Water Rail

A first for Ashbourne!! That is to say, my first for Ashbourne.  I always knew that someday I'd find a water rail on my local patch, I just couldn't quite believe my luck to find one last Sunday.

I haven't travelled too far from Meath, Dublin and Louth this last couple of months, I haven't been further south than Wicklow since October!  I've enjoyed keeping it local and Sunday was no different.  I left the scope at home and headed off on foot up towards Ashbourne golf club, across the river and up towards the rugby club.  To those who had the pleasure of the shorteared owls that hung around for a month or five weeks in April '09 you'll know the general area.

Ashbourne isn't exactly blessed with water rail real estate.  There are some areas which I've always thought suitable but have never had the good fortune or the time to spend waiting on this quite shy bird to show itself.  I got lucky on Sunday.  I was actually down on the bridge outside the entrance to the golf club looking out for the local kingfishers when a movement to my left hand side caught my attention.  At first I presumed I'd disturbed a moorehen, always a good bet from the bridge.  However I couldn't see anything at all, whatever was there it was keeping itself well out of view.

What the naked eye couldn't see the optics usually can.  I scanned the area with the binoculars and it didn't take long before I was eyes on a tiny little shape buried deep in the overgrown embankment.  It was a first I'd ever had in Ashbourne.  At best of times these are very secretive creatures, never moving too far from deep cover, although I know from previous sightings they are so much easier to locate in winter.

I was so pleased with the find that I actually forgot I had a camera with me, when I remembered the race was on the get in out of its bag and snap the water rail before it went too deep undercover and disappeared.  I did manage to get off five or six shots but to be honest most weren't even in focus, the one shot I've published really is the best of a very bad bunch, however it's a record shot and that'll do me!

possibly the worst photo published anywhere on the Internet in 2012





 

Buzzard shot in Meath

If you haven't already heard a common buzzard was shot and killed in Co. Meath recently.  Birdwatch Ireland have released a statement giving some details on this truly horrific criminal act.  I've seen the buzzard population grow over the last ten years to the point where there's hardly a day goes by when I don't get to see these magnificent birds up close.

To prove the point the shots attached were taken this morning less than an hour after I'd read the Birdwatch Ireland article on line. I can go to any one of numerous sights within the county and be pretty guaranteed (as much as birding ever guarantees) great views of our buzzards.  Ashbourne, Ratoath, Clonee, Kilbride, Kentstown, Navan, Trim......... literally the whole county is home to buzzards.  They may go unnoticed to most people going about their daily business but to people who know where to look they cannot be missed.  Unfortunately not everyone who knows where to look has the birds best interests at heart.

common buzzard - Ashbourne

 

common buzzard - Ashbourne

 

What's needed is the correct and rigid enforcement of our laws.  The common buzzard is a species protected by law, a species who's main diet consists of roadkill, vermin, rabbits and sometimes other birds.  They are a danger to no farmers/hunters livelihood. Their presence in an area is a great indicator of the diversity and health of the countryside, something we should all be working for, not something to be taken lightly and certainly not something to be ignored when crimes like this one take place.

I for one feel the county of Meath, indeed the country as a whole would be a much lesser place if we regress back twenty years to an era when buzzards where a very rare occurrence here. They've already been hunted to extinction once in this country we can't let it happen a second time.

Ashbourne in Winter

The drop in tempreture combined with the bright winter sun always puts me in a mind to stay local and see what Ashbourne has to offer.  This is precisley what happened last weekend when for the first time in an age (possibly since the end of the bird atlas work) the furthest I ventured from the house was a couple of kilometers and on foot too!  Birding as it used to be back in the day, i.e. not too far from home and not a coastline or estuary in sight.  Just row upon row of hedges and trees and acre upon acre of countryside.

starling

yellowhammer

lesser redpoll
 

kestrel

chaffinch
 

pied wagtail
 

tree sparrow
 

Kestrel mobbed

The kestrel in these pics has been using the same lamp posts and fence posts between Baltrasna and the M2 slip road in Ashbourne for the last couple of months on an almost daily basis.

