Tales of a Tormented Twitcher

On the evening of the 4 th August 2020, Gerard Murray, John Cusack and I were returning from an uneventful two days in Wexford. We camped at the east end of Tacumshin Lake but we couldn’t dig anything rare out of the hundreds of smalls on Tacumshin. The highlight was a twitched juvenile Wood Sandpiper at Ballyteige Burrow near Kilmore Quay. Reed Warblers, Ruff, a couple of showy Water Rails, Marsh Harrier and a nice count of 19 Mediterranean Gulls including a few crisp juveniles were the only other birds of note. I was fairly knackered after the few days and was looking forward to getting into my own bed when I got home. Shortly after 20:10, I got a notification on my phone from a Stephen King retweet. It was a tweet from Kerry birder Pat McDaid to say that he had just found a Caspian Tern near Ballinskelligs. My heart sank. I was due back into work the next morning and there was very little chance of getting my shift covered. Caspian Terns in Ireland just don’t seem to ever play ba...

Monday the 13 th of July 2020… a day I’ll never forget. A normal day somewhat dragged as I had just sat down to have a bite to eat before getting ready for work. I had just taken my first bite when I was interrupted to a phone call from Cian Cardiff…I answered immediately half expecting to hear news of a rarity but the pure magnitude of what followed was certainly not on my radar! “Brian, “a Brown Booby is sitting on the beach at Greystones, Niall Hatch found it” I can’t remember what I said on hearing this news because I was in shock. As every sensible twitcher knows, there’s only one thing that you can do when you hear news of a huge rarity and you’re meant to be into work in less than an hour and that’s… panic. A few phone calls were made as I legged it up to the shop that I work in and seconds later the news was out to everyone. Mayhem… I ran into the shop and politely asked the boss’s son if there was any chance, he could cover my evening shift and I’ll explain all tomorrow...

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...

On Tuesday the 16th of August 2016 I was in the middle of doing some summer homework when I got a beep on my phone. Seamus Feeney had just found an Orange-billed Tern sp. at Roonagh Lough, Co. Mayo". On hearing this news, I rang a few friends which this would have interested. Only 30 minutes later I got another beep on my phone, this time saying "MEGA ROYAL TERN at Roonagh Lough, Co. Mayo". What the hell was a Royal Tern doing in Mayo! Panic ensued; I rang as many birders as I could to get the news out quickly. It was too far to make it before nightfall from Dublin, so many set out to run for it the next morning, myself included. I got a lift to Balbriggan with a friend from Swords and stayed the night in Mark Stewart's apartment. We set off at 2:45 am with our aim to be there for first light, our judgement, however, was wrong. As we were 45 minutes away from Roonagh Lough, I got a text from Victor Caschera saying "Royal still on the Lough". We were d...

Mid-morning on the 4 th November 2019, Steve Wing caught a Yellow-browed Warbler in the nets in the Nordy Wood and released it. A second Yellow-browed was caught shortly after which was much brighter. Later in the morning, Steve heard what sounded like typical Hume’s Leaf Warbler calls coming from the same area. However, the calls stopped and the bird wasn’t seen or heard again that day despite best efforts by Steve. Steve put news out around 12:30 to say that he had caught a probable Hume’s Warbler at the Waist. However, despite this being only the 4 th Irish record, the lack of news after the original sighting put Gerard Murray, John Cusack and myself off trying on Tuesday morning. At 9:35 the next morning, Steve struck gold again! The Hume’s Warbler was back in the net in the Nordy Wood. The tweet read as follows “Phyllosc showing features of Hume’s present and retrapped at the Waist 5 minutes ago. Photos to be looked at for confirmation” Twitch on! However, there was one flaw...

October 2019 As September drew to a close after being relatively uneventful apart from a few American Waders, I was itching for a twitch. Late on the 29 th September, a Black Tern was relocated at Spanish Arch beside Nimmo’s Pier, Co. Galway after a non-birder photographed it the previous day. Many Galway birders were on site quickly including Cathal Forkan, Niall T Keogh etc. and these were able to nail the identification as American Black Tern and the shots that followed were gripping, to say the least. As I was in work when the news broke it was difficult to start planning any sort of twitch but I knew I’d try for it. The next morning and I was almost in Dublin for college when Dermot Breen posted in the WhatsApp group that there had been so sign all morning. This put me off trying and I continued on to college. There was no further news on it, that was until Hugh Delaney relocated it just before 15:00 pm. On hearing this I ran out mid-lecture to the Euro Giant shop...