pianoman
duck and diver, bobolink and weaver
Hi -
My well-loved local forest patch is Kindlestown Hill in Delgany, Wicklow. In the six years I've been living nearby I haven't seen a bushy-tailed tree mammal of any kind.
Yesterday evening on my never-ending and still unsuccessful quest to see long-eared owl at Kindlestown, saw my first Kindlestown Squirrel - nice, but it was a Grey. Hardly unexpected.
This morning, am back, this time still trying to see the first Spotted Flycatcher of the year, there is more rustling and falling pine-cone fragments. I look up, and there in the top of the nearest Scots Pine are not one, but two Red Squirrel!
Strange to see not the usual story of Grey ousting Red, but the simultaneous arrival of both species.
Thankfully, Reds are not in the dire state in Ireland that they are in England. Strangely, though Greys have been in the east of Ireland for nearly a century they're not as ubiquitous as in England, though they have replaced reds in some places. Kindlestown has the right mix of trees (Mature Scots Pine, Larch and Douglas Fir, with only small broadleaf trees such as birch) to favour the Red. However, nearby is some native Oak forest seperated from Kindlestown by only about 1km width of farmland.
Yet another draw to attract me to beautiful Kindlestown; I can't wait to see how the percentages game pans out in the near future.
Turns out that the Red has been intermittently present in Kindlestown for about 10 years. Never saw it the whole time I was here.
Long shot, but if any Wicklow Wildlifers out there know about how long Greys have been in the area I'd love to know.
regards, Andrew
My well-loved local forest patch is Kindlestown Hill in Delgany, Wicklow. In the six years I've been living nearby I haven't seen a bushy-tailed tree mammal of any kind.
Yesterday evening on my never-ending and still unsuccessful quest to see long-eared owl at Kindlestown, saw my first Kindlestown Squirrel - nice, but it was a Grey. Hardly unexpected.
This morning, am back, this time still trying to see the first Spotted Flycatcher of the year, there is more rustling and falling pine-cone fragments. I look up, and there in the top of the nearest Scots Pine are not one, but two Red Squirrel!
Strange to see not the usual story of Grey ousting Red, but the simultaneous arrival of both species.
Thankfully, Reds are not in the dire state in Ireland that they are in England. Strangely, though Greys have been in the east of Ireland for nearly a century they're not as ubiquitous as in England, though they have replaced reds in some places. Kindlestown has the right mix of trees (Mature Scots Pine, Larch and Douglas Fir, with only small broadleaf trees such as birch) to favour the Red. However, nearby is some native Oak forest seperated from Kindlestown by only about 1km width of farmland.
Yet another draw to attract me to beautiful Kindlestown; I can't wait to see how the percentages game pans out in the near future.
Turns out that the Red has been intermittently present in Kindlestown for about 10 years. Never saw it the whole time I was here.
Long shot, but if any Wicklow Wildlifers out there know about how long Greys have been in the area I'd love to know.
regards, Andrew