It sits there for hours on end using its vantage points to scan the fields below for prey, it will usually give up a good hover if you stick around long enough for the show.  Today however something interrupted its routine.  As I was driving by I looked up and saw the bird on one of its usual perches being mobbed by two  rooks.

It took off and was chased further down the road by the crows, however the rooks didn't hang around very long gave up the chase and moved on.  I drove down towards the kestrel which had perched up and took some photos.  The encounter had been quite physical with lots of contact, the kestrel had the scars to prove it!

 

 

White-rumped Sandpiper

A couple of weeks ago a white-rumped sandpiper spent a few days mixing with the locals down at the breaches at Kilcoole.  I went down on the Sunday afternoon and as luck would have it found the bird within a couple of minutes.  It was mixing with some dunlin and really was very close in, at its nearest no more than 20ft from my viewing point.

Supercilium

It was very similar in size to the dunlin but really stood out from the crowd with its long body, short legged stance.  However the real giveaway was the very white supercilium which no other bird present on the day could match.

Add caption

It was spooked twice along with all the other smalls in the hour or so I spent there, lifting and moving a few hundred meters in the direction of the buckthorn, but both times it made its way back to the very spot I'd first found it.  Always a good day when you're eyes are on a Yankie!

Bridges of Ross

The weather forecast was for North, Northwest winds this Saturday, so it seemed as good a time as any in the last few weeks to get some sea-watching in.  The Bridges of Ross were chosen as the destination of choice, the forecasted winds should have helped ensure decent numbers of seabirds, and who knew a rarity or two fingers crossed.

The car was packed Thursday night ensuring a direct run from work to Co Clare Friday evening picking up Steve M along the way.  The plan was to get to the bridges with about an hour of light left and get a bit of sea-watching in before finding a spot to pitch the tent.  However when we arrived at the bridges light was very poor and the winds had whipped up quite a bit, there would be no sea-watching being done this night.

Every cloud has a silver lining blah blah blah.... we headed off to the Lighthouse Pub just down the road in Kilbaha.  NTK and Joe A were there to greet us along with a group of Finnish birders and some regulars from the UK.  Over the next couple of hours some pints of the black stuff were consumed as rounds were exchanged and I for one got merrier and merrier.  After the festivities Steve M took the car keys as he was the designated driver and we headed back to the car park at the bridges to get the tent up and the heads down.  But the winds had picked up even more and the rain was getting heavier, after spending about 10 minutes trying to get the tent up the plan was abandoned and we decided to get some shut eye in the car.



"what time is breakfast?"

Saturday arrived, the weather had calmed down and we joined about 20 other birders out on the bridges at about 6.30am.  The forecasted winds were North-westerly and that's just what we had, however the winds weren't coming in from that direction from very far out to sea, apparently they were changing to North-westerly from quite close in, the result was not the fall of sea-birds in the numbers we'd hoped for.  It was a slow start to the morning session, some winds and rain, dull overcast skies and not very many birds!

When the session ended for breakfast at about 10:30am we'd had plenty of manxies, some Arctic, Pomarine and Great (Bonxies) Skuas.  There were a couple of Sabs (I didn't get eyes on), some Puffins, Gannets etc etc.

Back to the Lighthouse Bar for a full Irish and a chance to catch up with some of the other birders who'd appeared.  Stomach full and a trip up the road to Loop Head Lighthouse produced an hour of uneventful sea-watching and a rather embarrassing incident involving a Juv Dunlin (all I'll say is that those who were there know what I'm on about! MORTO or WHAT?  I couldn't get that Jim Diamond song from the eighties out of my head for the rest of the day, the one that goes "well I should have known better....!)

The weather turned "too good" in the afternoon

Further on up the coast we'd got word that a Black Tern was on show so to kill an hour before the afternoon session on the bridges we headed up and found the tern, a juvenile, mixing with a mixed group of terns and gulls.  It was now heading for 2.30pm so it was time to head back to the bridges and get settled in for the afternoon session.

