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County Louth (formerly Dundalk Bay) local patch. (5 Viewers)

Hi Sandra et al,

There was also 4 Long Tailed Ducks at Salterstown last weekend. This seems to be the time of year for them although Enda had 2 at Lurgangreen before Xmas. Speaking of Lurgangreen, visited the place on Saturday at full tide - what a wonderful place for wildfowl with good numbers of pintail and goldeneye close in on a flat calm. The only downer was the amount of fresh rubbish strewn about the place - everything from TV to sofa to refrigerator. Disgraceful.

Good Birding!!

Freddie.
 
Just a note. I see that Newry night college are holding classes on Bird identification. Just though i'd let ye all know.
Saw a Jay just off the Carrick/Ardee main road on the Tallanstown road.
Also 2 Buzzards besides the Dump outside Collon and 10 minutes up the road saw one sitting on the fence along the motorway at Dromiskin, its great to see these birds making such a comeback. i've even seen one down towards the old Macardle moore brewery on the Ardee road.
 
Carlingford birding event

About 80 people showed for the talk by Eric Dempsey on Saturday night and about 50 turned up for the guided tour the following day, despite the drizzle. Also present were the Nationwide team from RTE who filmed both. There were 30 or so entries for the photo competition. Thanks to everyone concerned! Between the Dundalk and Carlingford events about 160 people showed up so we are planning to set up a local birdwatch ireland group for Dundalk Bay/Carlingford Lough (ie North Louth). If anyone is interested in this please send me a PM or email.
 

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Hi all

Just wondering what anyone thinks about widening the patch covered on this thread to Co Louth in general. Often the things I have to report, eg the greylags in Greenmount, aren't specifically Dundalk Bay and I'm never sure whether to post them or not. Let me know what yous think.

And on a south Louth note, there were a pair of shovelers on Beaulieu Pond this afternoon, first time I've seen one there.
 
ardnasx1 said:
Hi all

Just wondering what anyone thinks about widening the patch covered on this thread to Co Louth in general. Often the things I have to report, eg the greylags in Greenmount, aren't specifically Dundalk Bay and I'm never sure whether to post them or not. Let me know what yous think.

And on a south Louth note, there were a pair of shovelers on Beaulieu Pond this afternoon, first time I've seen one there.

That's a really good idea Sandra. Living between Dundalk and Drogheda, I like to travel both North and South and Co Louth is a small county!! I regularly go by Seabank, Salterstown, Dunany, Port, Clogherhead and on as far as Baltray/Beaulieu, hopefully this area is also of interest to people on this forum. What does anybody else think???
 
MargaretM said:
That's a really good idea Sandra. Living between Dundalk and Drogheda, I like to travel both North and South and Co Louth is a small county!! I regularly go by Seabank, Salterstown, Dunany, Port, Clogherhead and on as far as Baltray/Beaulieu, hopefully this area is also of interest to people on this forum. What does anybody else think???

Fine with me - that would include carlingford lough as well - not sure how to change the title of the thread though...

Did an iwebs count yesterday - waders and duck numbers starting to drop (wigeon way down). The black guillemots are in at giles quay, displaying and generally larking about (mornings when tide is high is best). Also at least 8 twite at the end of the shore road leading to marsh south and ring neck duck back at mell quarry (i wonder where this bird goes when not there?). Also persistent reports of a great white egret somewhere around drogheda (anybody know anything about this?) Also a hen harrier was seen around cruisetown area earlier in the week...
 
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breffni said:
Fine with me - that would include carlingford lough as well - not sure how to change the title of the thread though...

Did an iwebs count yesterday - waders and duck numbers starting to drop (wigeon way down). The black guillemots are in at giles quay, displaying and generally larking about (mornings when tide is high is best). Also at least 8 twite at the end of the shore road leading to marsh south and ring neck duck back at mell quarry (i wonder where this bird goes when not there?). Also persistent reports of a great white egret somewhere around drogheda (anybody know anything about this?) Also a hen harrier was seen around cruisetown area earlier in the week...

Great stuff. If you want to change the title of the thread I think you can do that by editing the first ever posting.

Very exciting about the great white egret, haven't been lucky enough to spot it, and I don't know where it's meant to be. I'll post immediately if I see or hear anything.

Out and about today I didn't see anything outside the usuals except about 8 pintails at Lurgangreen.
 
ardnasx1 said:
That's great, it's appreciated!

How do you get into Mell quarry to have a look, where do you go?

heading just north of drogheda on the old road before the roundabout to the m50 there is an old quarry to the left. Park and cross the road where there is a break in the wire. You climb about 20m and then see a large pond in a disused quarry - its usually empty but sometimes there is a flock of tufted duck with a ring neck drake among them...
 
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Like the new title. I'll do my best to chip in with my Carlingford Lough and Cooley peninsula sightings when I'm back in Ireland. Planning to be there for next three weeks.
 
