ML643928333

Observation details

Single bird found by D. Brennan shortly after sunrise in this field (55.0422722, -7.4229477). Classic Taiga - Greylag sized, large cone shaped head, blending into the long, tapered bill. Predominantly orange bill. Straight edged (or as close as) grin on the bill. Surprisingly tricky to pick out from the Greylag when back on and when its head was down feeding. At 13:00 I picked up a distant flock of geese in flight, coming from the south. Although distant, I felt they were Bean Geese. I quickly alerted Paul Keogh to them, and rattled off a few shots. Once getting them in the scope, it was clear that they were the seven Taiga Bean Geese found the previous evening by Derek Brennan. They dropped down out of sight but I relocated them shortly after in this field (55.0484039, -7.4358300). All typical Taiga apart from one very slightly smaller bird which I’m certain is a female Taiga also. Same structure and feel to the rest of the birds. The lone individual was seen simultaneously to the flock of seven. Amazing record of a now extremely rare bird in Ireland.