Ireland - Day 3

We leave our hotel for the day to travel to Carlingford Lough en route to the ruins of Newgrange. Carlingford lies between Slieve Foy Mountain, Carlingford Lough and the Mourne mountains. Carlingford is a medieval city with much of the buildings dating back to that time. We spent some time wandering through the small city. Being a Sunday morning, all was very quiet with little but a pair of European greenfinches to notice our presence. The shoreline of Carlingford Lough was equally placid with little in the way of avian life to draw our attention.

Around the ruins of the 5000 year old tomb at Newgrange were numerous Pied wagtails. These wagtails are simply a British/Irish race of the White wagtail which is found in the rest of Europe. The Pied wagtails are darker above (almost black in summer) and a sooty gray below.As we headed down the road from Newgrange bound for the little town of Keady, we were treated to a spectacular rainbow through the coach window. We could only imagine the leprechaun guarding the pot-o-gold at the rainbow’s end.
We reached our day’s end destination at Tossie’s Cottage for a traditional Irish “session ”. Musicians from the countryside gather together at this farmhouse to mix, mingle and most of all play and sing. The farmhouse is on the property of the Makem family, perhaps the most famous musical family in all of Ireland. We were hosted by Tommy Makem’s brother John. We were treated to some of the most wonderful Irish folk music you could ever hope for as well as plenty of Guinness and Jamesons. We were all sorry to leave this magical place and the magical gathering that took place. Truly a piece of Ireland we will never forget.

Ireland - Days 1 & 2

After our first day of travel and sight-seeing, we now head north to Lough Neagh and Belfast. The weather is somewhat gloomy and chilly, but our enthusiasm has not waned and we are after new birds. The wait is not long as we soon come upon wintering birds foraging through the berry-laden bushes and trees. Lough Neagh is the largest lake in the British Isles, and its waters and surrounding woodlands are a haven for wildlife. The European robin is one of the most evident birds as we enter the woodlands, especially around the edges. He looks little like our robin, but is most attractive in his own right. Great looks at a number of birds which were lifers for Sharon and me were to be found at the Lough. The Pied wagtail is a variant of the White wagtail which we have seen in Germany and in the US on one occasion. The Great tit won the prize for most colorful bird and was more than willing to come in close when a local bird photographer had sprinkled bird seed on a platform and invited me in close to take a few shots. That may be cheating a little, but hey, when in Rome……(or Ireland)….

After partaking of lunch at the Oxford Island preserve cafeteria (where by the way, we had Winter wrens perched right outside our window), we boarded the coach with Peter at the helm and headed north for Belfast. Belfast has had a turbulent past, and the last time we visited the Emerald Isle, we were not permitted to venture into the northern part of Ireland in fear of the violence that was commonplace at that time. The Good Friday Agreement of 1998 brought about an uneasy peace which has been more and more the way of life for the people of Northern Ireland. Even so, there is a steel gate to this day which separates the northern and southern parts of Belfast and is locked shut each night to prevent violence between the people of the two communities. After a visit to the city, we head over to Belfast Harbor near the airport.

The site is yet another haven for wintering and migrating birds as we soon found out. The Harbor area itself and more specifically the “Nature Conservation Area” located between the airport and Belfast Lough are literally teeming with avian life on the mudflats at low tide. A large glass-fronted blind (here they are called “Hides”) allows visitors to get close up views of Black- and Bar-tailed godwits, Redshanks, Eurasian Oystercatchers, Snipe, Reed buntings, Lapwings, Curlews and on and on. Finally, it’s back to Newry and the Canal Court Hotel. It has been another long day, and we are only two days into the trip. We head back to our rooms around 10:30 and get ready to hit the sack knowing there is a 6:15 wake-up call coming our way tomorrow morning.

Ireland - Preface

Day 0 – Dublin
We arrived in Dublin about 9:30 this morning after an overnight flight. We’ll be joining 22 other birders on a tour run by Field Guides called “The Birds, the Music and the Pubs of Ireland.” All went smoothly as we were pushed along by the jet-stream giving us a flight time of around 5 ½ hours. The trip does not officially begin until tomorrow morning, but we wanted to get in ahead of schedule and get ourselves acclimated to the change in time. After getting our shuttle over to our hotel for the evening (Holiday Inn Express – doesn’t sound too Irish, eh?), we decided upon a short nap before heading out to get some fresh air. When we left the Inn, we were thrilled to see that immediately across the access road into the hotel grounds, there was a beautiful city park complete with a large pond, stream, wooded areas and a large field area. The place was downright birdy and we took advantage of the opportunity to bag our first three life-birds of the trip…all before the tour had actually begun! Eurasian coot, Little grebe, and the Tufted duck were our lifers which we spotted among some more familiar European birds including the Common magpie, Hooded crow, Black-headed gulls and Gray heron. If the rest of the trip proves to be as productive as this, we’ll be a couple of happy American birders!