9th April

I was on tory for the day yesterday with Gerard Murray. The easterly winds continue but a good day with fine weather and a ferry/island total of about 55 species. The best birds  were a single flighty Lapland Bunting with some Meadow Pipits and two candidate Northern borealis Eiders in the harbour. At Magharoarty we had a first winter (Kumlien's)Iceland Gull.

 Sandwich Tern

Reasonable numbers of birds on the crossing from Bunbeg including 2 Sandwich Terns, Great Northern and Red-throated Divers, 2 Puffins and 80 Razorbill. 65 Manx Shearwater were feeding midway between Tory and Bloody Foreland.

Common Gull

There were good numbers of Common and Great black-backed Gulls (80 of each) around the harbour and at the lake. Other birds included 2 Purple Sandpiper in the harbour and 3 Teal near the lighthouse along with a single Whooper Swan

Whooper Swan (foreground)

There are still a good numbers of migrants around with at least 5 Chiffchaff, 7 Robins, 4 Goldfinch and 1 Dunnock  present. 9 Redwing and a few Song Thrush and Blackbirds were also evident.

Redwing

A single Merlin was in the harbour along with a pair of Peregrine. Breeding birds were much in evidence with several singing Skylark, Wren and up to 90 Wheatear present.

Wren

Skylark

Wheatear

 We got the 4pm ferry back to Magharoarty. There were 12 Eider in the harbour and I managed a few photos as we passed. One of the males had an orangy bill and one of the females appeared to have sails.

Candidate Borealis Eider

On the homeward leg we had 80 Barnacle Geese on one of the other islands and the other good birds were 10 Black Guillemots and a 1st winter Iceland Gull in the harbour.

Kumlien's Gull

Kumlien's Gull