Irish trip day two - The Beara and The Iveragh

With all the recent storms seemingly distant with the sun shining most of the day, we headed along The Beara peninsular checking a few bays. There was still a juvenile Iceland Gull in Castletown Bearhaven harbour early morning, while the King Eider and same Glaucous Gull from yesterday were at Cahermore. Pallas' Strand at Eyeries was the only other bay on the Beara to hold some decent birds - 2 adult and a 2nd-winter Glaucous Gull. At the head of the bay, at Kenmare, a juvenile Iceland and juvenile Glaucous Gull were seen distantly from the pier.

Onto The Iveragh, a check of the always promising looking Derrynane Estuary near Caherdaniel produced little of note, though a bit further west things started to hot up a bit. In fact, as well a juvenile Glaucous Gull that was head deep in a Guillemot carcass, the first Kumlien's Gull of the day, a juvenile, was on the beach to the west of Waterville; a nicely tail-banded bird with subtle dark pigmentation in the outer primaries.

juvenile Kumlien's Gull, Inny Strand County Kerry 17 February 2014

Just a bit further west at Inny Strand, one of the sites I'm more used to checking on September wader trips, there were an impressive three Kumlien's Gull - two juveniles and a 2nd-winter - as well as another 2 Glaucous Gulls (an adult and a juvenile). The Kumlien's Gulls were again relatively subtle birds, with the chunky 2nd-winter having a bit of ghost mirroring and one of the juveniles the darkest of the day.

two juvenile Kumlien's Gulls (above) and second-winter Kumlien's Gull (below), Inny Strand County Kerry 17 February 2014

Further checks of Ballinskeligs and Portmagee were fruitless, while the usually decent Reenard Point held a single juvenile Kumlien's Gull; the storms that hit recently all came from the northeastern seaboard of the US so it's no surprise that a load of these have been displaced to western Ireland this winter.