Autumn begins

 Pied fly, 1st winter male, churchtown.

Had been looking forward to a day of seawatching on saturday but after a friend dropped out last minute, I decided a 4 hour drive to sit in the rain wasn't much of a prospect. So I decided to spend a day in Wexford and sketch some terns, hoping to find something amongst them. I arrived early at Churchtown and found good numbers of willow warbs, chiffs and blackcaps, large numbers of hirrundines over head held a few late swifts. The only bird of note was a young male pied fly which showed well, albeit briefly.

 I walked along the coast, checking through the terns and the countless wheatears I was kicking up along the beach. Two juv black terns were flying around the distant rocks, the rising tide brought one in quite close, unfortunately it was always partially hidden amongst the larger sterna terns once it landed. Roseates were plentiful, atleast 150 were on the rocks infront of me at one point, probably dozens more spread out on other outcrops. Very few juveniles of any species were amongst the adults.

 With the tide at its highest this hare appeared on the most distant rocks, panicking the terns as it tried to jump between rocks. Eventually giving in and having to swim back to shore!

A ring tail hen harrier and this 2nd year marsh harrier were around tac, a glossy ibis over the east pond, but the area was largely waderless.
An evening seawatch off carnesore was very quite, though an immature long tailed skua flying north was very nice. It was also seen by a few others in the car park further along the coast who had it in closer.
Will hopefully get to a scanner in the morning and put up some of the sketches from the last while.