A big day attempt, and a finds tick

Well, it continues to be a relatively slow spring, with the recent poor weather not helping, especially as the winds have often been from a northerly direction, as seems so often to be the case in recent years. That said, an attempt at a county day list record on Saturday last (25th), with Paul Moore, Dennis O'Sullivan and Ger Walsh, still managed to produce some decent birds, with the most enjoyable for me being a self-found 2nd cal year Hobby at Pilmore, which was a finds tick. Given the initially distant views, and less than ideal light at times, I must admit that the initial ID was somewhat of a team effort, though the true identification became more apparent as the bird got slightly closer. Regrettably, it never really gave great views, and we eventually lost it as a speck high to the west...where it went next, nobody knows.
Also of note were two (presumably) different Little Terns, with the bird found by Paul at Lough Aderra being at a most surprising location! We could almost have expected Whiskered there before Little, given then recent events in Britain.
Suffice it to say that, given rain until 12.30, and then wind for the rest of the day, coupled with the likelihood that many species genuinely were not available, we decided to pack it in at 7.45pm, on a score of 99 species, due to the fact that the previous year's total of 105 was probably beyond us at that stage. Typically, 4 Grasshopper Warblers were at Knockadoon Head the next day: we had had none.

Spring..all it's cracked up to be?

Hello again,
It really is most difficult to come up with reasons for updating this blog: as it is, I am only doing so as it has been so long since the last update.
So, yet again, spring seems to be frustrating, at least so far, with most of the best birds in the county (what few rarities that there are) not hanging around for people to see (Honey-buzzard would have been an Irish tick, Gyr would have been a county tick),elusive (that Great White Egret in the Fota area) or distant (though I did catch up with a fine 1st-summer male Subalpine Warbler on Mizen Head on Saturday last...I would show you all my pics of it, but they are a bit too poor even to put on here, to be honest). Also, as per usual in spring, I can't seem to find a rarity for love nor money, though, to be fair, it will probably be May before the odds swing around enough to favour even a slight chance of most of us finding much, Dan Ballard excepted (I don't think that he's had a spring without a few rarities since he moved to Mizen).
As a result, and being the kind of person who overanalyses things at times, I do find myself wondering just what I am doing wrong in spring? Sure, I am not getting out as often as I would like this year, and, even when I do get out, it is often noon or later before I get anywhere, and that would go a long way to explaining my poor return to date this year, but then I remind myself that, in years past, I often got out for 2-3 days a week, and still couldn't find much then. In fact, when one excludes my Alpine Swifts, which were in Cork city, and, as such, pure fluke, I have only found one spring rarity in a 'typical' location, that being a Golden Oriole at Knockadoon on 4th May 2003 (my spring finds are so few that I can even recall the date of that bird!!).
Indeed, it does seem that, even more so than in autumn, it is a small few birders who find almost all of the rarities in spring in Ireland, and, while some of them live at promising locations, others do not, and it really does beggar belief as to why this should be? I mean, I am at least as well able to identify what I see as the next man, but somehow seem to fail persistently when it comes to finding anything.
(I could also point out, of course, that, for a large part of the time every spring, I am taking part in 'worthy' birding such as harrier surveys etc, and now with the Atlas also, which would mean that I was less likely to find stuff than birders who purely go out for their own enjoyment, with no thought for the greater good, but that would be uncharitable of me, so I won't...)
I suppose I could just start heading out more often locally, even if Cork city affords little chance of finding top notch rarities...Red-rumped Swallow is surely possible at the Lough...?

