Pied-Billed Grebe is yet another old school rarity that people dream of finding.

When I began birding in the late 90s there had been a long staying individual in Cork harbor for several years, around what had been a grebe hotspot of Rostellan.

It was of no use to me, but it was a bird that I wanted for ages after hearing many stories of it.

My first in Ireland was a bird I twitched at Tacumshin, Wexford, which was the first available for some ten years after the disappearance of the Cork bird.

But it was to be Cork harbor which would produce one self found bird for me.

11th of December 2010

Over the course of the winter of 2010, Cork harbor was hopping with good birds.

A Surf Scoter was present in the channel off Marloag and it was because of this bird that I picked up a Pacific Diver in the same area a week before.

Searching the harbour the preceding weekend to the 11th was proving astoundingly productive.

Starting at Aghada, produced both self found Slavonian Grebes (3-4) and Black-Necked Grebe which was a superb result. (Black-Necked Grebe had long since turned into a rarity and Slav is good scarce in Cork any day of the week).

Black-Necked Grebe - I’ve found plenty of these over the years, including in Wexford, Kerry, Dublin, Cork and Louth, but you would be hard pushed to find one away from Wexford harbor or Lough Neagh these days, sites where any honest self found lister wouldn’t claim one.

From Rostellan I made my way around the harbour checking vantage points to the open water where I could.

This paid off yet again, with a Red-Necked Grebe at Ballintubbrid. Red-Necked Grebe is another species which has long since turned rare, so finding the 3 scarce/rare euro Grebes in the space of a few hours was the stuff of dreams here.

On the 11th I was back out looking for much of these birds again and following a similar route. This time, towards the end of the day, I decided to check Little Island, a site that was very rarely looked at (though usually had nothing of note).

Pulling in to the car park I began scanning the harbor along towards the golf course.

Off in the distance, among some Great Crested Grebes I detected a smaller, brown bird. Clearly a grebe, of the little variety, but colouration and structure were setting off alarm bells. Back then I was using a Kowa TSN-828m and had two static lenses, 32xw and 50x. I threw my 50x on, but distance and low evening light didn’t allow me to detect too much on the bird. Nonetheless I was thinking I had a Pied-Billed Grebe!

I had two choices. Come back in the morning and hope the bird was still here or sprint along the shoreline, over slippery rocks and across the (somewhat private) golf course to try and get closer and nail it there and then if possible.

I took off running.

Every hundred meters or so I would quickly scan with my bins to find the grebe flock and carry in until I eventually got perpendicular to them.

I picked the bird up again and eventually got reasonable views as it bobbed in choppy water in very dim light. Nonetheless, there was now no doubt! Pied-Billed Grebe it was! It was showing a distinct eye-ring, a pointed sticky up tail, a long head, serpentine thick neck and a strong bill, partially ringed (so immature).

I put the news out and amazingly one or two people managed to get there before dark.

I also returned the following morning and luckily the bird was still in situ and gave reasonable views to several assembled birders.

Pied-Billed Grebe - Rónán McLaughlin

Pied-Billed Grebe - Rónán McLaughlin

This was the 10th Pied-Billed Grebe for Ireland, and the 3rd for Cork I believe. It hung around all winter but was exceptionally mobile along the entire north channel, more frequently than not being extremely difficult to connect with.

Sites visited by the Pied-Billed Grebe

Indeed, in the winter of 2010/2011 I didn’t really connect with it again unfortunately. I had hoped that when it was photographed at Rossleague that it would eventually do the decent thing and move into Rostellan and become resident like it’s predecessor. Unfortunately it did not take the bait on that one.

I did manage to see it (I presume it was it) the following Christmas, when I found it off Little Island again, this time on the east side of the island looking towards Fota bridge, where it appeared with no less than 4 Goosander.

But after that, it was never seen again.

One wonders how often a species like Pied-Billed could go begging in a place like Cork Harbor to be honest. So many nooks and crannies involved there, often inaccessible.

This remains one of my favorite finds ever, at the end of an extraordinary week of birding in Cork.

Can’t be many people out there who can say they found all 6 species of Grebe in the space of a week and in the same general area.

My only regret from that particular season was missing the White-Billed Diver that showed up after I went home to Dublin for Christmas. That really would have completed the set of diving birds in the harbour.