The Lincolnshire Bird Club

Just returned from a 4 day trip to Counties Mayo and Galway feeling a little disappointed. Distinct lack of birds nearly everywhere. very small numbers of Wheatear, Reed Bunting and Linnet with very few of any other passerines apart from Blackbird and House Sparrow. Crows(mostly hooded) and Jackdaws in reasonable numbers. Very small numbers of seabirds, even on islands and at sea. A few Greater and Lesser Blackbacked, Common and Blackheaded Gulls, 7 Guillemots, 1 Black Guillemot, 2 Gannets, 2 Arctic Terns, 2 Cormorants and a Shag. Clare Island had larger numbers of passerines and allegedly good sized seabird colonies on the remoter cliffs (no time to visit). I visited dozens of loughs during the 4 days and saw hardly any waterfowl at all, just seven Mute Swans and a pair of Mallards on Lough Roonagh and no Coots or Moorhens at all. No sign of Rabbits or Brown Hares (or Irish Hare) anywhere. Even Connemara National Park seemed a bit lifeless although the scenery was stunning

Was I doing something wrong, is there a secret to birding on the West coast of Ireland? I have sailed yachts from Northern Ireland up the East coast and through the North Channel around Rathlin to Ballycastle and up into the Hebrides several times and seen masses of seabirds in all seasons so what is happening?

I did have a couple of highlights - seven Choughs flying noisely over me on Sruhir Strand near Roonagh and a good view of Bottlenose Dolphins alongside the boat over to Clare Island.

David

P.S. I forgot to mention the most significant of all - not a single raptor was seen, not even a Kestrel and perfect environment for buzzards apart from the absence of rabbits! Also this post should have been in overseas reports

David