The weather was much brighter, warmer and less windy than the morning had been, making conditions even less favourable for sea-watching.  The afternoon continued as the morning had finished, that's to say SLOW.  The Skuas (not long-tailed, although there was a shout for them late on, this was changed to Arctic on further examination) continued to show, so too did the manxies, a couple of Sootys and Balearics (my shout on one of them) some more Puffins, Gulls etc.

It was so slow in fact that rather than wait till the light faded we decided to pack up and hit the road for home at about 6.00pm.  It was a trip worth making, the craic was good, the birds okay but the weather was just too good for serious sea-watching.  I did however take something from the trip, a life lesson shall we call it and that life lesson is;

CONSULT YOUR F***ING COLLINS GUIDE BEFORE YOU MAKE A HOLY SHOW OF YOURSELF IN FRONT OF ONE OF THE COUNTRY'S BEST BIRDING DYNASTIES - THE FOLEY TRINITY!

To get the counts for the day visit NTK's excellent blog "A view from the headland" linked here.
http://seabirdwatchireland.blogspot.ie/

Grasshopper Warbler

I took a spin out to Howth earlier today to see what if any chats and warblers were to be had.  I'd spent a couple of hours on Clougherhead yesterday and although I had plenty of sonechat and wheatear etc, I couldn't get a view of the very noisy grasshopper warblers which were present and calling in at least two locations on the head.

I opted for Howth as its only 20 minutes from Ashbourne and it can be very good this time of year for getting your first yearly sightings of various summer visitors.  The weather today was mild with intermittent downpours of hail and rain!  I parked up and headed for the headland right after one of the downpours, the break in the rain had all manner of smalls out and signing as is often the case on days like these, stonchat, dunnock, wren, wheatear, whitethroat and even a pair of bullfinches.

I took the cliff path for about about five minutes and cut inland just about were you come to the second seabird colony on the cliffs (the one after Balscaddan Bay).  I had only walked up and in for about two minutes when I first heard the unmistakable long reeling notes of the grasshopper warbler. 



Grasshopper Warbler, Howth Head

It didn't take too long to spot the owner of the call as he moved about a small hollow from bramble to bush and back and forth.  Also present within sight and earshot were wheatear, stonchat and whitethroat.  Its amazing to stand there listening to the gropper call, it really can project its voice a great distance, and it appeared to bounce of the rocks and come from more than one direction at times.

Grasshopper Warbler in full song

I spent about 30 minutes (and one very heavy hail shower) in the hollow before moving on.  There wasn't much else to see and after yest another downpour I headed for the shelter of the car and on out of Howth to the Bull.

Hoopoe

I was just finishing up in work yesterday afternoon and about to head home for a bout of gardening when the phone rang!  It was Steve M.  "Mick, there's a hoopoe down on Pollardstown Fen, some lads down there are on it..... if it hangs around another hour or so it'll be a cert......."  "Okay Steve, gimme two minutes I'll call you back"  Mmmnn, cut the grass, do some weeding blah blah blah or.......  who was I kidding, the car was pointed towards Kildare and heading down the M7 before I even rang him back.

Hoopoe is a bird I was very keen to get.  It was a big hole on my life list and a bird which I've attempted to get in the past but never had success.  It's been recorded close enough to Ashbourne in the past but nearly always recorded as 'in a private garden, or, stayed for the day and left', this one had already been around for at least a day so it was with that tingling in the gut (you know the one) that I headed for the fen.

I picked Steve up on the way.  The topic of conversation the whole way there was, it had better still be there.... this was a big one for both of us.  Steve rang ahead when we were about 10 minutes from the fen, "eh no, we left about a half an hour ago" was the response to the question we both wanted answering.....  "are you still on the bird?" 

That tingling in the gut turned to near blind panic, what if we got there and there was no one else on the bird, would we be able to find it, was it even still around?    We got to the car park at about 7.30pm and grabbed the gear and ran.  Sure what was the panic, I always knew we'd get it (ahem).  A local birder was still in situ and he brought us straight to the hoopoe.

