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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. (4 Viewers)

Peter,

IIRC there's an amount of ringing recoveries to show that the northern England population winter on either side of the North Sea - east coast of England and Holland. In fact I seem to remember there was one recovery of a bird on this south-easterly bearing that was ultimately found in Switzerland or Italy direction.

Not sure about Copeland but there was a bird ringed in Skye that was contolled/found in Donegal subsequently. This would represent a movement from a British island, rather than the British mainland, to Ireland of course!

Dave


Here it is. A quote from BTO's Migration Atlas
Twite

"Ring recovery data suggests that birds breeding elsewere (other than the Pennines) in Britain and Ireland are much more sedentary.....These have probably moved down hill to food rich areas such as coastal farmland....There is some evidence of interchange.... between southwest Scotland and Northern Ireland"

Regarding the Italian recovery.

"This is a most unusual recovery,however,as twite are only very occasionally reported in Italy, mainly in the northeast, and records usually involve birds of the nominate race."

I am assuming that the flock at Dundalk Bay are birds that have moved in from Scotland down through Northern Ireland and into Dundalk Bay.(As the very limited recovery map would seem to indicate).The Pennines birds seem to have a completely different migration strategy to the populations in Scotland and Ireland.

Are Twite still breeding in Northern Ireland?

Pennines birds marked in red.
 

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Do you reckon the Sligo wintering Twite are from Scotland too? Or is there a possibility that there are some still breeding on the Mullet, and that these are wintering on the Sligo coast?

Sorry, I´m hijacking your superb thread, back to Louth birding now. Apologies.
 
Do you reckon the Sligo wintering Twite are from Scotland too? Or is there a possibility that there are some still breeding on the Mullet, and that these are wintering on the Sligo coast?

Sorry, I´m hijacking your superb thread, back to Louth birding now. Apologies.


I suppose it could be both. If the wintering population is much greater than the breeding population, then they must be traveling from further afield.
 
Dropped into Mell for five minutes on wednesday: pochard (96), ring-necked duck (97). During an iwebs count yesterday went looking for the lurgangreen roosting geese. There were 430 greylag, 32 whitefronted (98) and 1 - 3 pink footed geese (99) between lurgangreen and the M1 along the Fane. They can be seen from the large green barns along the Commons road. Alternatively if you go all the way up the commons road and turn right along a row of new houses, then continue down a rough track you can see them a bit better (but do not approach, very flighty and i think they have had a lot of disturbance this season based on large numbers of greylags apparently flying in circles around crusietown).
http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=53.938658,-6.39533&spn=0.020816,0.050983&t=h&z=14
 
2 Iceland Gulls still at Cruisetown yesterday. The tide was too far out today when I passed to see anything much. Whooper Swans present yesterday and today 2 to 3 fields back from the road, with the exception of 1 lone swan lurking in the reeds close to the road.
 

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A pair of Shoveler at Beaulieu Pond today, they seem to be creatures of habit - they were seen on the same date in 2007 and 2006.
 

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I was just going to ask about the 'Shoveler at Beaulieu'.

Where is the best place to park at Beaulieu, to view the ponds?

Thanks in advance.
Parking is very restricted since the owners put a paling of sorts up outside Beaulieu House, so parking is along the road. If your lucky you may get parked at the gate, but there is only room there for 1 car. You can also enter from the Boyne Road and the white gate was open today as there were potatoes being planted in the field beside the pond. The Shovelers are jumpy and after I first glimpsed them, I spent ages waiting for them to reappear. I met Maurice Conachy there, he had also seen them and commented on they being jumpy.
 
Have to go and see this pond at Beaulieu

It's certainly worth a visit John. Should also see Mallard, Teal, Widgeon, Little Grebe, Moorhen, Coot, Heron, Little Egret and Mute Swan. It's a small enough pond so there can be good photographing opportunities. This is a photo of the pond that I took this time last year.
 

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I notice that the numbers of Brent Geese are increasing on the Boyne, there were approx. 200 there yesterday. I assume that they are starting to move Northward in preparation for their departure.
 
Hi All,
Have a look at this link, it is a great chance to have a copy of one of the cornerstone publications of Irish birding.
http://snap.waterfordcoco.ie/WebRoot$/collections/ebooks/99308/99308.pdf
Joe
 
Todays news

I had a long day in the field today. Starting with an early start at Baltray (no Short eared Owl). I had better luck at Beulieu, with the pair of Shoveler showing well but distant (its seems strange that they are such local rarities in the county). Clogher Head was quiet but at least the birds were posing. Chaffinch,Pied Wagtail and Great crested Grebe made the trip worthwhile.Two first winter Iceland Gulls still at Cruisetown and a single Whooper Swan at KCP, the one with the damaged neck from last year.

In the afternoon I check out the lakes around Carrickmacross in Monaghan. No sign of last years Ring necked Duck at Lough Fea. Just two calling Water Rail the best (at Rahans Lough).
Finished off at the Docks and Lurgangreen (I was afraid to get out of the car at the Docks) not the place to bird on sunday afternoons!
Lurgangreen had about 300 Greylag Geese and 25 or so Greenland White-fronted Geese 7 Little Egrets were feeding together in one of the channels. The usual fantastic assorted cast of thousands of Ducks, Geese, Waders and Gulls were also on show.

I met Breffni, who went off to stalk some geese.

Any luck Breffni?

114 Shoveler
 

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shoveler from beaulieu today
I went there yesterday in anticipation, having seen the pair of shovelers there on 16th Feb last year and the year before but there was no sign of them then! The last two years they were joined by another pair shortly after, and the 4 stayed a few weeks, so we can keep an eye out now to see if the second pair arrive. It really is incredible that they return on exactly the same day.
 
Also visited Beaulieu

Couldnt find a Teal with similar markings in the database , is this one in Beaulieu unusual ?
 

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Hi, Nice shot - thats a common teal. This can be confused with the american subspecies, green-winged teal (it has a vertical white line on the wing, as opposed to horizontal) - a few of these turn up every year. Blue-winged teal also sometimes show up (one in bull island at the moment) and a few years back a baikal teal (from east siberia) turned up in northern ireland and has been accepted as a genuine vagrant. I'd recommend the Collins field guide - the BF database has some limitations.
 
Lurgangreen had about 300 Greylag Geese and 25 or so Greenland White-fronted Geese 7 Little Egrets were feeding together in one of the channels. The usual fantastic assorted cast of thousands of Ducks, Geese, Waders and Gulls were also on show.

I met Breffni, who went off to stalk some geese.

Any luck Breffni?

114 Shoveler

I spent most of the dayup the mountains looking for crossbills - i suspect that they are breeding - but no joy - the place was alive with finches and tits. At annaverna a huge area has been clearfelled but there is still plenty of mature sitka. Saw a peregrine in Glenmore, near Sleivenaglogh. At Lurgangreen, after half an hour creeping up on the geese a microlight plane flew over and put everything up but no sign of the pink-foot. I counted 41 whitefronts this time.
 

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