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.