Seabirds on the move

Tuesday 17th July 2012

 One Arctic Skua, one Bonxie and 100 Manx Shearwaters per hour were off the Bridges of Ross today.

 Brian Finnegan.

Open Season

Sunday 15th July 2012

Today has seen the beginning of the seawatching season at the Bridges of Ross where there was one Cory,s Shearwater, 200 Manx Shearwaters per hour and one Bonxie.

Geoff Hunt.

Golden Oriole

Sunday 3rd June 2012 A female Golden Oriole was seen going to roosts late this evening at a garden near Feard (Tony Mee).

Little Auk & more

First-winter Iceland Gull near Kilbaha © John N Murphy

Saturday 21st January 2012

My first visit to Loop of the new year proved to be very productive. On a half hour sea watch from the car park at the Bridges of Ross there was on Little Auk flying in a south west direction.  There were good numbers of Guillemots, few Razorbills, Fulmars, Kittiwakes and Gannets.

There were seven white-winged gulls on the headland. One first-winter Glaucous was roosting on the rocks between Kilbaha and Cloughaun Lough.  Along these rocks there were also three first-winter Iceland Gulls.  One adult and two first-winter Iceland gulls were feeding within a large flock of Herring Gulls in fields adjacent to Ross Bay.

Other birds of note were two Chough on the lighthouse road and one Raven in Kilbaha village.

John N Murphy & Finbarr MacGabhann

2011 Loop Head Report

The round up of all 2011 records will soon be published, check back later for full report.

Brambling

At Loop Head today there were two Bramblings, one male Crossbill, one male Hen Harrier, one Peregrine, one first-winter Mediterranean Gull, one adult Arctic Tern, 23 Lapwings, four Chough and one Chiffchaff.

Off the Bridges of Ross there were 1,000 plus Kittiwakes, 500 auks including two Puffins, one Red-throated Diver, six Wigeon, one Purple Sandpiper and one female Pochard.


John N Murphy & Brian Finnegan

 Brambling at Walshes Farm, Kilbaha © John N Murphy

Raven hovers over Ross beach © John N Murphy

Mediterranean Gull on the rocks in Kilbaha © John N Murphy

Black Redstart

Today Tuesday 1st November sees after a night of South East winds, the first Black Redstart of the autumn at Loop Head.  Tony Mee has been on the peninsula for the past few days over the Bank Holiday weekend, but things have been dead.  So far he managed to dig out three Merlin, a late staying Swallow (31/10/11), one Chiffchaff and now a Black Redstart.  Little return for many hours of flogging the Loop.  We feel your pain Tony.

John N Murphy

Black Redstart © John N Murphy