Aghada & Rostellan lake

I realize it’s been a couple of weeks since my last post; indeed the subject of this one took place last year in late December. Still I think in my head I am going to count it as the first achievement of the year.

I decided to scout Rostellan lake and Aghada for birds. I had never been on that side of the bay before and the idea of a woodland and lake habitat seemed like it might be a good change. Indeed the area was quite nice with paths winding through deciduous woodland littered with the ruins of old buildings, definitely not an unpleasant area, having said that though there wasn’t much bird life around bar some large flocks of tits/finches, a number of little grebes in the lake & a group of wigeon feeding in someone’s garden. All in all fun to look at but not all that out of the ordinary.

I decided to scout the bay fringes and again came up with only a few birds, some brent geese, shoveller flyovers, one potential ring billed gull and the standard flocks of black headed gulls.

The weather took a turn for the worst with periodic rain showers and a steady and rather severe wind, all contributing factors to my waning mood. Aghada pier was next where I had hoped to wait out the 2 hours before the next bus home was to come. Along the way, a curlew was enjoying the weather about as much as I was.

Well...having been almost ready to write the day off as bad timing I suddenly spotted next to a common gull not just one but four adult Mediterranean gulls! What a rush, I had never seen one before despite repeated attempts to look for one. I even managed some fairly okay shots of one of them.

It wasn’t until two days later when I went to sort out my shots that this shot of 2 brent geese revealed to me that I had in fact missed a fifth med gull sitting right in front of me. Evidence that I still have much to learn about bird identification. And learn I will! :)