Yet another very enjoyable days patch birding. It had started off with some of my first fieldfare of this side of the winter which is always nice. As I arrived at 'Leary's lough' at the southern end of Cahore marsh I checked the the lough but not a single bird of note! As usual!! Though I have had some ruff and a Jack snipe flying around the lough one evening in October. Also a good site for passage Whinchat in autumn.
Leary's Lough
After checking this area of pools and reed-bed I moved on towards Cahore marsh along the beach. Very little of note along there. Can be a good area for black redstart in and around the sand dunes just north of Morriscastle. As I arrived at the south end car park (Ballinoulart) I was greater by a small flock of lesser redpoll sitting in the scrubs with a large goldfinch and linnet flock. After scanning through them and I was happy enough that there were no mealy redpoll or even better. I continued along the southern track towards the heard of young cattle. No sign of any cattle egrets! YET! So, after a couple of hours stomping around picking up some nice birds such as 7 bearded reedling, juvenile female hen harrier, 2 juvenile merlin and a very distant carrion crow. I then bumped into Tom Kavanagh who was checking out the wildfowl flocks on the pools. We chatted for a while and Tom looked over into the cattle field. As I turned to check there was a white bird stomping around in between the cattle! I quickly got my scope onto it. Low and behold it was a stunning cattle egret! Had clearly just dropped in!! Always a delight to find. As we went closer to get some better images I looked back and saw a bird being attacked by crows. Oh YES! A short-eared owl flying towards us! What a great day on the patch.
Some images attached below.
Cattle egret
Record picture of the short-eared owl
Adult whooper swan in flight
Male bearded reedling hidden in the reeds
#patchbirding #winterbirding #blogging #vikingoptical #Cahoremarsh
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