On the way home I stopped in at Killoughter Lane where a male Greater Spotted Woodpecker was at the feeders.
ebird list for Avoca
ebird list for Killoughter Lane
Sunday, February 25, 2018
Red Kites at Avoca
With winds from the east and clear skies I did a quick runaround of the various harbours in Wicklow looking for interesting gulls. There was very little around, so I decided to investigate the village of Avoca where Red Kites have a regular winter roost. My information was good, and I had a total of 7 birds in flight. A Buzzard joined them briefly.
On the way home I stopped in at Killoughter Lane where a male Greater Spotted Woodpecker was at the feeders.
ebird list for Avoca
ebird list for Killoughter Lane
The Red Kites were part of a reintroduction project, and many of them sport wing-tags...
Common Buzzard
Male Greater Spotted Woodpecker
On the way home I stopped in at Killoughter Lane where a male Greater Spotted Woodpecker was at the feeders.
ebird list for Avoca
ebird list for Killoughter Lane
Saturday, February 17, 2018
Wexford 17th February
Winter is fast disappearing and I haven't been to Wexford Wildfowl Reserve yet, a glaring omission. With good weather forecast for Saturday 17th, I headed south. The reserve is only an hour and a half from home, so I should really do it much more often. Basically it was excellent. There were heaps of birds, with an early highlight being 66 Whooper Swans in the first fields in the reserve. Also there were the first of several groups of Greater White-fronted Goose (at least 400 birds present in various areas). The main reserve office has a tower overlooking a large area of fields that are otherwise inaccessible. There were hundreds of geese of various species here, including a small group of 14 Barnacle Goose.
Next stop was Tacumshin which was even better, but further away so impossible to get decent pictures. The wildfowl theme was continued here, with hundreds of ducks (all the commoner species represented), geese (mainly Brent and Greylag, one Pink-footed Goose with the latter), and swans (mainly Mute, but at least 8 Whoopers). In addition there was a good population of waders. The most numerous were European Golden Plover, mainly contained in one massive flock of at least 2000 birds. Lots of Lapwings of course, as well as a good number of Black-tailed Godwit. Two Hen Harriers were great (but quite distant).
A birder I met at Tacumshin (Paul Kelly) put me on to a Cattle Egret at a nearby village, Tomhaggard. Sure enough there it was, doing its thing in a field with half a dozen cows. Wow.
Whooper Swans, still lovely, still to far to photograph effectively
Lots of Greater White-fronted Goose today.
Irish Hare near the reserve HQ.
Next stop was Tacumshin which was even better, but further away so impossible to get decent pictures. The wildfowl theme was continued here, with hundreds of ducks (all the commoner species represented), geese (mainly Brent and Greylag, one Pink-footed Goose with the latter), and swans (mainly Mute, but at least 8 Whoopers). In addition there was a good population of waders. The most numerous were European Golden Plover, mainly contained in one massive flock of at least 2000 birds. Lots of Lapwings of course, as well as a good number of Black-tailed Godwit. Two Hen Harriers were great (but quite distant).
A birder I met at Tacumshin (Paul Kelly) put me on to a Cattle Egret at a nearby village, Tomhaggard. Sure enough there it was, doing its thing in a field with half a dozen cows. Wow.
Monday, February 12, 2018
A good day in Dundalk, 12th Feb
With good birds reported from Dundalk, and a bright sunny day I felt a visit to the cousins nearby was in order. First stop was Shore Road to look for the Twite flock that has been hanging around here all winter. There were only a few birds today (despite 91 being claimed from earlier this morning). Lots of Linnet though...
The next hotspot was Dundalk Port. While I was scanning the flocks on the opposite bank I let Cillian use the scope. Naturally the first bird he sighted on turned out to be a Spotted Redshank, well done boy!
Further up the river is a gull roost which today had a lovely 2nd cycle Kumlien's Gull, as well as a group of 9 Ruff, lots of Golden Plovers and plenty other nice birds.
An excellent day
Dundalk Port
Shore Road
Castletown River
A lovely 2nd winter Kumlien's Gull. I didn't get a decent flight view so I'll have to take the ID on trust.
I haven't seen a Spotted Redshank since Dubai, and they are one of the prettiest of all the waders. An absolute cracker...
Not content with prancing around prettily, it then went and gave me a flyby so that I didn't miss any of the key ID features...
8 of the 9 Ruff that were hanging around in the middle of the stream.
A nice flock of European Golden Plover came in as the sun was going down.
Two Linnet (left), and what I believe is a Twite.
The next hotspot was Dundalk Port. While I was scanning the flocks on the opposite bank I let Cillian use the scope. Naturally the first bird he sighted on turned out to be a Spotted Redshank, well done boy!
Further up the river is a gull roost which today had a lovely 2nd cycle Kumlien's Gull, as well as a group of 9 Ruff, lots of Golden Plovers and plenty other nice birds.
An excellent day
Dundalk Port
Shore Road
Castletown River
Saturday, February 3, 2018
Blackcap eating apples
Having seen the success of the bird feeders at Killoughter Lane I decided to try my hand at something similar. I put out the standard Nylger seeds for finches, suet balls for tits, and peanuts for everybody. Then someone I met told me that Blackcap came to apples. This sounded absolutely insane, nevertheless, the next time I had a rotten apple I impaled it on a branch to see what would happen. Within half an hour there it was, a female Blackcap tucking in...
YOU ARE A WARBLER! YOU EAT INSECT LARVAE!
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