Brown Booby RIP

On Monday 13th July 2020, as I was departing a work site near Bellmullet in Mayo, news broke that there was a Brown Booby sitting on Greystones Beach in County Wicklow.  As home was a 3 hour drive away and also Greystones the same distance I was torn between the long trip home or the detour to Wicklow.  Obviously from the shots below you can guess which direction I headed towards.  After the 3 hour dash and on arrival into Greystones Harbour I was met with the news from the large gathering of birders that the bird was gone missing for over half an hour. Eventually the bird was relocated on the north wall of the harbour and the following series of shots were gained.  By Wednesday the bird had been taken into captivity in a poor state and died by the end of the week.  This was the 4th record of Brown Booby in Ireland with the three previous records of one dead on Inchydoney beach in Cork, one off a Spanish fishing vessel in Kerry and one the same day as this bird on a cargo boat off the south west.  Looking forward to finding one in Clare and hopefully it will live a little longer that this one did.

 Brown Booby Greystones John N Murphy

 

Red Kite

I only manage to see Red Kite twice a year, and most of those sightings are along the motorway between Dublin and Wexford.  This morning while travelling the road between Rathdrum and Avoca, through the Vale of Avoca in Wicklow, I counted 12 individuals.  The majority were wearing wing tags as you can see from these shots, but one bird in Avoca village had clear wings and no tags.

 

Red Kites, Wicklow John N Murphy

Kingfisher

I was back at Kilcoole again yesterday, Saturday 29th June to see the Lesser Whitethroat.  The bird was singing deep within the Buckthorns, but showing very occasionally and only during flight as he made his way along the bushes.  I met young Keogh, Des, Conor Foley and Jimmy Murphy while waiting for the bird to pop up.  Afterwards I went down to south Wicklow with Jimmy, where we took in Red Cross for the Red Kites and on to a location in the south of the county, to look for Great Spotted Woodpeckers.  While searching for the woodpeckers, we came across this stunning male Kingfisher on a stretch of river catching fish.  Always a great bird to brighten up the day.

Kingfisher in south Wicklow © John N Murphy

Red-throated Diver

I travelled down to Wicklow and Kilcoole from Dublin last weekend. While there, I photographed five different winter plumaged Red-throated Divers that were feeding just offshore.

Red Kite

I was told that 18 Red Kites were seen yesterday at Avoca in county Wicklow. So I left Dublin to go look for these birds.  Found eight between Red Cross and Avoca and in Avoca village itself, three birds flew over and up the river valley. Only managed to get a few poor shots as seen below. All birds bar one were wearing colour wing tags.