Myroe Levels, Northern Ireland

My first ever visit to Myroe Levels in County Derry, Northern Ireland today and I managed to locate all six of the white-rumped sandpipers which have been present for a few days. The first two were on flooded fields at the end of Shore avenue, accessed from Limavady and I thought that was good, but then I drove north along the track which runs between the coast and the drainage ditch and found another four birds together.

It's been a fantastic year for white-rumped sandpipers, these were my 4th - 9th birds of 2019 and there have been plenty of others in Ireland and the Hebrides in particular.

I've never seen white-rumped sandpipers so well. These birds allowed approach to within about 5m and when they flew it was only for a short distance down the ditch. In flight their white rumps really stood out, much more than I had noticed previously.

On one of the fields there was a flock of around 500 whooper swans.

A large part of the area is owned by a turf supplier and the short turf attracts many birds especially waders in autumn. I'm not sure if the area is always this flooded but it's certainly pulling in the birds at the moment. Apart from the white-rumped sandpipers, other waders present at the moment are a single American golden plover, lapwings, oystercatchers, curlew, ruff, redshank and greenshank.

You get great views over Lough Foyle from the sea wall at Myroe and today I counted at least 75 Slavonian grebes on the lough, as well as many red-breasted mergansers and a few red-throated divers.