I've spent hundreds of hours over the years browsing the Collins (paperback dog-eared first edition always in the car, hardback second edition on the bedside locker, and the pride of the lot the large format hardback second edition pride of place downstairs bookshelf) and the hoopoe really is a bird that looks like no other.  It really is unmistakable.  But I never imagined my first ever views would be so good, I'd have settled for a medium range 10 minutes or so, but we got the exact polar opposite.

We got within 10 metres of the bird as it just completely ignored us and fed on the soft ground of the fen.  It was feeding on worms and insects as it moved slowly back and forth over a patch of ground right in front of our noses!  Mike, the local birder even encouraged us to get closer, he had earlier, but we declined for fear of spooking the bird. 

What followed was over an hour in the company of the hoopoe.  Never once did it take one bit of notice of us, an experience I last had with a very tame snow bunting in Anagassan harbour a couple of years ago, the bunting allowing me within 3 or 4 feet! Eventually the hoppoe took flight to a nearby tree, opened its crest a few times and then disappeared out of view.  I didn't mind too much at that stage as the light was beginning to fade and my stomach was beginning to rumble like a Massey Fergusson struggling to start on a cold morning.

Best of all (not for anyone else interested in seeing it), our sighting was the last recorded one as I write this post and that was 48hrs ago, so perhaps on this occasion I was lucky enough to be one of the few to get the view and not one of the many to have missed out.....

Black-winged Stilt

Not to be outdone by the incident in the ditch (you have to read the previous post or you may get the wrong impression here) I headed back down to Tacumshin a couple of days later.  I met John M at forgotten corner and we set about locating the Black-winged stilt.

There was no sign of the stilt at the forgotten corner but we were kept occupied by two hen harriers, a male was quartering the fields below the wind turbines whilst a female flew low and slow across the entire opposite bank of the lake lifting everything she passed as she went.  The small teal flock was in the middle of the lake and a quick inspection gave up the green-winged teal.

Green-winged teal, Tacumshin

After a while we headed up to the East end.  It didn't take long to spot the black-winged stilt, it was moving slowly along the shoreline in front of us.  However as is often the case "something....." caused the entire shoreline to lift and the stilt moved further out into the middle of the lake.  We hung around for about 20 minutes but the stilt was moving further away all the time.  This was my first ever black-winged stilt and it was worth heading back down to Tacumshin to get it, incidentally, as I write this it has only been reported once more (the following day) so this weekend will tell whether I got it just in time.

Ah come on, I know its a crap shot but it was in the middle of the lake and moving away!

We headed up to Lingstown, parked up near the rocks and set about finding our next target.  It took about 20 minutes of standing around being entertained by the calls of the various finches busying themselves up and down the lane before we got our first glimpse of the day of a very special bird, the bearded reedling.  These have to be one of the most spectacular species we get on these shores, right up there with the waxwing (in my opinion, and I mean in aesthetics, not rarity).  Two of them went back and forth in front of us for about 20 minutes, rising from the reeds to our left and going down about 50 meters to our right, rising from here and back to where they'd risen on the left...... and back and forth.

I got a text from the lads at Irish Birding reporting the two cattle egrets at Bannow Bay, however time at this stage was running out and I had to hit the N11 and head for home.  Obviously if I hadn't already had cattle egret this year I'd have been straight in to the car and heading away from home...... funny creatures these biders!

Tacumshin

I took a spin down to Tacumshin yesterday, I had a hit list of three to get, BW stilt, LB dowitcher and the GW teal, all would be welcome additions to the year list, one, the stilt would have been a lifer!  Notice the use of the term ".... would have been"

I arrived at 7.45am, there was no sign of anyone else so I headed straight for the forgotten corner hoping to get the stilt and get the day off to a good start.  No show!  I spent about 30 mins in and around the corner with no sign of the stilt.  I headed back to the car for some breakfast, just as Dermot, Noel and John from arrived.  After some chat we headed back over to the forgotten corner for a final check before heading for the ferry and a trip to the Saltees.