Five species of geese on show at lurgangreen yesterday: greylag, pink footed, pale bellied brent, barnacle and white fronted. To view birds, park at the lurgangreen cul de sac (just by the river fane on the road to castlebellingham from dundalk). Then walk south along the shore, under a fence and onto the grassy bank to get a bit of height. Birds generally browsing around the saltmarsh (but they are very nervous and will depart if you approach too closely...)
 

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Spent most of today in and around Dundalk Bay (Annagassan, Lurgangreen, Blackrock, Dundalk Harbour) and Cooley (Gile's Quay, Carlingford). Birds were excellent in between the snow showers, especially at Lurgangreen where the geese (greyalg, white-fronts, brent and 2 pink-feet) showed really well this afternoon (thanks for your directions breffni). I saw a Barnacle Goose fly south past Blackrock at high tide. Lots of waders too- huge numbers of knot and golden plover, and many others besides. Sea watching was abit quieter but I still managed Salvonian grebe at Annagassan and Red throated & G N divers at Giles Quay, along with plenty of scoter, mergansers GC, grebes etc. Also managed peregrine, yellowhammer, stonechat, fulmar, raven, twite, pintail etc etc. A fantastic day! Look forward to next trip across the border!
 
Yesterday Dundalk bay was like a mirror from hermitage - in the clear sunlight you could see divers far out at sea - i counted over 1000 common scoter, long tail duck, dozens of gc grebes (displaying), rb mergs, red throat divers coming into sum plum, great northern divers ditto...at the church by hermitage a jay (first time i succeeded in photographing one, albiet from about a mile away) and large flock of mixed finches. A few pink foot geese still around at lurgangreen, no sign of the barnacle, black guillemots in at giles displaying and a black redstart was seen at greenore, probably still there (though i failed to find it this morning)...
 

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Mell quarry

breffni said:
heading just north of drogheda on the old road before the roundabout to the m50 there is an old quarry to the left. Park and cross the road where there is a break in the wire. You climb about 20m and then see a large pond in a disused quarry - its usually empty but sometimes there is a flock of tufted duck with a ring neck drake among them...

Thanks for the directions.

Was up there today and saw 20+ pochard, several tufted ducks, great crested grebes, coots and swans. Visibility was so bad I couldn't see if the ring neck was there but I'll be keen to get back there once the weather clears up a bit. Seems like a good spot.
 
Checked out Mell Quarry today. It looked quiet when I arrived but on scanning the lake there were indeed pochards, tufded, just one ring necked, great crested grebes, swans, coots, moorhens, dab chicks, mallards and a couple of gulls nesting. It's a lovely tranquil spot on the edge of the town, very convenient so long as they leave that gap in the fence!!
 
Another good day for me south of the border today. Lovely weather (mostly) and fantastic selection of birds. Visited the following:

Started off early this morning at Mell Quarry. No sign of the ring-necked duck but lots of other good birds including peregrine, stock doves, pochard, tufted duck, Little & GC grebes, and wierdly, a fulmar, which flew round a few times and then settled on the quarry wall - are they regular there?. There was also a very odd looking jackdaw with all-white wings and a bit of white around its neck.

Between Clogherhead and Annagassan: over 1500 Common Scoter (offshore at Port), with 3 GN Divers, lots of GC Grebes, RB Mergansers, Red-throated Divers, Goldeneye. 1 ad gannet flew north. Also kestel, sparrowhawk, yellowhammer, stock dove, stonechat, among others. 11 Little Gulls were off Annagassan - very nice views of them. Also, 2 hares, 1 male Brambling, and a common snipe in field near Dunany Pt, with loads of chaffinch and linnet.

At Lurgangreen, with tide starting to go out, there were hundreds (thousands?) of knot and golden plover, with many other waders, including 6 stunning Greenshank close in. A winter plumage Slavonian Grebe was fishing close to the shore. Also many duck including at least 35 Pintail. Geese showing really well this afternoon on the saltmarsh - counted 12 White-ftonts, 4 Pink-feet and many greylag. Strangest bird of the day was a very pale sandy coloured Brent Goose in with 90+ Pale-bellied Brent, getting pecked and chased by the others. Best of all was female merlin sat on post in front of the geese, just a few hundred feet from me - superb! :t:

Finished off the day at Gile's Quay in flat calm conditions - more GN Divers (6) and RN Divers (4), plus Black Guillemot, scoter, mergansers and grebes, and rock pipit in the car park.

Top day! :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:
 
sav said:
Finished off the day at Gile's Quay in flat calm conditions - more GN Divers (6) and RN Divers (4), plus Black Guillemot, scoter, mergansers and grebes, and rock pipit in the car park.

Top day! :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

Great day out - the little gulls are impressive. A few other signtings over the last 10 or so days include:
* Black Redstart at Greenore (stayed only a few hours after being found)
* Mealy Redpoll still hanging around fields opposite Crusetown
* Shoveler at Lurgangreen (a bit atypical)
* Swallow reported for Dundalk 6th march
* White wag at Soldiers point area
* Twite at Green avenue, Dundalk
 
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