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