Early March Gulls

Adult Glaucous Gull, Nimmo's Pier.

 

Adult Glaucous Gull, Callow, Ballyconneely.

Adult Glaucous Gull on dead Long-finned Pilot Whale, Callow, Ballyconneely.

Long-finned Pilot Whale, Callow, Ballyconneely.

First-winter Kumlien's Gull, bird no. 1, Trá na Tobair, Ballynahown, 8th March.

First-winter Kumlien's Gull, bird no. 1, Trá na Tobair, Ballynahown, 8th March.

First-winter Kumlien's Gull, bird no. 1, Trá na Tobair, Ballynahown, 8th March.

First-winter Kumlien's Gull, bird no. 1, Trá na Tobair, Ballynahown, 8th March.

First-winter Kumlien's Gull, bird no. 1, Trá na Tobair, Ballynahown, 8th March.

First-winter Kumlien's Gull, bird no. 2, Trá na Tobair, Ballynahown, 8th March.

First-winter Kumlien's Gull, bird no. 2, Trá na Tobair, Ballynahown, 8th March.

First-winter Kumlien's Gull, bird no. 2, Trá na Tobair, Ballynahown, 8th March.

First-winter Kumlien's Gull, bird no. 2, Trá na Tobair, Ballynahown, 8th March.

First-winter Iceland Gull, Trá na Tobair, Ballynahown, 8th March.

Adult "argentatus" Herring Gull, Rossaveel, 8th March.

 

Mayo Pilot Whale

I saw another long dead Pilot Whale last week along with a colleague of mine at Inishnakillew between Westport and Newport. Looks like it had been there some time and the smell was particularly horrendous downwind of it. A few gulls in attendance as well. Quite a small animal at only 2.2m metres so it was still quite a young calf.

Other dead animals (by a magnitude of a few million years).

Long-finned Pilot Whale

A few shots of a Pilot Whale which was washed up at Dolan near Ballyconneely on 12th June. It was fairly rancid. You could actually see and hear decomposition gases bubbling out of the carcass.
I usually associate ceteacean strandings with winter but this is the eight cetacean stranding in the county in the last two months.
Forgive the poor shots they were taken on a mobile phone and at their lowest resolution (unbeknownst to me). My compact camera got wet and wrecked inside a "waterproof" wet-bag recently.