seen up on the Mullet peninsula by Dave Suddaby. I shudder to think of how many I've dipped on now at this stage. It has to happen one of these day fingers crossed!

Little Auk

Little Auk

German colour ringed adult Mediterranean Gull, Mannin Bay, 14th February 2018.

Spring 2017

Just a round up of a collection of the few photos that I've taken over the last two and a half months or so with an obvious winter taste. Some shots of Waxwings from a flock that hung around the National School at Rosscahill on 5th March.

Waxwing

Waxwing

Waxwing

Waxwing

Waxwing

Waxwing

Forster's Tern, Kinvarra,12th March. 

Forster's Tern, Kinvarra, 12th March. 

I had this colour ringed Mediterranean Gull AJAT yet again in Mannin Bay on 3rd March. I've previously had it here on 22nd October 2012 and 26th February 2013. I also had it at Omey Island on 16th October 2013. It was ringed as a chick at Pionierinsel Lühe, Steinkirchen, Stade, Niedersachsen, Germany on 17th June 2006. It's also been seen at Presall Sands, Pilling Lane, Lancashire,  England and Wissant, plage, Pas-de-Calais, France. It's been recorded breeding on the flat roof of a factory near it's birth place in the intervening years.

Mediterranean Gull

I've also been busy with the national Peregrine Falcon Survey this year. I've been checking about nine 5km squares with active sites in Connemara along with four more out on Inishmore. Mixed results so far with some previously successful sites already failed even before egg laying was attempted. We also finished up Raven pulli ringing in April and most are now well fledged at this stage. We ringed a total of 36 chicks from 9 broods giving a average brood size of four chicks. 

A pair of breeding Raven was shot out on Inishbofin last year with the chicks lefted in the nest (we managed to rescue the chicks from a long slow death through dehyration/starvation). This was following a lot of anti-Raven sentiment on the island lead by one person in recent years who has emotively labelled the species as a "menace", "beast" and "marauders". Unfortunately one unknown person on the island decided to take the law into his own hands last year. The cove where the pair were shot is named locally as Uaimh na bhFiach i.e. Cove of the Raven. It's been a long time since Irish has been a spoken language on the island so there is obviously a long history of the species on the island. Not surprisingly Uaimh na bhFiach was sadly empty of Ravens this season. Ravens like all bird species in Ireland are protected under the Wildlife Act including all "seagull" species. There is however a derogation made for hooded crows, magpies, rooks, jackdaws, woodpigeon and feral pigeons under certain circumstances.

There was no sign the resident pair of Peregrines on Inishbofin this year.

Second calendar female Peregrine on an old Raven nest, photographed under license. 

Second calendar female Peregrine on an old Raven nest, photographed under license. 

Raven nest  photographed under license

Twite, North Mayo cliffs.

Black Redstart, Waxwing & Recoveries

A few more shots from the last two weeks or so. Black Redstart that I had on the shoreline at the end of the Murlach laneway near Ballyconneely on 14th January. I had a Black Redstart here on 29th November so I'm presuming it's the same individual.

A few record shots of a lone first-winter Waxwing that was near Maam last week. It was very vocal and mobile I assume as there were no berry holding bushes or trees in the area. I later had presumably the same bird flying by about a kilometre up the road.

Two interesting recoveries during the week also. First was a Kestrel chick we ringed last summer at Errislanan which turned up in a moribund state and in very poor body condition at Pembrey, Carmarthenshire, UK on 11th November. It was handed in to Gower Bird Hospital but was too far gone and had to be put down unfortunately. It had moved a distance of at least 440km between the two sites. This is our first Connemara Kestrel recovery outside of Ireland (John Lusby has had a recovery of a Kerry bird turning up in France however). This bird had come from a brood of four chicks and was the third smallest. The youngest chick was actually too small to ring. This was one of two clutches that we ringed on the 22th June and both were very late nesters. Amazingly a chick from the other nest we ringed that same day was controlled on Cape Clear Island, Co. Cork on 25th October!

Irene O'Brien at the Errislanan Kestrel site, 22nd June 2016.

Big and small Errislanan Kestrel chicks, 22nd June 2016.

