Laughing Gull - 1, Ballycastle, Co. Antrim (Geoff Campbell)
Greenshank - 8, Dundrum Inner Bay South, Co. Down
In Co. Donegal:
Little Gull - 1, Carrigart, Co. Donegal (Eric Randall)
Thanks to Geoff for some more shots of this Northern Ireland mega - it's stayed so long it's already got a traditional route and is more than willing to start a fight with its neighbours, should fit in very well. The real question is when and where will the next rarity turn up? - well, the NIBA have a new secret weapon. All will be revealed tomorrow.
Laughing Gull by Geoff Campbell
Here's a shot of some Black-tailed Godwits taken by Ed O'Hara at Belfast RSPB
Thanks to Deborah Cohen for a pic of a really smart looking Laughing Gull (on home turf) - not like the shabby fella visiting us.
As for yesterday's trivia question from George Gordon, here's the answer (I told you it was a head-melter...a good one though)
Apart from all being passerines on the Irish List what do Woodchat Shrike,
Red-breasted Flycatcher, Lesser Whitethroat, Yellow-browed Warbler,
Short-toed Lark, Lapland Bunting, Mealy Redpoll, Greenland Wheatear,
Melodius Warbler, Aquatic Warbler, Reed Warbler, Pallas's Grasshopper
Warbler, Dartford Warbler, Little Bunting and Shore Lark have in common?
The first Irish records of all these birds came from Irish lighthouses (14 species and one sub-species). The propensity of migrating birds to be killed striking lighthouses at night has long been recognized. In 1881 the British Association decided to contact every lighthouse keeper in the British Isles asking for information on these birds and specimens if possible. They received a positive response and the data collected from 1882 to 1886 was published in 1887.
In Ireland Richard Barrington (who had written to all the Irish Lighthouse keepers on the behalf of BA) clearly thought there was more information to be garnered. At his own expense he went on collecting data for another decade. In 1900 he published (again at his own expense) The Migration of Birds as Observed at Irish Lighthouses and Lightships - the collation of more than 2,000 records. With only 350 copies printed it remains one of the rarest and most sought after books on Irish Ornithology.
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