Carlingford outing Sunday 20 March

Sunday 20th March: Carlingford Outing

The group met up in Carlingford at 11 am and was joined by Breffni Martin of the Louth Branch and some of his Drogheda students. We spent the first hour or so observing a good selection of roosting birds.The tide was exceptionally high making it difficult for the birds to find a spot to roost on due to the fact that the moon was exceptionally close to the Earth around this time.A good variety of birds were seen including bar-tailed godwit, turnstone, curlew and large numbers of brent geese. The next site visited was Ballagan point where we were lucky enough to encounter a small flock of tree sparrows as we got out of our cars. Also encountered at the site were Great Northern and Red Throated Divers, gannets and a sandwich tern (a welcome sign of Spring). To finish up we headed to Giles’ Key where we spotted more divers and a seal feeding close to the pier. The highlight of the day had to be watching large numbers of brent geese flying overhead as they returned to their feeding sites to take advantage of the retreating tide. Thanks to Breffni for sharing his great local knowledge of birds at the sites with us.