We came to the flooded ditch at the end of the track and tested out the solidity of the ground before crossing.  Dermot was the first to cross, no problem.  I was second.  I planted my left welly exactly where Dermots had been only moments before, solid enough....  I passed the scope across.  Now obviously in order to walk you put one foot in front of the other, so my right leg was going to have to follow the left and plant somewhere on the ditch in order to cross it.  What could possibly go wrong?  Dermot had only just crossed and was now safely on the other side.

Around came the right leg, yeah that felt solid enough, water up to the ankle but hey the wellies go right up almost to the knee so no worries.  Then I got my very own Titanic feeling, I was going down and there was nothing I could do to stop it.  My right leg sank and in moments I was left with my left leg on solid enough ground whilst my right leg was knackers deep in thick black stagnant ditch water.  I don't know how the other three didn't just fall around laughing, I would have.  Instead after a few minutes I was pulled from my watery berth and back on solid ground.  Still no one was laughing, I definitely would have been.  Thankfully no one thought of taking a picture, imagine browsing Irish Birding and seeing yourself  ..... a sighting from Tacumshin.... the lesser legged Ashbourne ditch stilt!!

No children or animals where harmed during this dramatic reconstruction!

So there I was, one leg dry, the other covered in black slime all the way to the the afore mentioned crown jewels.  Usually this wouldn't have presented a major problem (not that this usually happens to me) I'd just go back to the car and change into the spare clothes that always sit in the rucksack in the boot.   But I'd taken the clothes out of the car last week and hadn't put them back in!  Disaster.

I got cleaned up as best I could, put a pair of footy shorts on and said my goodbyes.  I wasn't in any condition to continue on, no Saltees Islands for me today, and not one of the three target birds spotted.  It was a lonely drive back up the N11, just me and the smell rising from my left leg of stagnant Tacumshin ditch water.

Iceland gull

There can't be too many birds whose name is as mis-leading as the iceland gull.  Well perhaps the herring gull could be added to the mis-leading names list, I mean most herring gulls live inland, in and around humans, usually on rubbish tips, living off everything and anything the human has decided to discard.  Most herring gulls don't survive on a diet of herrings, in fact there are good reasons to believe that some may rarely if ever dine on herrings!

Now, back to the iceland gull, a gull that doesn't actually breed in Iceland, it breeds in Greenland and Canada.  This has been a very good winter for iceland gulls in Ireland.  We can usually expect sightings throughout most winters, but this year reports have been more numerous than any winter I can remember.

I've seen them at Soldiers Point, Port Oriel, Gormanstown, Rogerstown, Swords, Bray......... like I said, they have been quite numerous this winter, and because of their pale appearance, they really stand out in a crowd.

Last Friday I took advantage of the stretch in the evenings and took a trip out to Swords.  There have been two first winter icelands associating with the other gulls out there for at least a few weeks now.  When I got there the two birds were on show, however by the time I got out of the car and geared up one of them had flown much further down the estuary, leaving just one at close quarters.

1st winter iceland gull, Swords

Across the estuary on the South side two little gulls were also on show, an adult and first winter.  By six thirty the light had gone and it was off home.

Crows

Ashbourne has a very healthy crow population, from the town to the adjoining countryside there are corvids everywhere. Here are some pics of the locals. That's it, no trip, story or anecdote today, just crows.

Jackdaw

Hoodie

Magpie

Rook

 

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Strangford Lough

Sunday 6.30am we depart Ashbourne, heading North.  We plan to spend the day up at Strangford Lough and we have a hit list of species which have been reported over the previous few days which will help boost the year lists.

We get the ferry across the lough at 9.30am and a remarkable days birding begins. One of the species we are most interested in are the slavonian grebes which have been reported in small groups on the lough all week.  Five minutes out of Strangford and we park up on a headland with good views of the lough.  A quick scope of the scene reveals a small group grebes some distance out, closer inspection confirms we have our first target of the day in the bag.  Slavonian grebes confirmed.

As we move further up the coast we make several stops on the way and tick off gadwall, greenshank, eider, greylag goose and literally hundreds (if not thousands) of goldeneye.  In and around the Greyabbey to Chapel Island area is where the day really takes off.

