Another One for the Bucket List

Southwest Donegal Birdwatchers

Our outing on the 26th of July was to Tory Island off the Northwest coast of the county. Our trips to Tory have become a bit of an annual event to see the charismatic Puffins, before they head way out into the Atlantic for the winter. In addition to all this, Tory is a fascinating place with its king, the ruins of an early monastic settlement, it’s vivid folklore, and a landscape that is simply stunning. It is something of a birdwatching Mecca and there is an annual Tory Island Bird Report that is available from the House of Books in Ballybofey.

We all made our way to the island at different times. Those that went over on Friday evening were treated to display from a group of cavorting dolphins; those who can over on Saturday morning saw the Manx Shearwaters and an Eider duck with chicks in the harbour.

I camped for the night, while a few more timid souls stayed in the hotel. It seemed like a good idea at the time. After three hours of lying in the tent listening to the love-sick rasps of a corncrake, I was developing a nervous twitch – I flinched every time the flash from the lighthouse lit up the entire tent. There are times in your life when you think that things cannot get any worse, and then they do; it was at that point that the torrential rain started to hammer down on the tent – at least I couldn’t hear the corncrake any more! After what seemed like an eternity of this Abu Ghraib style assault on the senses, I finally went to sleep… then the sun came up at 5:33am.

At times camping can be a wee bit tough but there is something special about it; there’s a real sense of being close to nature and the elements. During an early morning walk before breakfast the wrens were particularly noisy and the snipe were checking out the puddles that had been formed by the previous night’s rain. For the birds of the lakes, it was business as usual; the Whooper Swans, Tufted Ducks, Mallards and Grey Herons got about the endless chore of searching out food, while a Ringed Plover searched among the pebbles of the shore for a few morsels.

We all got together for breakfast in the hotel. Halfway through breakfast the chef called us into the kitchen and out into the back yard, and there sitting on a stone wall, was a male corncrake, singing his heart out. The corncrake is an extremely secretive bird and this was the first time that the chef, in all her years on the island, had seen one; it was a first for a few of the folk in our group too.

On Friday evening I took a walk up to the cliffs to see the puffins and to check out where they were nesting this year. I checked out a few of the regular haunts. One spot seemed totally abandoned and in another, the odd puffin would fly in from the sea and immediately dive into its burrow. It would eventually emerge blink in the sunshine for a few seconds before launching itself seaward once more. This seemed odd because puffins are gregarious little birds and seem to love standing around in little social huddles – but not today! The reason for this behaviour became obvious when a Great Skua came along the cliff, drifting on the wind, looking for its next victim.

As I mentioned last month, Great Skuas are brown gull-like birds with a white flash on either wing. We saw them for the first time last month, and they turn up here again this month. They are described as parasitic as they will harass other birds until they drop food they have just caught or regurgitate items they have swallowed. That is why the puffins were making themselves scarce.

It was an entirely different story the next day. Literally hundreds of puffins covered the grassy slopes of the cliffs – too many to count. By the second week of August most of these birds will have left Tory and will fly all the way to Newfoundland where they will feed on capelin for a few weeks. When the capelin season is over, they head out to the ocean to the Southwest of Iceland and spend the rest of the winter feeding there.

Along the road, to and from the cliffs, we saw Linnets, Meadow Pipits, Oyster Catchers, young Pied Wagtails, Ravens, Rock Pigeons, Rock Pipits, Starlings and Wheatears.
The undoubted highlight of the visit was the boat trip we took around the eastern cliffs of the island. Most of the island is granite but the cliffs at the east of the island are quartzite. They rise like great cathedrals up out of the heaving sea and are alive with screaming Kittewakes, who seem to call their own names, Fulmars, Cormorants and Shags. The Guillemots were still there in profusion but most of the Razorbills seem to have moved on, only a few remained. Around in the water there were, what seemed like, thousands of Puffins, a few Guillemots and Black Guillemots. Overhead there were Common Gulls, Great Black-backed Gulls, Lesser Black-backed Gull and a few Black-headed Gulls. Just out to sea, a cloud of Gannets rained down, in an aerial bombardment, on a shoal of fish. The boat trip at this time of year is one of the most exhilarating things you can do; it’s up there with becoming a member of the mile-high club! You can contact the boatman through the Harbour View Hotel.

I have to say a big thank you to Tory’s Anton Meehan, who let us know that the Puffins were still in situ. He also told us where certain species could be seen… he even pointed out a Tree Sparrow that was sitting on a fence post at the back of his house; that was a first for me!

On this outing, we encountered 35 bird species, including Black Guillemot, Black-headed Gull, Chough, Common Gull, Cormorant, Corncrake, Eider Duck, Fulmar, Gannets, Great Black-backed Gull, Great Skua, Grey Heron, Guillemot, Kittiwake, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Linnet, Mallard, Manx Shearwater, Meadow Pipit, Oyster Catcher, Pied Wagtail, Puffin, Raven, Razorbill, Ringed Plover, Rock Pigeon, Rock Pipit, Shag, Snipe, Starlings, Tree Sparrow, Tufted Duck, Wheatear, Whooper Swan and Wren.
Our next trip will be around Donegal Bay on Saturday the 30th August. We will meet at Donegal Pier at 10am.

If you would like to join us, please bring warm clothing with a waterproof jacket, trousers, appropriate footwear, a packed lunch and flask. Bring binoculars if you have them. Telescopes and books are shared. Contact us on 086 8058528 or 087 2770408 or southwestbirders@gmail.com. All are welcome but you are reminded that we are an informal group without structure; each is responsible for their own wellbeing and safety. We look forward to meeting you.

Michael Cunningham