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.
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| Jackdaw |
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| Hoodie |
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| Magpie |
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| Rook |
Saturday, February 25, 2012
Thursday, February 23, 2012
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.
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.
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)!
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)!
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
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.
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.
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.
Thursday, February 2, 2012
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.
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.
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