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.

Rough-legged Buzzard - Dip

Took myself a couple of kilometers up the N2 this morning to see if the RL buzzard spotted in the flooded field this morning was still around.  I got there at about 11 and Dermot O'M was already there.  As I parked Dermot was in the process of removing a dead buzzard from the middle of the road.  First thoughts were "I don't believe this, its been hit and killed before I've had a chance to see it"..........    Well luck was in for the RL buzzard, Dermot was removing one of his cousins, a common buzzard.

It had a hole in its side chest cavity.  It was otherwise still intact, this and the "freshness" of its appearance meant it was killed possibly on a couple of minutes before we arrived.  Believe me, the traffic on this stretch of road is so busy that anything lying around for more than a few minutes will end up frisbee shaped in no time.

I've attached a photo of the unfortunate buzzard below.



road kill buzzard N2 - not the RL variety!


Anyway, back to the business of the RL buzzard.  We stayed for about 30 minutes, no show.  We stayed a bit longer.... no show.  Dermot decided to head on up to Annagassan to see if the grey phalarope was still present, I'd had it yesterday, it was sheltering within the walls of the harbour from very rough seas.

I hung around for another hour and guess what..... no RL buzzard.   The field had plenty of ducks (mallard), mute swans (pair), lapwing, blackwits, and lots of gulls, mostly BH.  Scoping the far tree line for the RL gave up a male merlin.

Another dip, time for home.  Its only a few minutes drive home so I'll keep an eye on the field over the next couple of days, so fingers crossed.

Mind your step

Breath in, smell the sea.... two hours spent in Kilcoole, nothing much on show but hey the airways got a workout.  I love that smell, the almost arced, seaweed smell that tells you your on the coast.  That's the smell  that was in the air that filled my lungs on Sunday, and boy does it make you glad your alive!

Back to the car, open the boot, prepare to change out of the boots, take one last deep intake of sea air and enjoy........ sniff...... SNIFF...... that doesn't smell right, something smells like what I imagine pedigree chum would smell like if it was opened and left to fester in a heated room for about a week (or substitute a heated room for a canine intestine) ...... DOG SHIT, and its on my boots! 

I want to get the K9 mutt who left its load for me to step into and insert said boot into rectum.  Actually I don't, I want to get the owner of the K9 and insert said boot into rectum, I want to deliver retribution the old fashioned way with a good old KICK IN THE ARSE!!

You see that's the problem with taking a coastal walk anywhere in Ireland, you run the risk of stepping on the K9 version of an IED.   Insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan leave explosives on footpaths, mans best friend just leaves his load.  And ain't that a real spoiler, I really thought I'd avoided the literally hundreds of deposits at Kilcoole on Sunday, but as they say, it only takes one.  My guard slipped for a second, maybe I was distracted by the distant call of the curlew (poetic), or was it when I looked up to say hello to a passer by, the point is it doesn't really matter how, the point is at some point in the afternoon I trod in a steaming turd.

Ironically when I met Brian H last Tuesday at Kilcoole we were speaking about how much K9 crap there was in the area, this was the very conversation we were having as we admired the BB sandpiper.  Brian H was saying how disgraceful it was that dogs were allowed run free by their owners and disturb so many birds, never mind the fact their owners couldn't give a shit (leave that for the dogs) what they get up to and where.

On Sunday I met Steven L at Kilcoole and again the conversation at some point turned to dogs running free and the mess they leave.  In fact just before I met Steven L I had an experience right out of "meet the Fockers" you know the part where Robert De Nero gets up close and personnel with Dustin Hoffmans dog.  There I was, near the buckthorn, eyes down on a beautiful RT diver when I felt something going on around the ankles.  I looked down and I was practically being dry humped by some little mutt who had taken a fancy to my right leg.  Its owner caught up and said something along the lines of  "it wont bite".  To be honest it wasn't its biting that concerned me at that minute, it was ..... well lets leave that one right there I'm sure you get the picture.

Fast forward an hour and there I am in the car park wondering how in the hell I'm going to remove two pounds of dog shit from the grooves in the soles of the boots,  smelling of pedigree chum and not very happy at all!  Breath in smell the sea air, nah all I can get is.........................

Buff-breasted sandpiper

I headed down to Kilcoole this morning hoping that the "buff-breasted yankee" was still knocking around.  It was, and it was very tame.  It was sat up on the shingle ridge right at the waters edge a couple hundred meters short of webbs field. 

It eventually moved up the shingle towards us and began feeding in the short grass just off the footpath, at this stage it was only about 25ft away. Its mustard legs were really striking at this range, as was the piercing very black eyes.  It preened, streched, looked around and generally didn't really care that there was numerous lenses and scopes pointed at it from practically point blank range...... why did I not bring a camera??

I eventually headed further south towards the buckthorn bushes in search of the lapland bunting thats been seen there recently.  Unfortunately time was against me and I didn't get to hang around long enough to get a sighting, those are the breaks..... but the trip really was all about the sandpiper and I had that for 30 minutes or more so I was going home happy regardless.

