13th-14th February 2010 – Ireland part II…..

News of a Thayer’s Gull and the continuing presence of the Dresser’s Eider in Ireland was excuse enough to meet up with Derek again.

So Chris H and Craig arrived at mine at 2300hrs and we made our way towards Stranraer. After stopping off to pick Chris H up; we made our way to the ferry terminal. We boarded the ferry at c0300hrs and were soon on our way to Belfast. After disembarking at around 0630hrs we soon met up with Derek and were on our way towards Galway.

We arrived at Ross Beach near Cleggan by late morning and began looking for the Thayer’s Gull. Although there was no sign of the gull we had nice views of Black-throated Diver, Great Northern Diver, Red-throated Diver and many Black Guillemots. A Chough displaying overhead was also a very nice bonus. The scenery was fantastic!

By early evening we decided to make our way to Donegal as the Thayer’s Gull seemed to have disappeared from the area.

The next morning we made our way to Fanad Head after a brief look for the Ring-billed Gull at Donegal Town. The Eiders were a lot closer than they had been on our previous visits. so we felt were in with a better chance of seeing the Dresser’s Eider. Despite good efforts from the birders present an hour or two had passes and things were not looking so good! However; just as we were all getting despondent, the Dresser’s Eider suddenly appeared in the bay. What a superb bird it was; far better than I had anticipated.

This was a superb bird to see, and seemed to have so much character to it. The difference in structure to the head (and the lobes in particular) when compared to the Common Eiders present was very significant. This bird had certainly gone some way to make up for missing the Thayer’s Gull!

After a very heavy bout of rain the Dresser#s Eider moved further out. We decided to make our way towards Inch. On arrival at the area, Derek soon put us onto the intermediate phase Snow Goose that was wintering in the area.

After unsuccessfully searching for an intermediate Canada Goose we finished the day looking at Dargan Bay. There was thousands of birds to look through here, including, Black-tailed Godwits, Knot, Dunlins, Black-headed Gulls, Scaup and Pochard. The highlights were a Peregrine, Pintail and two Med Gulls picked out by Derek (1 adult, 1 2nd winter).

It was soon to head back home. It had been another fantastic few days birding with great company.