Rather than race across to Ireland & back for the Least Tern, I made it into a mini trip with a second day of Birding, before returning on the third morning to allow some seawatching for Seabirds & Cetaceans. With the weather predicted to get wet & winds as a front moved through on my first evening & with no detailed sites for the Irish endemic Butterfly, Cryptic Wood White, I decided to head off to The Mullet. I had visited The Mullet after the Egyptian Vulture twitch & immediately moved it up to my favourite part of Ireland, given its similarly to the Uist Islands. I was hoping to get better views of the currently resident American Black Duck on Cross Lough, having only had a flight view of it disappearing into the Southern corner of the lake on the previous visit. In the end, I didn't manage to find it on the first evening. The following day was wet & windy as the front appeared later than the forecast. It should have cleared by dawn, but the rain didn't stop till mid-morning. Still I needed to catch up on some sleep after the overnight crossing to Ireland. It looked like most of the Ducks present on the previous evening had disappeared to feed locally or were skulking out of site in the reed edges.
Cross Lough is a lovely place to go Birding & I was pleased to see this recently fledged & independent juvenile Wheatear. Really hoping one year to see a juvenile Wheatear this young in the Isle of Purbeck to confirm local breeding.
I will write a longer Blog Post at a later date. As I was driving back to Rosslare than evening, I was wishing I had booked to stay longer in Ireland. However, 24 hours later, I was really pleased with the decision to travel home after two full days in Ireland. More on that in the next Blog Post.
