Out and about in County Clare yesterday when we stopped by a small lake a few miles outside of Kinvara to check out the ducks and waders. Nothing really caught my eye - tuftys, a few shovellers and a load of wigeon - so i set the scope up on the curlews and asked sam, our lass, if she wanted a look at them.
'There's a white one' she says. 'Nah, just a gull' i confidently state - having seen a white bird with them as i panned across and assumed that's what it was. I take a second look - and she's right. Totally white curlew save for a bit of brown on the primaries and coverts. Doh!
Two lessons here for me - 1) it proves sod's law applies to birding - the non-birder with you will nearly always pick up the best bird of the day even if they see nothing else. 2) never assume!
Not sure how rare these fellas are - but i assume pretty rare. can anyone confirm this?
Never come across an albino curlew, but there was an albino oystercatcher on Bull Island through the late eighties and early nineties that returned every winter, completely white, pink eyed bird...
I think it was Rich Bonser who had an albino Curlew in County Clare last august (Poulnasherry Bay)..... perhaps the same bird?
We also had a partial-albino Oystercatcher on the Loop Head peninsula in late august.