For many years I have been watching a small estuary in Wicklow Town. Myself and my father would check this site regularly when we both lived in the county. Nowadays I am lucky to have some work in the area and I can check this beautiful place regularly each month. This is Wicklow's only 'large' estuary bar the small tidal lagoon known as the breaches at Kilcoole marsh further north which is also part of the Murrough wetlands.
Broad lough is well known for it's gull flocks, though these flocks rarely produce any rare or scarce gulls. Over my years of birding here the rarest gull I have seen there to date is most likely Iceland which tells you about all you need to know. Though it seems like an ideal site for species such as, Bonaparte's, laughing, Franklin's and Caspian. I'm sure these species have showed up there on occasions as it is a rather underwatched location. The rarest bird apart from gulls I have seen there would be a stunning adult female red-necked phalarope myself and my father found back in June 2015 which was a lifer for both of us and a brilliant finds tick!
I love sifting through the gull flocks here as you just never know what you might stumble upon! The joys of birding. Each August an adult yellow-legged gull returns and stays right through into November at least. This is a rare occasion of a yellow-legged gull returning to the same site year on year. This bird is now returning since August 2015. I first saw the bird that same month at the same location and began to see it ever time I visited the site for a few months. The bird then seems to depart around mid November. Occasionally the odd Yellow-legged gull will drop into the lough for a while and have a wash. I've seen birds from 2nd calendar year right up to adult at this site. No Caspians just yet!
The main gull species at this estuary are common species as you would expect. Herring, great black-backed, black-headed and common gulls. Lesser black-backed gulls also pass though mainly in spring as they migrate to breeding grounds. Any time lesser black-backed gulls pass though a site I get quite excited, as they are notorius for being a species that attracts rarer species such as Yellow-legged and Caspian. I have been lucky to see at least three different adult intermiduis type lesser black-backed gulls here over the years. All three being strikingly dark and long winged, though not fitting the bill for the far rarer Baltic race!
Today (20 April) I was delighted to pick up a dark lesser black-backed in my binoculars as I scanned the gull flock at the south end of the estuary. While setting up the scope on it the flock had moved around slightly. I refound the bird and it was a striking Intermedius type. Dark upper parts (slightly lighter than nearby Great Black-backed) but far darker than any of the other 11 greallsii that where also in the roost. One of which was strikingly pale, a 3rd calendar year type bird which I will attach some photos of below. I managed to document the Intermedius type quite well by phinescoping as I had no camera (typically).
After being at the site for a couple of hours and enjoying studying the Intermedius type I lifted my head from the scope to see a bleached almost pure white 2nd calendar year Iceland gull had popped into the roost also! Bingo, just my second ever record for here. I had also seen a 2nd calendar year at Arklow the week before that had become very faithful to the area. In terms of Wicklow this was a very good day's gulling, it's the little things when your birding these kind of sites! Most of the time you see nothing much at all. A nice flock of dark Arctic type ringed plover with the migrating dunlin where also nice to see. One day I'll find something worth tweeting out as a MEGA there hopefully! 😉
No comments:
Post a Comment