{"id":8303,"date":"2018-07-19T21:30:05","date_gmt":"2018-07-20T01:30:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/?p=8303"},"modified":"2018-07-19T21:30:05","modified_gmt":"2018-07-20T01:30:05","slug":"rossadillisk-ireland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/?p=8303","title":{"rendered":"Rossadillisk, Ireland"},"content":{"rendered":"
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~A mighty, mighty, Eurasian Blue Tit! This young bird looks ready to take on the world! Rossadillisk, Ireland 07\/12\/18.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

From July 7th to the 14th, Tricia and I, along with seven other members of her family rented a house right on the beach in Rossadillisk, Ireland. Rossadillisk is a Townland in County Galway, Ireland. It is very small, taking up just .29 square miles of area. But, it is certainly not the smallest, \"\"<\/a>as, of the approximately 4,556 townlands in County Galway, it is the 2,483rd largest. For such a small area, Rossadillisk packs a pretty mean birding punch. There is great birding along the road – with many fields and plenty of thick vegetation. And then, there is always the beach. I got into a nice routine of getting up nice and early. I would bird the beach right in front of our house and then set off to bird along the road, which is where I found most of my birds. I would finish the morning by birding what I called the “far beach”, which was much larger and more productive than the beach right in front of the house.<\/p>\n

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~My favorite bird of the trip, a Eurasian SKYLARK sits in some nice light in a pretty setting. Rossadillisk, Ireland 07\/10\/18.~\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For the week, I tallied 46 species of birds in that .29 square miles. I mostly enjoyed the challenge of trying to find birds and identify them;\u00a0in the beginning, identifying birds was not coming very easily at all. \u00a0It felt a lot like starting over birding – I came to realize how much I know the birds in our area just because I’ve had plenty of experience with them before and because they are supposed to be there; they are expected. And, I also realized that I’m not actually spending all that much time truly looking at birds and recognizing and knowing their field marks. Additionally, I hadn’t done much homework before the trip, and the guides I was using* just didn’t seem to be quite as comprehensive as the ones we use for birds in the eastern United States, and finally, it was the time of year when there were many young birds around, so some of the plumages I was seeing were not in the guides. This made for some very interesting and rewarding birding, in spite of it being frustrating at times.<\/p>\n

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~Sedge Warbler, Rossadillisk Townland, Ireland 07\/13\/18.~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I hope you enjoy this little taste of Ireland’s birds – I’ve included my favorite shots from my mornings in Rossadillisk. If I’ve misidentified any birds, please let me know in the comments.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
~A young European Robin. I never once saw an adult, but these guys were around most mornings. Rossadillisk, Ireland 07\/09\/18.~\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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~Flyover by a Red-billed Chough, Rossadillisk Townland, Ireland 07\/10\/18.~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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~Hard to beat a Stonechat on a post! Rossadillisk Townland, Ireland 07\/10\/18.~\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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~I wonder if the Irish take these European Goldfinches for granted the way many of us do with our American Goldfinches? Beautiful little bird, Rossadillisk, Ireland 07\/09\/18.~\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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~One more of my favorite, a EURASIAN SKYLARK showing off its crest. Rossadillisk, Ireland 07\/10\/18.~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

AT THE BEACH<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
~There were a pair of Mew Gulls at the beach in front of our house nearly all the time. Sharp looking bird in my opinion. Rossadillisk Townland, Ireland 07\/07\/18.~\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
~I was excited to see this bird. Common Ringed Plover at the far beach, Rossadillisk, Ireland 07\/09\/18.~\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
~Eurasian Oystercatchers were plentiful. Other shorebirds that I saw but was unable to get good photos of include Eurasian Curlew and Common Greenshank. My brother-in-law Bill located a Common Redshank at a beach not too far way. This oystercatcher was at the far beach in Rossadillisk, Ireland 07\/09\/18.~\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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~I saw these guys (gals?) every day as well. Black-headed Gull at the far beach in Rossadillisk, Ireland 07\/08\/18.~\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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~I misidentified this bird initially as a Common Rosefinch. The eBird reviewer from the area communicated with me to let me know it was in fact a Eurasian Linnet and that CORO was a rare sighting in Ireland, with perhaps 10 a year. Far beach at Rossadillisk, Ireland 07\/09\/18.~\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
~Stonechat on the beach, Rossadillisk Townland, Ireland 07\/10\/18.~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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~European Greenfinch at the far beach, Rossadillisk, Ireland 07\/09\/18.~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

*I used the Complete Field Guide to Ireland’s Birds by Eric Dempsey & Michael O’Clery, as well as two apps on my phone: iBird UK Pro and Birds of Britain and Ireland by Natureguides.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From July 7th to the 14th, Tricia and I, along with seven other members of her family rented a house right on the beach in Rossadillisk, Ireland. Rossadillisk is a Townland in County Galway, Ireland. It is very small, taking up just .29 square miles of area. But, it is certainly not the smallest, as, … Continue reading “Rossadillisk, Ireland”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[19,18,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-photos","category-songbirds","category-walkingwaterbirds"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5i3kT-29V","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8303"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8303\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8338,"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8303\/revisions\/8338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}