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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

County Louth (formerly Dundalk Bay) local patch. (2 Viewers)

fredbern said:
Super photo of the LBD Sandra.

Has a great view of a barn owl midweek. I was driving home from Dundalk along the N1 (old main road pre M1) and the owl flew directly across the road in front of me, at what was known as the Marsh Farm. It's the red bricked farm house and out buildings just before the lorry place on the left hand side driving south.

Well done Margaret, I think its the best photo I have seen of the bird so far.

Great news about the barn Owl find Freddie.

Peter
 
fredbern said:
Super photo of the LBD Sandra.
Thanks Freddie, Margaret's excellent photo though! It showed really well yesterday and I got a couple of nice shots too, I'll try and post them later.

Good news about the barn owl, nice find.
 
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Enda said:
Excellent shots Sandra looks like you had great views. was it on the same side of the river as you (the harbour side?)
Thanks. It was the far side, just on the curve where the channel runs off across from the Spirit Store. The light conditions were excellent and when the redshanks finally moved out of the way it gave really good views.
 
Little Terns Baltray 2007

We’re trying to get started with our plans for the Little Terns in Baltray early this year. Generally we hope to erect some sort of cordon or fencing (yet to be decided), put up plenty of signs, and most importantly we will need to warden the area as much as we possibly can.

Another part of our plans will be to put chick shelters in place. These will consist of pieces of plastic piping. The ideal size is 18’’(45cm) lengths of 6’’(150mm) diameter pipe. If anyone has any pieces of wavin piping lying around that they don’t need or find any on the roadside we could do with them for this project. They don’t have to be the exact size given above, that’s just a general guide.

Volunteers are needed, every little bit will help even if it’s just an hour or two here and there. The Little Terns arrive in May and leave around the end of July so this is the period when we need help.

Anybody wishing to make contact regarding the Little Tern project can email [email protected], or please feel free to post any ideas or suggestions on this forum.
 
(Another part of our plans will be to put chick shelters in place. These will consist of pieces of plastic piping. The ideal size is 18’’(45cm) lengths of 6’’(150mm) diameter pipe. If anyone has any pieces of wavin piping lying around that they don’t need or find any on the roadside we could do with them for this project. They don’t have to be the exact size given above, that’s just a general guide. )

Hi Sandra,

I will check in the zoo for wavin piping. There is lots of building work going on at the moment so I should be able to get some between now and then. My brother is the maintanance man so he might even cut them up for me!

Had a look at Lough Muckno in Blaney today.. not one duck! About a dozen grebes and two cormorant. Very disappointing. It must be heavily shot. Anyway on way home stopped at Lurgangreen there were 48 Greylag on the saltmarsh and about 200 Brent. No Geese on the old N1 at Statoil station near Castlebellingham.

I work most weekends Sandra but am off every second Monday and Tuesday so you can pencil me in for those dates for the wardening of the Little Terns.

Peter
 
Little Terns, Baltray 2007

I will be able to give the times that I will be available hopefully during March (when I know what my work situation will be). Its quite a good spot for birding, particularly when the tide is coming in as it brings the birds up good and close, so it wont be any hardship to spend some time there over those 2 or 3 months. It will also be a good PR exercise - introducing the little terns to interested passers by.
 
Little terns

Great idea Sandra. I spent a few days up there myself last year and will do my best again this year.
I think however that it is terrible that we should be looking for wavin piping at the side of the road or around building sites. Has Louth County Council been approached about sponsoring, or at least assisting in this project? Are there any spare resources for conservation projects available from BWI? It's not going to cost thousands of euros (unless the wardens have to get minimum wage rates!).
I have photographs I took at the site last year showing tracks where vehicles were tearing through the middle of where the nests were located. There is a small pathway heading round the back of the dunnes to the site - is there any way of getting the gate here locked to prevent such activities?
 
I can do at least a morning or afternoon a week (weekdays only) during the critical time in the summer.

Speaking of baltry, on sunday evening am pretty sure i had a snow bunting in the queensboro area - light was falling and attached shot was taken at 800asa/100 yards - the shot does not show the bright white breast/underparts which were striking...returned yesterday but no sign, only a funny looking cormorant, showing some sinensis characteristics (wide gular pouch, white pattern on head) and yet another carrion crow picking around the mudflats (for the record there was one "pure" carrion crow and two hybrids at carlingford on the mudflats on sunday - will post pics later...
 

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That sounds good Peter about the pipes, plus weekdays will be the hardest to cover so that will really help if yourself and Breffni will be able to cover some of the weekdays.

Derek, any help will be great. We are approaching the NPWS and the County Council. We don't know yet what if any funding/assistance will be forthcoming so if any of these things can be covered without anyone being out of pocket then I think it would be as well to do so. BWI has no spare funding or resources, we might get some more signs from them but they won't be able to provide much more than that.

