Tales of a Tormented Twitcher

Monaghan. Everyone wishes they lived there…don’t they? I would certainly prefer a coastal patch as the chances of finding decent stuff is surely increased. Duck numbers, even in winter are relatively low compared to other parts of the country. Most springs, my birding would be focused elsewhere such as Wexford but with increased coverage this year, the return has been decent. Before the lockdown, on 9 th February 2020, after dipping on a Dowitcher sp. found near Dundalk, Co. Louth by Paul Kelly, Dad and I planned to check some lakes much closer to home. Between November and March each year we check the local lakes several times a week. Monalty Lough was our first stop, after a few minutes of scanning we had almost given up when I caught a glimpse of a duck diving with open wings. I immediately suspected Long-tailed Duck, and my suspicions were soon confirmed when it very briefly returned to the surface before diving again. The two of us eventually managed decent views in difficul...

On Friday the 13 th of September 2013, dad asked me had I seen the ‘Red Alert’ as they used to be called on Irish Birding… I hadn’t. Davey Farrar had just found an Orange-billed Tern sp. on Beale Strand in Kerry. At the time I was in 2 nd Year and the school had only just resumed a couple of weeks. I always wished our ‘summer’ holidays could have started, instead of ending in August. Later that evening the Tern was confirmed as an Elegant Tern and lovely images went up online which were taken by Ian Jones. Dad wasn’t off work until the following weekend and after a lot of pleading, he finally gave in and said that if it was reported on the following Friday we could go on the Saturday. The next week at school was one of the longest most drawn-out weeks of my life. Every evening I would run home to the laptop and check Irish Birding, praying that the Tern had been reported. Most days there were reports of it however there was a couple of blank days which had me worried. Beale was app...