A female Bufflehead was found at Lough Atedaun by John N Murphy & Fnbarr MacGabhann on Saturday afternoon the 6th January 2007.  If accepted by the Irish Rare Birds Committee (IRBC), this will only be the second ever Irish record of this species.  The first accepted Irish record was a female at The Gearagh, Cork in 1998. The photographs below depict female birds taken in Boston during February 2005 (John N Murphy).  So far the autumn/winter of 2006/07 has been very good for trans-Atlantic ducks with at least four Ring-necked Ducks in the county and many North American waders and passerines arrived in the county during Autumn of 2006.  There are also a few national records of Lesser Scaup throughout the country and a male Bufflehead presently in Scotland. This helps in the case of the female Bufflehead at Lough Atedaun being of wild origins and a probable true vagrant and not just an escape from some national collection.