County Fermanagh
The Lakelands of Northern Ireland have Upper and Lower Lough Erne the largest bodies of water but there are a myriad of smaller lakes. The Pettigoe plateau leads you to the birding delights of Donegal across the border.
Top Sites
Castlecaldwell /Lower Lough Erne
Breeding waders, gulls and terns(Sandwich and common); wintering wildfowl including regular scaup, wigeon. Castlecaldwell occasionally has crossbill plus occasional singing wood warbler. Spring wader passage light but includes black-tailed godwit, whimbrel, occasional ruff, greenshank. Recent scarce visitors have included black tern (has bred '70s); Mediterranean gull, marsh harrier, little gull, ruff, great northern diver. Rares have included American wigeon, red-necked grebe and UK/Ireland's first Wilson's petrel in 1891.
Crom National Trust Estate
Possibly the most reliable and easiest access to garden warblers in spring, wintering wildfowl whooper swans and has included smew and the Baikal teal in Jan '67 (wild?); annual osprey records
Drumgay Lough
Waterfowl occasionally including scarce species e.g.long-tailed duck, smew, scaup; always a possibility of something rarer
Enniskillen tip
Good for winter gulls including glaucous, Iceland and other possibilities
Lower Lough Macnean
An area near Gortatole with wintering Greenland White-fronted geese, whooper swans, wigeon, curlew, hen harrier, overhead peregrine, raven occasional merlin
Upper Lough Erne
Upper Lough Erne is difficult to watch as there is poor access but wintering wildfowl including internationally important numbers of whooper swans, occasional gargany in spring, wood sandpiper in spring and green-winged teal have been recorded. Olderrecord of hobby.
Contributor
Brad Robson - Additional Material
RSPB Warden
George Gordon
Useful Reading
Where to Watch Birds in Ireland
by Paul Milne & Clive Hutchinson - Paperback - 336 pages (2nd Edition 2010) Christopher Helm £18.99
ISBN: 9781408105214
Buy this book from NHBS.comUseful Information
South Tyrone & Fermanagh BTO Rep
PS Grosse, 30 Tullybroom Road, Clogher, BT76 0UW 028 8554 8606
phigro@aol.com
Trip Reports
CloudBirders
CloudBirders was created by a group of Belgian world birding enthusiasts and went live on 21st of March 2013. They provide a large and growing database of birding trip reports, complemented with extensive search, voting and statistical features.
Places to Stay
Click on WAND for tours, guides, lodges and more…
View Point Guest House
Just off the Enniskillen - Tempo Road (B80) in the heart of County Fermanagh, View Point guest house is a Northern Ireland Tourist Board Approved Country House Accommodation, situated to allow easy access to a range of tourist amenities and within minutes of the historic town of Enniskillen.
Coolbeg Farm
The farmhouse enjoys a private lakeside location on its own 40 acres of farm land and private loch shore. Coolbeg Farm is a site of special scientific interest with a protected population of otters and swans. From the cottage and garden there are uninterrupted views of upper Lough Erne and its many islands and sunset views of Cuilcagh and Benaughlin mountains...
Reserves
RSPB Reserve - Lower Lough Erne
Lough Erne is one of the largest freshwater lakes in the UK. Take a leisurely stroll around the forest trails and look across to some of the 40 islands that make up most of the reserve, two of which you can visit by boat…
Other Links
Birdwatching in County Fermanagh
List of sites: The silences of Lough Erne are spring-broken by courting waders and wildfowl. The characteristic habitats of Lower Lough Erne are traditional hay meadows and unimproved islands. On the upper lake flooded drumlins, reed-swamp and fen are the pattern.