19th April; Chris Ingram

I recieved an e mail from Chris who was on Tory for the day yesterday

'I did the crossing from Magheroarty so only did the West.  The Northern Eider was a lone male in the harbour.  Here is the list:

In Magheroarty Bay was a Great Northern Diver and 5 Eiders. A female Kestrel flew in and there were 4 White Wagtails around the beach.  On the crossings were a few Puffins and Razorbills with good numbers of Kittiwakes and on the return to Magheroarty was another Great Northern Diver and a flock of 7 Common Terns.
39 species were seen on Tory, here is the list:

Fulmar   offshore
Gannet   offshore
Shag   19 on rocks by harbour, all but one juveniles.  Others offshore
Mute Swan   1 on nth lake and another on the sea from north of island
Teal   3 on nth lake
Mallard  14 on lakes and marsh
Tufted Duck  5
Eider  5 offshore and a single  'borealis' male in harbour
Buzzard  1
Kestrel  1 female
Oystercatcher
Ringed Plover
Lapwing  c.10
Snipe  1 on marsh
Redshank
Turnstone  c.10 on beach
Black-headed Gull  6 on nth lake

Common Gull
Herring Gull
Great Black Back

Kittiwake   offshore
Razorbill   offshore
Guillemot   offshore
Rock Dove
Skylark  3/4
Swallow  c.10
Meadow Pipit  2/3
Rock Pipit
Pied Wagtail
Robin  1
Wheatear  c.10
Redwing  6+
Chiffchaff   2 - 1 normal /1 grey bird (possible tristris)
Chough  1 pair
Hooded Crow
Raven
Starling
Tree Sparrow  1 by magic bush, 6 by Anton's garden
Goldfinch   3

The 'Tormor' is out of service for about 10 days on Monday so the 'Whispering Dawn' will operate the service.'

17th April; Anton Meenan

I rang Anton to see what birds were still about. He reported a pair of Brambling coming to his feeder in the garden for the last few days. The Coal Tit is still present. A single Blackbird and 3 Redwing remain. There are two pairs of Reed Bunting in and around the garden also.

The small boat is currently ferrying passangers to and from the island. The big boat will be going for maintenance work in the next week or two and will be out of service for about a week. Its advised to ring the ferry company for up to date information if travelling over the next few weeks.

Antons Photos September 2012-April 2013

Last autumn I gave Anton my old Canan powershot camera to take a few phots of any birds he might come across on his travels around Tory

Greylag Geese

Blackbird

Robin

Dunnock

Redpoll 28th September

Chiffchaff

Chough

2 Coal Tits

Meadow Pipit

Juvenile Storm Petrel

Whooper Swans landing on the cliffs during as storm

Juvenile Storm Petrel

Tim Murphy with Waxwings

Waxwings

13th April; Anton Meenan

I rang Anton today to see if anything was about. He reported the following

1 Goldcrest, 1 Coal Tit,3 Reed Bunting in and around the garden on the 13th. The Buzzard and Peregrine are still present. All of the Blackbirds seem to have departed on the southerly wind but at least 2 Redwing remain. The two Greylag Geese remain at the east end.

Goldcrest and Coal Tit are new for the year.

9th April:Gerards Photos

We found some feathers from a Sparrowhawk kill at the east end. Ger took a few photos and posted them on Bird Forum. Turns out they belonged to a Water Rail, which is new for the year.

Chiffchaff

Purple Sandpier and Turnstone

Chiffchaff

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

1st Week of April; Anton Meenan

I rang Anton today to see what was around as I am making my first visit of the year tomorrow with Gerard Murray.

 According to Anton passerine numbers are well up with good numbers of Blackbirds (10-20 last week) and 2-3 Fieldfare. 5 Redwing seem to have wintered.One Song Thrush has been present in the garden for about a month.  Also 2 Chiffchaff and 2 Reed Bunting present yesterday. He had nine grey geese flying north yesterday and 4-5 Whooper Swans on the east end lake last month.