|
|
Highlights of 2007
|
Sligo birds of the year 2007: Richardson's Cackling Goose |
|
|
 |
 |
|
Images © Mícheál Casey 2007 |
|
Found in November by Niall Mugan and Don Cotton, and staying with the Barnacle goose flock to the end
of the year, these two Richardson's Geese are obvious choices for
bird(s) of the year - based on the effect their presence had on this
website's hit counter alone! From a typical pattern of 10-15
people logging on to this site each day, a peak of 80 to 90 individuals
logged on each day
as word spread of the presence of these North American vagrants.
Much of the interest was due to the fact that these birds have
been
recently reclassified from a race/subspecies to full species staus by
the American Ornithological Union, a 'split' recognised by the Irish
Birds Rarities
committee, so allowing people to add them to their list of species seen
in 2007. For many birders this was the first opportunity to see
Richardson's Cackling Geese in Ireland since the new species
was first recognised, in 2004. |
|
|
| January |
Blackcaps, Iceland Gulls, Black Redstart
|
| February |
Flock of 14 Iceland Gulls, Ring-billed Gulls, Mediterranean Gull, Goosander, Black Redstart, Pink-footed Goose, Black Brant
|
| March |
Arrival
of Wheatears, Sand Martins, Barnacle Goose flock count tops 3,000, Hen
Harrier, Iceland Gulls, Ring-necked Ducks, Green-winged
Teal, Little Egret
|
| April |
Corncrake,
Rock Doves, White Wagtails, Dark-bellied Brent, possibly Night
Heron, Arrival of main wave of migrants including Whimbrel,
Cuckoo, warblers
|
| May |
Ring Ouzel, Garden Warblers, Buzzards, Arctic and Pomarine Skuas, Red Grouse, breeding Tree Sparrows
|
| June |
Breeding Buzzards, Corncrake, Red-legged Partridge, Tree Sparrows, Great Skua, Iceland Gull, Garden Warbler, Short-eared Owl
|
| July |
Gadwall, Merlin, Peregrine Falcon, Tree Sparrows
|
| August |
Gadwall, Storm Petrels, Peregrine Falcons, Buzzards
|
| September |
Sabine's Gull, Barn Owl, Red-throated Diver, early returning Brent and Barnacle Geese, Whimbrels on autumn passage
|
| October |
Montagu's Harrier,
Ring-necked Duck, Red Kite, Surf Scoter, spectacular visible migration of finches and thrushes reported from Raghley,
Merlins, Mediterranean Gull, Iceland Gull, Pomarine Skua, Snow bunting,
Ruff, White Wagtail
|
| November |
Richardson's
Cackling Geese, Northern Eider at Raghly, Pink-footed Goose, Greenland White-fronted Goose and
juvenile Dark-Bellied Brent with the Barnacle flock, Hybrid Ring-necked
Duck at Glencar, Twite at Streamstown, Easky and the Inishes, Mediterranean Gull, Barn Owl in Sligo town, "Conn"
the satellite-tagged Whooper tracked from Iceland through Scotland to Ballygawley Lake.
|
| December |
Richardson's Cackling Geese remain, Grey Phalarope, Green-winged Teal, More Twite |
 |
|
 |
|
| Images © Mícheál Casey 2007 |
|
| June
2007: Common Buzzards confirmed were breeding in County Sligo for the
first time ever with the finding of an active nest in north Sligo.
Although this was regarded as inevitable given the recovery and
southward spread of the species, and although breeding was suspected in
a number of areas over the years, this confirmation was extremely
welcome news. |
|
Website News
Stephen
McAvoy set up the first BirdWatch Sligo website in February 2004.
At a branch
meeting in winter 2006, after Stephen had moved away fgrom Sligo,
having graduated from Sligo IT, it was decided to continue with Stephen
McAvoy's website, but to move it to a new server. The idea was to
move the site away from the old
"free" Tripod server which was quite slow and pestered visitors with
annoying
and at times slightly inappropriate advertisements (e.g. "How to get
rid of
birds from your backyard").