Margaret is right about Baltray being a good spot to spend time. Large numbers of gulls (and terns in the summer) roost there, plus it usually has nice numbers of waders and you'd nearly walk on the skylarks. Quite good for butterflies too for those interested. I spent some good stretches of time there on my own last summer and really the time always flew by, particularly at high tide.

Keep the ideas and comments coming!
 
MargaretM said:
I will be able to give the times that I will be available hopefully during March (when I know what my work situation will be). Its quite a good spot for birding, particularly when the tide is coming in as it brings the birds up good and close, so it wont be any hardship to spend some time there over those 2 or 3 months. It will also be a good PR exercise - introducing the little terns to interested passers by.

Your not wrong there Margaret! When I volunteered at Kilcoole, they had a fantastic selection of rare and interesting migrants, including Red-rumped Swallow, Yellow Wagtail, Hobby, Marsh Harrier and summer plumaged Little Stint to name just a few, all within a few hundred yards of the nesting site. With all the additional eyes at Baltray I am sure some great birds will be recorded over the summer.

Peter
 
Keenan's Cross Pond

While I am on line.... I have tried to pin down the owners of Keenan's Cross pond and it is proving quite a challange. Two likely candidates namely Tegral Pipes and Irish Cement were both scratching there heads. Irish Cement did own it but they dont know who they sold it too! Its been a long time about 20-30 years since they worked there.
I have contacted the Land Registry and they are going to do a search for me. However I need an Ordinance Survey map of the site. Does anybody have this map. If anybody does could they please e mail it to me(you can either scan it or take a digital picture and send it that way)

Thanks in advance

Peter
 
Barn owl Site

Its me again!

For anybody interested in Barn Owls and their conservation check out this site. Its the best single species site I have ever seen!

Peter
 
Derek Watters said:
I have photographs I took at the site last year showing tracks where vehicles were tearing through the middle of where the nests were located. There is a small pathway heading round the back of the dunnes to the site - is there any way of getting the gate here locked to prevent such activities?
I forgot to respond to this Derek. Those gates generally are locked, I've rarely seen them open. To my knowledge any 4 wheeled vehicles that come up there access it via Termonfeckin beach. I don't know if there is anything we can do about that. It's possible that motorbikes access the beach at the Baltray end, if they are determined enough gates and fences don't seem to stop them. I guess wardening is the best deterrent.
 
ardnasx1 said:
I forgot to respond to this Derek. Those gates generally are locked, I've rarely seen them open. To my knowledge any 4 wheeled vehicles that come up there access it via Termonfeckin beach. I don't know if there is anything we can do about that. It's possible that motorbikes access the beach at the Baltray end, if they are determined enough gates and fences don't seem to stop them. I guess wardening is the best deterrent.

Possibly if the Gardai were notified about the Tern colony and asked to keep an eye out for vehicles on the beach it might help ?
Its an offence to use a motorised vehicle in a public place without Tax and insurance etc.
Might be a waste of time but it cant do any harm.
 
I understand that the Kilcoole project is now 22years old. Perhaps a meeting with one or two of the volunteers from Wicklow to draw on their experiences would be advantageous. It also appears that in recent years this project has been so successful that new / reestablished colonies are appearing in Wexford (and perhaps Baltray). Maybe this is a good time to give the Louth site more protection.
 
gareth2005 said:
Possibly if the Gardai were notified about the Tern colony and asked to keep an eye out for vehicles on the beach it might help ?
Its an offence to use a motorised vehicle in a public place without Tax and insurance etc.
Might be a waste of time but it cant do any harm.

I don't know what role the Gardaí can play, but as far as I know Louth County Coucil can introduce bye-laws - I can think of three of the top of my head - 1. No powered watercraft in Carlingford harbour and Gyles Quay 2. No quads / scrambler bikes on Cooley Mountains and 3 No quads etc on Templetown beach. An additional bye-law at Baltray might help matters
 
Derek Watters said:
I understand that the Kilcoole project is now 22years old. Perhaps a meeting with one or two of the volunteers from Wicklow to draw on their experiences would be advantageous. It also appears that in recent years this project has been so successful that new / reestablished colonies are appearing in Wexford (and perhaps Baltray). Maybe this is a good time to give the Louth site more protection.


Hi Derek,

I worked on the Kilcoole project as a volunteer warden in 2001 (just one day per week). I agree that now is probably the best in along while to make a go of Baltray, however I think the biggest issue we will have is getting enough people to volunteer. Kilcoole started off purely with volunteers and as the colony grew so did the committments. Now the site has two wardens full time during the season and cover on their days off. I think if we can organise protection locally the colony is sure to grow and possibly then we might be in a better position to develop along the same direction as Kilcoole.

On another note I had over 100 Black-tailed Godwits feeding in the field behind the water treatment plant at Lurgangreen. Has anybody seen a larger flock in these fields?

Peter
 
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