An overnight drive to Fishguard arriving in the early hours of the morning, we managed an hours or so sleep in the car before boarding the ferry to Rosslare and our first visit to Southern Ireland. 

Our first stop was at Wexford Slobs, an area of mainly fields which could be driven around, to view the geese. Here we saw 1640 Greenland race White-fronted Geese and 2 Snow Geese, one white phase and one blue phase, 170 Wigeon, 10 Brent Geese, a Pink-footed Goose, 2 Barnacle Geese and 5 Blue or Mountain Hares. There was also a hybrid Snow x White-fronted Goose. Waders were also present, most noteworthy 15 Bar-tailed Godwits and 140 Golden Plovers.

From Wexford we drove to Ballycotton, much further than we had thought, and decided that Irish miles were much longer than English ones. Arriving at the lake we immediately saw the bird we had come for, an American Coot, not the most stunning bird but the first one to be seen in the British Isles, so, was new for all of us.

Ballycotton was an excellent place for birds and on the lake, marsh and beach we also saw 5 Whooper Swans, 3 Pintail, 2 Red-breasted Mergansers, a Chiffchaff, 18 Sanderling, 100+ Dunlin, 8 Bar-tailed Godwits, 6 Knot, a Greenshank, 10 Hooded Crows, a 2nd winter Iceland Gull, an adult Mediterranean Gull and 2 Chough.

Spending more time than we should have here, we had to return to Rosslare quickly, in fact we only just made the ferry and were the last car to board.