Golden plovers - Strangford Lough, 4 of a flock of hundreds!

Firstly we get numerous sightings of common buzzard, but its the rough-legged variety were after.  Can we get our second rough-legged buzzard in Ireland this year (after Glenroe)?  On one of the many stops we make a local birder tells us that the possible (not very possible) saker falcon has just been spotted on Chapel Island only a kilometer up the road.  We don't need telling twice and its off we head.  Wellies on and across a very boggy field to the coast facing Chapel Island.

There it is (whatever it is).  Perched on a post at the front of the island we have it in our objective lenses for about 10 minutes.  Its definitely a falcon of some sort, but common opinion on the ground is that its either an escapee saker from some falconer, or an as yet unconfirmed pale morph peregrine of sorts.  All I know for sure is that this was one of the species we wanted to see today, so that's another off the list.  If by some miracle this bird gets confirmed as a saker that'll be a life tick for both myself and Steve.  If however as is likely it never gets truly identified it'll always just be another bird of little or no consequence.

This bird has the experts stumped!  I dont know why.  From what I can see from the above photo this is defenitley a saker falcon so why all the doubts??!!

Chapel Island also gave us a hunting short-eared owl, two common buzzards and our third target for the day the rough-legged buzzard.  It was hovering and hunting in full view on the left hand side of the island and was generous enough to stay in full view for about five minutes.  Not a bad return for one hour of the day scoping a not very big Island.

Back to the car and the goose hunt could begin.  We easily located the greylag flock, so we headed around the back of them were the view revealed a larger flock than was apparent from the road.  Our targets here were white-fronted and russian (sib) white-fronted.  I don't even have to tell you do I?  Two more target species in the bag and a year list getting a good stretch.  But it didn't end there, four canada geese flew in to join the flock (locals say some of these canada geese can be feral up here) but as its impossible to tell for sure and as they were associating with wild geese I'll give them the benefit for the year list (my rules) until I get them somewhere else in the coming months.

The day was moving on so we decided to head for Hillsborough and get the cattle egret which was the last target of the day (previous post).  All in all a great day, all targets achieved and a mysterious bird sighted just in case it turns out to be officially identified as a little bit special (unlikely)!

Cattle Egret

We took a trip to Strangford Lough on Sunday (more in the next post), and decided early on that we'd head to Hillsborough late on to catch the cattle egret that's been roosting there this last while.

We arrived at the lake at about 4.30, found the island with the dead tree and cormorant roost and set the scopes up.  Just Steve and myself and a few curious locals asking what we were up to.  The roost is in a public park so lots of interest from those out for their Sunday stroll.  We were as polite as possible without being too encouraging, we really didn't want a mob, we just wanted to enjoy the bird, end the day on a high and head home.

"Hey Mick, take a look over there" says Steve, "I don't believe it!!!"  You remember the scene in the film 'Zulu Dawn', when over the hill come thousands of Zulu warriors, headgear, shields and spears on show.  Replace the headgear with woolly hats, the shields with binoculars and the spears with scopes and our very own mob of Zulu birders came thundering down the footpath towards us. 



"I say chaps, the little buggers been hanging around that tree over there, bloody cheek, invading someone elses tree, what...rather inconsiderate wouldn't one say?"

This was turning into a real twitch.  Eight of us now hugged the lake shore, this only served to get even more locals curious as to what was going on.  It took all my years of practice in the art of  'evasion of eye contact' in order to avoid being distracted again, some of the new bigger group obviously weren't as skilled as me and made the mistake of eyeballing the strollers and getting pounced on.  "what, why, where...... really....... blah blah blah

Back to the egret.  The sun just started to go behind the trees and the lake was looking a little duller when from the left a flash of white.  Right on cue the bird landed on the front lower part of the tree and gave great views.  This cattle egret has been roosting here for quite some time so we were pretty sure we'd get to see it, however we couldn't be sure it would land on the front of the tree and show so well.

It was a great end to a really great day (more on the next post) and all that remained was the trip back down the A1 and home.