Another recovery of sorts was a Mediterranean Gull that I had in Kilkieran Harbour on 7th October 2016. It had been ringed on Lady's Island Lake, Co. Wexford as a chick. Amazingly this same bird was re-sighted afterwards on 16th December 2016 and 9th January 2017 at Funchal in Madeira! That's a distance of 2370 km between Connemara and Madeira. Coincidentally this bird was part of a county record gathering of twelve Mediterranean Gulls at Kilkieran at the same time. I've visited every now and then since but the birds disappeared shortly after this but only today I had a flock of 19 birds sheltering at the outflow from seaweed processing factory with a large number of mainly Black-headed Gulls. All of the Meds today apart from two second-winters were adults, no first-winters for some reason?

2X2N Mediterranean Gull, Kilkieran Harbour, 7th October 2016.

Mediterranean Gulls & Pink-footed Geese

A few shots from the last week or so. I came across a flock of six Mediterranean Gulls in Kilkieran Harbour feeding on the outflow from the seaweed processing factory on Thursday 6th October. One of the birds present was a green colour ringed first-winter from Zwillbrocker Venn in Germany which is right on the German/Netherlands border. It was ringed as a pullus on 18th June of this year and has moved approximately 1,100km to the west. This was the first re-sighting of it. 

I revisited the same spot again the following day and amazed to see that the flock had doubled in size to twelve - four first-winters and eight adults (there was a third-winter present on the 6th). The German bird was again present along with an Irish born and colour ringed bird 2X4N. This bird had been ringed by Tony Murray and co at Lady's Island Lake, Co. Wexford this summer.

ANNC German colour ringed first-winter Mediterranean Gull.

ANNC German colour ringed first-winter Mediterranean Gull.

2X4N Irish colour ringed first-winter Mediterranean Gull.

Adult winter, third-winter & adult winter Mediterranean Gulls

Third-winter Mediterranean Gull.

Eight Mediterranean Gulls and one Black-headed Gull.

Ten Mediterranean Gulls

Seaweed Factory outflow.

While up on Achill Island last Sunday I had a nice flock of Pink-footed Geese fly in from the west. Pink-footed Geese are still fairly scarce along the west coast but have become more regular in recent years as the population is increasing. Female Garganey also on Sruhillbeg Lough.

Pink-footed Geese

Pink-footed Geese

Pink-footed Geese

Pink-footed Geese

Pink-footed Geese

Garganey

Glaucous-winged Gull Castletownbere

I was on my down to Castletownbere two weeks ago to see the Glaucous-winged Gull along with Michael Davis and Cathal Forkan. Unfortunately my car gave out near Ennis so that was the end of that twitch. Fast forward two weeks later to last Saturday and I picked up the car in Ennis and completed the journey. Thankfully the Glaucous-winged had remained in place the whole time. I had considered travelling over for the Vega Gull in Wexford afterwards but news had been negative for a few days unfortunately so I didn't bother.

I arrived down at Castletownbere late in the day on Saturday and thankfully the GWG was easily found in amongst small numbers of gulls on the town side of the harbour. It spent most of its time sat out on a small rock facing me the whole time so the views weren't of much use although it did briefly take to the air and do one or two fly-bys. It took no interest in a loaf of bread that I had throw out to entice it closer. I stayed in the town that night in the hope of better views in the morning.

I rose to rain the next morning which didn't let up until the evening which made photography a bit of a challenge. Most of the shots below are rather dark and will high ISO levels. It was much more interested in the bread this time around. Although I can't say too much on the bird before we (the Irish Rare Bird Committee) assess the bird, it isn't what I would call a classic Glaucous-winged Gull structure-wise. The eyes look rather large, the bill was long but wasn't very heavy and at best it certainly didn't dwarf any Herring Gull present. Saying that though most of the plumage features do match the species although the upperparts did look quite dark in dull conditions.

Also present were an adult Ring-billed Gull and first-winter & adult Mediterranean Gull. The GWG spent nearly all of its time on the town side of harbour but I did have it sitting up on one of the large shed/fish factory roofs on Dinish Island later.

Glaucous-winged Gull

Glaucous-winged Gull

Glaucous-winged Gull

Glaucous-winged Gull

Glaucous-winged Gull

Glaucous-winged Gull

Glaucous-winged Gull

Glaucous-winged Gull

 

Adult Ring-billed Gull

Adult Ring-billed Gull



First-winter Mediterranean Gull

First-winter Mediterranean Gull