Some food for thought

Hi all,
Well, despite not having many birds to write about (though I plan on writing a short bird-related update after this), I have been wrestling with the notion of whether or not I should start posting some personal thoughts and, if I am lucky, insights on here. There is a large part of me that would regard this as somewhat self-indulgent, but, seeing as how even blogging per se could be viewed this way, I shall allow myself, from time to time, to actually make my musings available over the net.
So, yesterday, while in town, I read the latest issue of Birdwatch magazine (there's rarely anything in there to merit buying the thing, especially when I am already subscribed to two journals), and turned keenly to the Punkbirders' column, as I had seen this described as being 'strongly opinionated' (but, then, since when were the Punks afraid to offer an opinion on their own site?). Basically, as I understood it, this piece seemed to suggest that the days of the single-observer rarity being accepted are, if not quite over, then certainly numbered.
Now, I have an odd kind of position where this debate is concerned: since I spent many years without a camera, I did tend to feel somewhat apprehensive about what I too perceived as the relentless rise of the image as king, to the detriment of field notes. However, it is unclear as to how much my thoughts were influenced by my own innate technophobe ways, or (legitimate) fears of becoming almost 'obselete' in my adherence to the old ways.
In early 2007, I finally gave in to the digital revolution, and purchased a reasonably 'inexpensive' compact camera. Just over two years later, I must admit to still not having fully reconciled the sometimes divergent urges to study a given bird closely, and to obtain pics of said bird, and I do tend to wonder if I am taking in as much fine detail as before when trying to snatch a few frantic pics. That said, I must also admit that, if used judiciously and appropriately, a digital camera can be a great extra weapon in the would-be rarity finder/ID enthusiast's arsenal, but, and I may be raging against the incoming tide here, I think there is still a place for field notes also, even if only to fill in the gaps in any photographic evidence.
Sure, I appreciate that field notes, perhaps, are more prone to being subjective than all but the worst quality pics (interpretations of which can vary widely and alarmingly, as can be seen in some mystery bird competitions), and it would take a complete Luddite to deny the value of a series of shots of some bird or other (this was ever the case, however, even back in the days of analogue cameras and Richard Mills popping down to photograph the latest rarity...that 1974 Solitary Sandpiper can obviously be seen not to have been a misidentified Green even to those of us without access to the submitted description), but, sometimes, a given bird can show well, yet not reveal all of its plumage marks in front of the cameras (if an observer, say, is limited to digiscoping, it may not be possible to obtain shots showing the spread wing in flight...see my shots of the 2007 Collared Pratincole, for example, none of which show this, and, were they pics taken by me of a similar self-found bird, I would need recourse to field notes to fully exclude Black-winged or Oriental were I to make a formal submission), and there's also the potential benefits of noting calls (though these are always hard to transcribe, and are perhaps best dealt with by recording them, but that's another can of worms...), possibly significant behaviour etc.
So, by all means let us welcome the opportunity to be able to obtain very useful shots of birds without having to carry around a large amount of extra gear (many do lug this around, and they get damn good shots too, but that option isn't attractive to everyone, be it for financial reasons, a desire to be reasonably unhindered when in the field or such like), but, I would suggest, especially if 2-3 people are present, let's not forget to look closely also, while striving to remain as objective as possible, questioning one's assumptions and playing devil's advocate from time to time: Why isn't this a Herring Gull? Is that call really all that different from 'x'?
For those of us who choose to submit our finds to a committee, I still think that there would be grounds for accepting a really rare bird from a single observer, but possibly not unless the quality of the submission is faultless, pointing out exactly how all the alternatives were ruled out, and the caution that was employed in the field and after the event. As an occasional lone observer myself, I certainly wouldn't let fears of rejection spoil the enjoyment if I found, say, Ireland's first Red-flanked Bluetail and was unable to get shots, but, if I found something like a 1st-w Slaty-backed Gull, I would possibly not feel as confident that it may gain acceptance...
Of course, after all of the above, mistakes will still be made...it's an unavoidable part of the human condition...but I believe that they can be minimised with a little caution and by trying to keep a cool head where possible.
(Bet I mess up really badly in the next month or so now, after sticking my neck on the chopping board here!)

Ten years on...

A few recent pics, and news of a county first

Ballybrannigan does it again!

Some recent gull pics