Resightings Update...

As Kendrew says, reports are starting to come in from across the country of the arrival of birds back in Ireland.
Before I go on to that, firstly the position on re-sightings from Canada. Our "year" starts on 01 July, and, on that basis we have 35 records to start with. These involve both birds which we recaptured there, birds which were able to be read in the field, and a couple of birds which were shot.
There have been no reports of rings read from the wintering grounds to date, but the following counts may be of interest:
30 Aug. Dot Bleakley 6 at Saltwater Brig, SE side of Strangford Lough
05 Sept. Graham McElwaine/David Nixon 104 in 3 flocks, N mudflats Strangford Lough
05 Sept. Tony Gallagher 30 at Keadue Strand, Co. Donegal INCLUDING 4 JUVENILES - this is VERY early for a family to arrive, considering the young looked like this just over a month before:

 

Tony then reported that numbers there had risen to 61 that evening.
05 Sept. Trevor Hunter 3 at the Inishes, Ballysadare Bay, Co. Sligo
07 Sept. Kieran Griffin 35 at Cromane, Castlemaine Harbour, Co. Kerry
07 Sept. Cian Merne 2 at North Bull, Dublin
So, clearly birds are arriving around the country! Can I suggest that anyone seeing birds for the first time this winter please add your sightings as a comment to the bottom of this blog, so that we can all see how the pattern is emerging!