2021: A year in review

Egyptian Vulture, Co. Donegal

In early January of 2021 if somebody told me that I would successfully twitch two Irish firsts and have 6 rare finds I’d probably have bitten your hand off for that. From a twitching point of view, 2021 will probably be remembered on a personal level for all the dips.

 

Dips

This year I have had an extremely poor hit rate when it came to twitching. It was so poor that lack of motivation saved me some more dips towards the latter end of the autumn. The large majority of my dips involved the target bird having either been seen on the day I dipped or the previous day. Some of the worst dips included Ireland’s first Red-winged Blackbird. However, having a nasty crash while twitching a Sardinian Warbler meant that I never actually got to the site, and then dipping it again two days later was like a kick in the balls. I then missed Montagu’s Harrier by about an hour and Great Spotted Cuckoo by twenty minutes to round off a brutal spring. Autumn dips included Ireland’s first Horned Lark (would have been a tick for me regardless of a split as I still need Shore Lark), Blyth’s Reed Warbler, a Scottish ringed White-tailed Eagle (I don’t tick either Eagle in Ireland so this would have been a great tick).

The one time I did see a bird I twitched in the autumn was a Lesser Grey Shrike on Galley Head which sadly was captive bred and therefore untickable. Booted Warbler, Greenish Warbler, Melodious Warbler, Buff-bellied Pipit, another Horned Lark, Dartford Warbler, Baillon’s Crake, Bee-eater, Golden Oriole, Cetti’s Warbler all untwitchable for one reason or another

Now that the downsides are out of the way, I’ll talk about the positives. I managed to get a year list of 202 species meaning that I have had a year list of at least 200 species for the 6^th year in a row.

 

Bird of the year

I think it must go to my Caspian Gull. Out of all the birds I’ve seen this year the Caspian brought me the most joy and so it gets my bird of the year. This was my first adult and only second ever Caspian Gull which was made all the sweeter getting accepted by the NIRBC. I almost feel guilty not picking Shane Farrell’s Egyptian Vulture. A truly mind-bogglingly unlikely addition to the Irish list and the views it gave as Mark Stewart would say were absolutely sumptuous. I will almost certainly never see another Egyptian Vulture in Ireland again a true cosmic mind fucker.

Egyptian Vulture, Co. Donegal

Ticks

My only other Irish ticks this year were Ireland’s first Least Tern in Co. Dublin in amongst a small colony of Little Terns and an American Coot at Tacumshin found by Andrew McMillan. The Least Tern was expertly found by Niall and Noel Keogh and is one of the most skillful finds of the last few decades. The bird was very obliging and was heavily twitched by many from Ireland and further afield with many traveling from Britain, France, Belgium etc. Top marks to the Keoghs

Least Tern, Co. Dublin

The Coot was another great find and played ball first thing on its second morning. The first record for Wexford and the 5^th record for Ireland.

Self Finds

I really enjoyed my birding this year and birded at least locally almost every day this year.  

Caspian Gull

By far my favourite self-find was the Caspian Gull on Clay Lake, Armagh. This has already been accepted by the NIRBC as a first record for the county. With still less than twenty national records it is still a very rare bird in Ireland. Sadly, it was only a one-day wonder but luckily it showed very well for just over an hour on the 21^{st of} January 2021. It makes it even more satisfying that it was so close to home. A more in-depth write up on this bird can be found in a previous blog post.

Caspian Gull, Co. Armagh

Lesser Scaup

Finding a drake Lesser Scaup in December was extremely satisfying as it was my main target species to find for a few years now. Mainly because almost all of my winter birding is checking flocks of Tufted Ducks. After twitching Aidan Kelly’s Lesser Scaup on Lough Sheelin I decided to check Tufted flocks in the north of the county. It didn’t take long before I struck gold with a distant presumed Lesser Scaup. It took a few hours before I nailed the identification beyond doubt with pics of the spread wing, bill detail, vermiculations and the head shape.

Lesser Scaup, Co. Cavan

 

Kumlien’s Gull

Almost daily checks of the gull roost at Clay Lake produced a gorgeous adult Kumlien’s Gull on the 7^th February 2021 which stayed for four days and gave wonderful views. My first time seeing an adult Kumlien’s Gull which made this find all the sweeter!

Kumlien's Gull, Co. Armagh

Great White Egret

While on my hinterland survey in County Longford I was delighted to stumble across a non-breeding plumaged Great White Egret feeding and showing well on the evening of the 13^th of May 2021. Like with the Caspian Gull though this too was a one-day wonder.

Great White Egret, Co. Longford

American Golden Plover

My two weeks on Mizen Head couldn’t have started better when I picked up this AGP calling above my head in Lissagriffin where I managed excellent flight views and got decent record pics and sound recordings. The dusky underwing was quality as was the pewee call which echoed around the marsh. It disappeared for several days before I picked it up a few days later with a small roost of Golden Plovers on the lake. It then showed well daily for over a week.

 

American Golden Plover, Co. Cork

Ring-necked Duck

I was delighted to pick up what is presumably the returning drake Ring-necked Duck with Cian Cardiff in late October 2021 on Moylan Lough. However, I was even happier to pick up a stunning fresh juvenile female Ring-necked on Monalty Lough only a few days later. With it only being 3km from my house this was a very satisfying find on what can be a brutal lake for birds. Through the month of December, I found another five Ring-necked Ducks in County Cavan bringing my tally of self-found birds for the winter to seven.

Ring-necked Duck, Co. Monaghan

Grey-bellied Brant

In March, as the Brent Geese started to build in numbers around Dundalk, Co. Louth I managed to pick up at least 5 Grey-bellied Brant candidates including an adult male accompanied by two young. I picked the same bird up in November where it was paired with an apparent hrota (or Grey-bellied?) with 6 juvs. Whether these are a subspecies or species in their own right or just a hybrid population is a discussion for another day.

 

Grey-bellied Brant, Co. Louth

Summary

Birders are greedy. Of course, I wanted and expected more ticks this year but there’s always next year. In terms of finds, I couldn’t have asked for more considering all but one of the finds wasn’t closer than 20km from the coast. Hopefully this time next year I’ll be writing about a self-found American Herring Gull on my local Gull roost… time will tell.

Happy New Year!