Bar tailed Godwit

Last night, after work I managed to get an hour of sunlight in at Irishtown nature park before it got too dark to see.
Arrived about 5.30pm and the moon was in the sky already.

5.30pm, Irishtown Nature Park next to Sandymount strand.

Sandymount Strand - Dun Laoghaire and Kiliney Hill in background

As you can see the tide was well out. In that crowd of Black Headed Gulls there was one Common Gull. These pics were taken with my pocket camera so no zoom.
There were plenty of Oystercatchers, Black tailed godwaits, Redshanks, Dunlins (which I can now finally i.d) and Turnstones.

My first ever Bar Tailed Godwit! Sandymount strand.

Finally, seperate from all the other waders I got to see my first ever Bar tailed Godwit. The pattern on the back was much stronger and the bill was slightly upturned in comparison to the Black tailed.

Out on the strand were approx 120 Brent Geese again (same number as the evening before), they were too far off to see tags or count juvs, but one group of 10 flew in really close and there were 4 juvs in the 10.

The Brent Geese field

I've never been down to Irishtown when the BG's are in this field but I can imagine it'd make tag reading easy.
Down in front of the Poolbeg towers I had a good look for Stonechats where Susan said she often used to see them, but didn't see any.
It was getting difficult to see anything, all I could do was hear the sad sounding calling of the Dunnock in the hedges.
6.30pm and it was already time to head home.

Moonshine, 6.30pm Weds October 20th 2010.

Just before high tide this is a top spot to check out waders, they come in really close to a pathway and are used to people being close to them. Low tide it's not too bad either - my first Bar tailed Godwit - I'm happy with that.