New Sightings at Wexford Wildfowl Reserve
The flocks of White-fronted geese are now here, upwards of 3,000 in the 3rd week of October, large numbers of Brent geese are also helping themselves to our fields and swarms of linnets make their way from patch to patch.
A couple of interesting and unusual visitors have been sighted in Wexford Wildfowl Reserve, large and small.
On Monday 19th September, a rare vagrant, the Common Crane (Grus grus) was seen in the channel from the Pat Walsh hide. An elegant giant normally found in Scandinavia, Eastern Europe and Spain, where many spend the winter, the crane visits Ireland occasionally and was last seen on the Slob in 2003. It is a very shy bird of open country and can only be seen from a distance. It is not a heron, a widespread Irish native, and feeds not on fish but on roots, seeds and insects in open fields. The mating dance of the crane is known for its spectacular elegance. This individual was seen again throughout the week and may still be present. Most likely it is or was resting and feeding on a break from migrating south to its wintering grounds in Spain or Africa. Most recently seen on the Reserve on Thursday October 6th, it has since been spotted around Tacumshin.
Another notable visitor on the opposite end of the size scale is the Little Stint (Chalidris minuta), a tiny wader -the size of a sparrow- that breeds in the Northern tip of Norway and Siberia and winters in Africa or India. .Little stint are sometimes seen feeding alongside Dunlins, who dwarf their smaller cousins.
Another spectacular sighting reported on October 20th was a pair of Glossy Ibis (Plegadis falcinellus) seen feeding nonchalantly in Lady's Island. Looking at first glance like large very dark curlews, these birds with shiny brown bodies and glossy green wings live around the Mediterranian, wintering further south in Central Africa. The nearest part of their usual range to us is Southern Spain and the Camargue of France, but they can turn up anywhere in Western Europe. This pair look well set and may be around for some time.