With hindsight I should have known that just a few hours at Strathbeg wasn't enough time to see the birds reported recently. In good weather the birds were scattered widely across the reserve and the wetlands were holding a lot of water. I did find a Mediterranean Gull, lot's of Whoopers but no sign of the Bewicks Swan, also Golden Plovers, Sparrowhawk, Peregrine, Buzzard but not the Marsh Harrier.
Whooper Swans Golden Plover panning video Greylag - white face! Duck ID puzzle!
Mediterranean Gull, centre with the white wing tips, on the wetlands in front of Starnafin, the RSPB Centre
A bit more obvious in this distant photo
Whooper Swans were spread around all over Strathbeg and many were likely out of sight on the main loch, I was able to count 78 from the Tower Hide
I haven't tried to count the Golden Plovers in the photos, they were being moved around by raptors
Golden Plovers
This is a number of photos stitched together which I hope gives an idea of the numbers
When I arrived at Starnafin someone pointed out this Greylag Goose as a White-fronted Goose. Once I got my scope and camera out of the car I could see it was a Greylag with a white face, not that unusual in Greylags
These two had me fooled for a bit until I halved the distance to them, and recalled seeing identical duck decoys on this site many years ago. My original view was through the reeds and I could see some American Wigeon features, it's almost like they have features of a few different ducks. The small pond is on the airfield which isn't part of the nature reserve and shooting takes place on it's many small pools.
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