On Saturday 5th March we visited Killala Bay with a view to seeing as many water birds and marine mammals as possible. Jackie went through the methodology used for bird surveys and helped with the identification of the birds seen.
We saw a fantastic range of water birds – curlews, light-bellied brent geese, great northern divers, red throated divers, cormorants, shags, mergansers, redshank, greenshanks, sanderlings… Jackie had a couple of scopes and binoculars that let us zoom right in on these fantastic birds.
At Kilcummin we had a talk from Aoife Foley on whales, dolphins and marine mammals generally. She explained how to look for Whales and Dolphins and what they look like when breaching or blowing. We didn’t see any whales or dolphins but a common or harbour seal kept popping its head up every few minutes.
Finally we visited Ross Beach where, once again there was a diverse range of birds. We saw a large number of Brent Geese feeding there before heading to their northerly breeding grounds probably in Canada. We were a bit annoyed, however, when a trio of very noisy motorized hang-gliders buzzed the beach – bye-bye geese, waders and divers!