Eider

I spent a morning last Sunday week out in Skerries hoping for a sighting of the Eider's that I've been told call that part of the world home.  Not a species I've had in Dublin, hence the trip.

It was bitter cold, the sea was choppy and there were very few walkers around.  Shane F turned up about an hour in, he had the same idea as me, so together we spent a couple of hours scoping the bay area over towards the islands and beyond.  No show, d'oh!!!  I only had half the day, I could have gone somewhere else and not been so cold.  Shane left and headed to Kilcoole (later on he got a Glossy Ibis over Broad Lough).  I hung around another 30 minutes or so before packing up and heading home.

Not to be beaten I headed back to Skerries the following Friday.  It was an altogether better experience.  Cool, not cold, and the sea was much calmer.  I took up position on one of the benches on Red Island looking out across the bay towards Colt Island.  I scoped the shoreline of Colt from right to left and hey presto!!  Just off the shoreline between Colt and the large rocks to the left as you view it from the headland was the unmistakable sight of a male Eider.  A quick zoom in revealed two more Eiders, female/juvenile, just too far out to be sure which.  So Eiders in Dublin, a first for me.

All the while the scope was zoomed in on the ducks, I was also being entertained by a flock of 30 odd purple sandpipers just below my position, flying up and down the shoreline off Red Island.

I moved on towards Gormanstown after that but apart from a flock of common scoters well offshore the place was very quite.

Rough-legged buzzard - Kilcoole

Sunday morning, 7.30am.  Steve keeping an eye on things in the stubble field, I'm up the hill watching the field with the sheep (and dead dog, more on that later).  One hour into what was to be a long day and Steve arrives up the lane and we begin to put a plan together for the rest of the day.  Late last year there was a report of a rough-legged buzzard only a couple of minutes up the road from my house in Ashbourne, I was on the scene within minutes (see previous post) but no buzzard (well, not a live one anyway (again, see previous post).

Steve had only arrived up to me a couple of minutes when he sights the buzzard over my shoulder a couple of fields in the distance.  There it was, flying low, mobbed by crows, rising and dropping across the field, disappears behind a house, back in view and across another field.  It was heading towards the stubble field Steve had just left.  Tripods on shoulders we legged (pardon the pun) back down the lane and into the stubble field.  By the time we got there it was gone, but Justin I who was also in the field spotted it flying low across the length of the field, past the hay bales and through the trees at the bottom towards the train tracks.

Our phones went into action and before long there were five or six of us in the field hoping for a show.  Nothing happened for an hour, some of the group dispersed.  Myself and Steve decided to head down to Kilcoole and get a look at the Tundra bean geese that were around for the last couple of days.  Jim C decided to join us, so off we set.

We had no bother spotting the TB geese, they had conveniently taken up residence in the potato field with the whoopers.  From the potato field we headed down past the buck thorn to the breaches, this time the target were bewicks.  We scanned the whoopers and mutes in the fields but no bewicks.  After about an hour we decided to head back up to Glenroe farm for the RL buzzard.

An afternoon of frustration followed.  We set up in the sheep field above the lane with Shay C.  Getting back to the dead dogs, we were approached that morning by the farmer whose field we were in, he was cool with this.  However he told us how the previous evening he'd shot two dogs that were hassling the lambing sheep.  The evidence was there to see, two dead dogs on the field, both minus important parts of their craniums, important that is if they'd wished to continue living!

Hey Dinny, have you seen Lucky?  I let her out for a run this morning and she hasn't come home!!

Jim C and others headed up to the N11 where they got views of the bird, we unfortunately didn't.  The three of us stayed put, waiting for the bird to head our way...... it didn't.  By this time it was cold, very cold.  Shay and I decided to call it a day, I'd have to settle for the brief views I got that morning.  However, I said Jim and I headed home, I didn't mention Steve.  He hung around and before I'd reached Bray on the N11 he was on the phone to me........ moral of the story, if you've staked out a bird from the crack of dawn to an hour before dark and only caught a glimpse of said bird, don't be so quick to head home, stay the hour till dark, you just never know!  Patience is a virtue, and Steve got his reward.