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The Rock of Cashel served as the traditional seat of the kings of Munster for several centuries before the Norman invasion of Ireland in 1169. Most of the buildings on this site date from the 12th and 13th centuries. (Photo by guide Terry McEneaney)

It is nice to have relatives and close friends in Ireland. For wherever we travel in the Emerald Isle it feels like home, and we like to make people feel at home also. But most importantly, one experiences interesting people and personalities coupled with the Irish hospitality and birds, since everything shines through the Irish mist. Our fall Field Guides Ireland tour was nothing short of brilliant. We ended up with 96 species of birds, which is in the realm of normal for this trip, and in many cases thousands of individual wintering birds. Boreal migrant birds were somewhat slow in coming from Iceland and Fennoscandia to Ireland, because the cold weather never really hit those areas hard so far. Our music venues were also superb, and our pub-hopping never turned into a crawl, which is always a good thing.

When we first started the tour it was colder than normal with a fair amount of rain. But we never let the weather dampen our spirits—for we always had options such as birds, archaeological sites, traditional Irish music, and Irish cultural areas known as “pubs”, combined with “crack” Gaelic craic for “fun”. The small Mercedes bus made it “savage” or superb for traveling. And because of a good attitude, the weather improved and we had the time of our lives.

All participants were on their first visit to the Emerald Isle, and were blown away by this land of enchantment. This isn’t your ordinary tour of Ireland, after all; it is an insiders tour. Red Kites turned out to be the best birds seen on the trip. And watching kites soar overhead and traveling to a roost was sensational. The shorebird, gull, and corvid extravaganza wasn’t bad either. A lot of my relatives and friends turned up along the way, making everyone feel welcome. We had super traditional Irish music every night. They heard we (FG) were coming, so they went out of their way for us. Our best nights were at Tossey’s in County Armagh, Northern Ireland, where it was a farmhouse full of people, music, singing and cheer, followed by Lyons Bar in the republic where 20 musicians showed up radiating the walls with their sound. Clients could not believe the number of Irish archaeological sites, particularly the classics you find on the fall tour including Newgrange, Emain Macha or Navan Fort, and the Rock of Cashel. Then there were the countless forts, castles, and round towers. In reality, the entire Emerald Isle is one large archaeological site in some form or fashion. We returned home with many enjoyable memories and stories that incorporated Irish birds, music, landscapes, archaeological sites, pubs, and people into the conversation. The food was delicious, the black Guinness pints tasted like milk shakes, and the Irish whiskey “like butta”.

You did not have to drink alcohol to enjoy this trip, because the trip was intoxicatingly fun. We experienced Irish humor at its best, such as: a cut-off man’s head in a church; a very funny birder friend and his wife who accompanied us for a day of laughter; a cemetery pub complete with conversing CEO’s and cemetery workers to bury you nearby should the immediate need arise; Adam and Eve’s pub that turned into Adam and Eve’s church bearing the same name; a statue of the “tart with the cart” in Dublin; a church turned into a pub; a very witty and fun Irish bus driver, and the list goes on. But the key to visiting Ireland is to get off the beaten path, get off the tourist trail, watch Irish birds along the Irish Sea or in a sea of green vegetation, and meet the real Irish people in real Irish pubs and settings, when they are not busy. Few people will get to experience what we experienced in eastern Ireland (Dublin, Lough Neagh, Armagh, Belfast, Belfast Harbor, Wicklow Coast, Waterford, Wexford, Wexford Slobs, and Cobh and everything in between). We did just that, and that is why FG’s Birding Plus Ireland Fall—Birds, Traditional Music, and Pubs will continue to be a tour worth noting in the years to come.

Thank you for accompanying us on the magical mystery bird tour, and for allowing us the opportunity to show you eastern Ireland. We hope to see you again on future Field Guides tours. In the meantime Slan! Fare you well!

--Terry and Karen

KEYS FOR THIS LIST
One of the following keys may be shown in brackets for individual species as appropriate: * = heard only, I = introduced, E = endemic, N = nesting, a = austral migrant, b = boreal migrant

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS

Totals for the tour: 96 bird taxa and 6 mammal taxa