A couple of weeks back home in Ireland was primarily a family trip, with very limited birding opportunities interspersed here and there.

I had just one full day to myself which I instantly used to go see Rob Vaughan’s stunning male Harlequin Duck.

I arrived on the north coast before dawn, gulped down a quick breakfast and coffee in the car park at Magheraroarty before moving on to it’s favored beach.

Sadly on this one day, the bird decided it would not be a sitter as it had been previously and made me work for it.

I eventually picked it up from the cliffs to the west of the beach as it flew very close in shore headed east. The viewing was good and it’s some amazing bird in flight, but unfortunately I didn’t managed to relocate it as I again checked the bays towards Magheraroarty. I knew it would go back to the beach eventually (which it did) but I had to push on.

I made some quick stops on my way back south, finding birds like Slavonian Grebes etc.

Quick trips out from the homestead allowed us to see long stayers like Ring-Billed Gull (amazingly rare in Ireland now) and Green-Winged Teal (lumpy lumpy).

Ring-Billed Gull - a blisteringly windy day meant the gulls refused to land on the deck and hung in the air. Bread enticed them down and this was fun for the girls who got quite good at picking out the ringer from the flock and throwing bread directly to it.

Green-Winged Teal

The Green-Winged Teal was a very handy Christmas rare easy for myself and the wife to enjoy whilst the kids fed the swans.

Barnacle Goose - finding a Barnacle Goose in Dublin was also a top local scarcity. I think this is maybe only my second ever in Dublin.

A family trip down to Wexford for a day allowed us to escape the visitors for a bit, whilst also fitting in short birding stops here and there.

This was surprisingly successful, primarily due to the onset of an easterly driven cold snap clearly driving birds in and allowed me to find a new Cetti’s Warbler, a new Red-Necked Grebe (WWR), Spotted Redshank (now basically a rarity too) and, despite getting just 15 minutes at Tacumshin, finding 2 Bewick’s Swans (now a notable rarity in Ireland and these seem to be the first in Ireland for almost 2 years).

Bewick’s Swan - voted in as an official rarity by Irish birders in 2020. It’s now the case that some winters they can be absent from the country with their occurrence now obviously linked to cold weather events on the continent.

Also easily picked up were two long staying Lesser Scaup (a male and female keeping their distance from each other in the diving flock), numerous Marsh Harrier (the place has gone mental for them), Black-Necked Grebe etc.

Lesser Scaup

Other nippy stops around Wexford produced Glossy Ibis, Cattle Egret, Red-Necked Grebe, Pink-Footed Geese, etc.

I was particularly amazed by the proliferation of Great-Spotted Woodpecker. These were absolutely everywhere, even in the gardens at Rosslare backstrand! Such a sea change with these.

We also encountered numerous scandi Jackdaw candidates all along the east coast, even inland in Ashbourne. There for the having if people were inclined to look.

An enjoyable trip home with an appreciable number of self found rarities keeping my average for finding birds when home well up there.

Top news from the garden in Finland was the addition of Lynx to the garden list, with one having passed the camera trap in December.

The Lynx effect. Gotta love it.