Merlin

I spent a large part of the last four years criss crossing south east Meath recording and reporting anything seen or heard which is predominately covered in feathers for the Bird Atlas.  Alas the atlas fieldwork is complete and now someone else must take all those sightings and try make sense of them, my part was fun, this next part I'm not so sure!  Anyway it'll all have been worth it when the atlas results proper are published and we see the fruits of our own labours sit beside the work of all the other volunteers and a true picture of the health or otherwise of Ireland's avian population is there for all to see.

I've been surprised at times, it's only when you make a concerted effort to record everything you see and hear that you begin to realise just how rich the species list for any area can be.  Birds can be secretive when they want, hiding in the undergrowth, perched high up in the canopy, they don't always sit out in the open, but if they did would we get as much enjoyment from birding as we do?  Lets face it, it can be the cruelest of pastimes (like dipping on the osprey at Broad Lough this weekend).  If the bird you want was always there, in the place you'd expect (or not) to find it, there would be no thrill in the chase, no tight feeling in the gut as you drive to Broad Lough in time to set the gear up in the exact location an osprey had spent the previous week, hoping, just hoping that this bird which really should be somewhere else (another continent) will hang around for one more day.  But it doesn't always work out for the good, does it, and that is what makes birding so rewarding, because when it does work out the journey home is so much more enjoyable.

I'll stop rambling on now and get to the point.  In all the hours I spent working on the atlas there were some species I'd record on every visit to every tetrad, there were other species I'd record only in certain tetrads, and others which could turn up in any tetrad but generally didn't.  Of the later category one example would be merlin.  Now I've gone back over my records for the four years and I have to say I takes a little digging around to find any records for merlin, a handful over four years, spread over a dozen or so tetrads.  Not exactly the density of population of say the blackbird then, but we wouldn't expect it would we?  So whats different this year?



merlin - Baltrasna, Ashbourne


In the last eight weeks I've had more sightings of merlin in and around Ashbourne than I know I've had in the last five years combined.  And not all sightings in the same area, the sightings have been pretty much all over, male and female, early morning, late afternoon etc etc.  In other words I know I'm not seeing the same couple of birds over and over.  The range and diversity of location and habitat suggests the merlin population of Meath is thriving, but where has it been for the last few years.  I haven't been going out looking for merlin, but they are showing well and cant be missed, the same unfortunately cant be said for the local kestrel population.  Whilst I'm enjoying numbers of merlin the like of which I've never experienced in the area, I can now go days without a single kestrel sighting.

I'm no scientist, I'm just a birder, but I cant help notice the changes in populations around the country.  I remember when buzzards and little egrets just didn't have a permanent population in this country, look at them now!  I have a question which has been bothering me a bit lately, and this is it..... "can someone please explain the increase in merlin numbers on my patch?"  Am I witnessing the start of something which will continue, is it anything to do with the very mild weather of late, where has the population of merlin decreased?

I'll probably be posting again at some point over the winter to say numbers on the patch have reverted to norm, but in the meantime I'll continue to record and enjoy these terrific little raptors.

Short-eared owl

I headed over to Swords last Saturday with the intention of spending an hour or two max on the estuary before heading home.  Well that was the intention, but as the saying goes "the best laid plans of men and......"  When I arrived Sean C was there, we hadn't met in quite a while so we had a bit of catching up to do.  It was obvious from the off that Sean had every intention of making a day of it and before you knew it an hour had passed on Swords and we were headed out to Loughshinny in search of the Red-kites.  They've been on show up here for the past couple of weeks. 

Loughshinny didn't give up any kites, it did however give us a kestrel chasing an LBJ into a bush not ten feet from us, LBJ escaped into said bush, kestrel perched up.  It sat there for so long that in the end we moved on and left the kestrel to ponder its next move. 
 
From Loughshinny we moved over to the outflow at Rush, I've had grey phalarope here twice in previous years, and more besides, however on this occasion nothing of note.  We hung around Rush for about an hour, more than it deserved, it really was very quite.

We decided we'd head to the north hide at Rogerstown as this was on the way home for both and after the day we were having that was about all we wanted to do.  Park up, wellies on, scope out and over the gate (don't know why I didn't use the turnstile) and down the lane.  Exit the lane out into the first open field and bingo.  "Hey Sean, over there, look......."  The next hour made the previous four worth while.  All the disappointment of a quite day washed away by the discovery of a short-eared owl, which like the kestrel earlier in the day, knew we were around but chose to ignore us and continue on its own business regardless.



short-eared owl, north hide Rogerstown

 What followed was an hour of close encounters of the short-eared kind.  The field was quartered continuously, the owl never out of sight for more than a few seconds.  Quarter, perch, quarter, perch and on and on.  We never moved for cover, we didn't have to, we stood out in the open field, the owl happy enough to pass really close, obviously safe in the knowledge that we didn't pose a threat.  We really could have stayed all evening, but it was a Saturday, late afternoon, light fading and the stomach beginning to rumble which brought us back up the lane and over the gates (why didn't I use the turnstile) and into the cars for home.

Now that was Saturday.  Fast forward to Sunday, 11.00am out on the bull, I'm on the track that runs along the golf course heading towards the point when from out on the marsh a short-eared owl comes flying almost directly at me, over the hedge and into the course.  This a much more fleeting view than the previous days.  Any weekend that gives up short-eared owl two days running is a good one, it doesn't happen that often.