This website was finally launched on 25th April 2007, hosted by Blacknight Solutions and has had a
great deal of support from local BirdWatch Sligo members, and
significantly, from visitors to the county, who have logged their
sightings. The pattern of hits shows that 2007 visitors were
predominantly Irish, followed by the UK, then the US, and a variety of
European countries.
The following graphs give an idea of how the site has been used in 2007
|
Usage summary:
|
Visit duration
|
"Hits" per day
 |
| The
website's steady daily hit rate changed drastically when the two
Richardson's Cackling Geese appeared in early November at Lissadell! |
|
2007 in Pictures
 |
| Image © Mícheál Casey 2007 |
|
11th February 2007: Two
adult Ring-billed Gulls present at Quay Street/Fish Quay.
These
are both adult birds, but the lower bird is showing more advanced
development of breeding plumage
and bare part colouration (bill, legs). This species is native to
eastern North America, where they occupy a similar niche to our Common
Gull. Most harbours on the west coast of Ireland have one or two
long-staying Ring-billed Gulls that arrived as lost vagrants and are
now "stuck on the wrong side of the Atlantic". Intriguingly, they
are rarely seen in summer - where do they go?...........
|
 |
 |
 |
| Images © Mícheál Casey 2007 |
|
Female Ring-necked Duck - found by Seamus Feeney at Brick Bay, Lough Arrow, 21st March 2007 |
 |
 |
 |
| Images
© Mícheál Casey 2007 |
18th April 2007: Little Egret
pictured at low tide in the estuary at Streedagh
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Images
© Mícheál Casey 2007 |
18th April 2007:
White Wagtails on the Sligo coast on passage to their breeding grounds
in Iceland are another landmark of spring, and the Ballyconnell and
Raghley areas of Sligo are very reliable sites in late April/early May
to see this subspecies of the resident Pied Wagtail that breeds in
Ireland.
|
 |
| Image © Mícheál Casey 2007 |
22nd
May 2007: One of a group of Sand Martins that were prospecting for
nesting sites in holes in a block wall at the Deepwater Quay in Sligo
Harbour today.
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Images © Mícheál Casey 2007 |
20th May 2007: Common Sandpipers, Lough Easkey.
|
 |
| Image © Mícheál Casey 2007 |
4th
May 2007: This Wheatear, photographed at Raghly showed some
features of the Greenland race (subspecies leucorhoa), specifically the
large size and the overall rusty-red tones.
|
 |
 |
| Image © Mícheál Casey 2007 |
|
4th June 2007: Sedge Warbler singing near Aughris Head.
|
 |
 |
|
Images © Mícheál Casey 2007 |
7th
July 2007: Male (left) and female (right) Blackcaps that
were trapped and ringed in mature scrub near Tubbercurry, Co. Sligo.
|
 |
| Image © Mícheál Casey 2007 |
7th
August 2007: This eclipse-plumaged Gadwall drake was at
Cartron Marsh.
|
|
|
|
 |
|
Image ©
Mícheál Casey 2007 |
|
12th
September 2007: These photos show part of a flock of 32
Light-bellied Brent at Raghley
|
 |
 |
|
Images
© Sean Geraty 2007 |
These photos show a male Northern
Eider (Somateria
mollissima borealis) found
off Raghly Point by two visiting Dublin birders on the 21st November.
These birds differ from Common Eider in the deep orange colour of the
base of the bill and the upturned scapular feathers or "sails" one of
which is visible in the right-hand photo.
|
|
|
| Image ©
John McEvoy 2007 |
14th
December 2007: This first-winter Iceland Gull was in Sligo Harbour.
|
 |
 |
| Images © Mícheál Casey 2007 |
| 23rd
December 2007: A juvenile Red-throated Diver seen in the tidal
channels at the Deepwater Quay in Sligo. Adults are much paler,
with more extensive white on the breast, neck and head. |
|
|
 |
 |
|
|
Images © Séamus Feeney 2007 |
14th
December 2007: This is the darker of the two Richardson's
Caackling Geese photographed with Barnacle Geese at Ballintemple.
Both geese were seen with the Barnacles from mid-November to the
final days of 2007
|
|
 |
| Image © Séamus Feeney 2007 |
| 27th December 2007: These
three male Common Goldeneyes were photographed in Sligo Harbour as they
displayed to each other and to nearby females. |
|
