Birds of a feather flock together at the West Cork Bird Race

Over 100 species of bird were spotted at the West Cork Bird Race, writes Damien Enright.

The weather was grand by the time I caught up with Pat Connaughton and his team ‘competing’ in the great West Cork Bird Race the Sunday before last. They were still a bit flushed from the wind and the rain of the morning, and the excitement of the birds.

They had already foraged along the Feale River at Clonakilty and noted the birds that walk on the river bottom (dippers) and flit over the surface (grey wagtails) and ducks, waders, egrets and herons in the estuary, and were now at the seaward end of Rosscarbery pier peering through scopes and binoculars out over the choppy, grey sea.