Out to sea there was plenty of gannett activity, numerous auks and a pair of red-throated divers passed heading south into the wind.

Landside there was the usual large flocks of goldfinches, plenty of swallows and house martins, quite a few wheatear, and a pair of stonechats.  Some dunlin were mixing with the turnstones at the waters edge and a single rock pipit was flushed on the way up to the buckthorn.

Webbs field held the usual numbers of ducks (mixed), cormorants, gulls and corvids.  A single pink-footed goose was there as were some mutes.  There were practically no "smalls" in the field, but I have it on good authority that there has been plenty of sparrowhawk and kestrel activity within the field lately and this seems to have scarred off most of the waders for now.

Port Oriel

A bright mild day seen me head for Clogher Head/Port Oriel this morning.  What a difference a day makes, same time yesterday I was out on a wet, windswept Bull Island.  The Bull threw up some curlew sandpipers and the blue winged teal which has returned for the 4th or 5th autumn/winter was as usual associating with the shovelers.  However the highlight was a fox out on the marsh slowly sneaking upon some roosting gulls at high tide.  The rain came, the car beckoned and I never got to see whether the fox had dinner!

Back to today, the port was busy enough with trawlers going in and out and that of course means Gulls.  Common, BH, GBB and herring gulls all on show.  The herring gulls lazily sunning themselves on the rocks below the upper car park.  The inner harbour had twenty guillemots, two razorbills and a lone cormorant on show. 

Above the harbour a noisy mixed group of about thirty common and arctic terns must surely be set for the off any day now, not to mention the three swallows that shared the air space with them.

Outside the walls of the harbour on the seaward side there were plenty more auks on show, including a flyby by five black guillemots.  A gannet was circling and diving a few hundred meters off shore and there was plenty of movement back and forth by cormorants, gulls and an occasional shag.  A grey seal was showing well near the rocks just below the harbour wall, keeping him company was seven GC grebes.

Moving up to the headland there was plenty of smalls on show, wren, robin, dunnock chaffinch, linnett, a single redpoll and a yellowhammer heard but not seen.  A sparrowhawk flushed some sparrows but it disappeared from view as quick as it appeared and I didn't see if its efforts were rewarded.

A grey wagtail was sat on a wall on the drive back down the hill to the village.

Broadmeadow

Took a trip out to Swords yesterday evening just as the tide was on the turn and on its way back in.  I spent a quite 90 minutes on my own, no other birders around and unusually for Swords hardly any walkers!

There were plenty of lapwing, sanderling and godwits (both) about, twenty odd oystercatchers and at least 12 grey herons tucked up as usual in the grass near the overpass. 

Plenty of redshank moving busily over the mudflats, and closer to shore a handful of turnstones moving up and down the shoreline.

The obligutory mix of gulls and of course the mute swans over the Donanbate side were also present.



mute swan, Swords



The highlight was a solitary greenshank, tucked up, head on shoulder trying its best to stay warm, it was suprisingly cold, the breeze had a real bite to it.  There was also a pair of grey plovers in amongst the dunlin.



Further out, a group of 15 GC grebes were keeping company with 3 goldeneye. 

Gormanstown

County Meath has a very short coast line, only about 11km in total, so this afternoon I decided to take a trip over to Gormanstown, one of the very few decent spots to catch shore birds, gulls and terns in the county.

The usual mix of gulls, common, BH'd, GBB'd, LBB'd, and herring gulls formed large flocks which were spread out on the rocks to the right and front of the car park under the rail bridge and in the sea just in front of the car park.  The tide was in so the flocks on the water were really close, I set the scope up and started to scan.  Sure enough mixed in amongst all those gulls were a small group of eight kittiwakes and two little gulls.

There were quite a few common terns doing their usual acrobatics, at least three sandwich terns and two arctic terns mixed in with the flock.

Further out to sea I spotted six razorbills, four guillemots an occasional gannet and a dozen or so cormorants passing across the horizon.  Resting up on the surface of the sea much further out (scope up to 60x mag)  was small groups of RB mergansers and great crested grebes.

Along the shore little groups of sanderling, dunlin, ringed plover and couple of black tailed godwits kept a solitary redshank company.  When I turned my attention to the rockier section of the beach near the bluff over to the right my eye caught the busy movements of a small flock (six to eight) turnstones.

After a brief visit to the front seat of the car to avoid a soaking from a shower which went from zero to torrent in about five seconds flat I finished up the visit by turning my attention to the trees and bushes which line the river along the road back out to the Balbriggan road.  A lone yellowhammer and a pair of collared doves were about all there was along the lane.

An hour well spent, Gormanstown is a really good spot for getting a good variety of species in, especially if time is of the essence.  From the car park you can set up the scope and have great views of the beach, the rocks out to sea, the bluff and the outlet without having to move.  I'd especially recommend a visit in the height of summer when on any given day it's possible to tick off five species of tern, all our summer gulls and usually something you weren't expecting.