• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

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

Pariah said:
Whilst stoat is the commonest mustelid running around during the day. There is a possibility it was one of several others. Pine martins are restricted to woodlands pretty much. This is the picture supplied above. They are quite difficult to see (only ever seen one myself).

Stoat is quite common. Same general shape as above, about the size of a large rat. A lighter golden coat with a creamy white chest and belly. Black tip to the thin upright tail.

Mink is an introduced species and is highly variable in colour due to the high level of breeding for the fur industry. The majority of mink are dark coated and would easly fit your description of being small cat sized and small headed.
The can range in colour from white to grey to tan and to dark chocolate or black.

Polecat, another introduced species is also a possibility. Though not as common as mink, they do occasionally escape. Similar size to mink, the nominate colour is brown and grey body with a racoon like face.
Ferrets are a smaller version of these and again an escapee species (tho not usually recorded, they are a reasonably common pet species).

Id put my money on a mink.

Owen
Click to expand...
________________________________________________________________
I was driving near the large protected woods in Newry and only lots of fields with no houses between the woods and where I saw it. We used to see rats and very large ones at that at the Luby or old dump long ago at the Ferry woods in Omeath and it was definitely much, much bigger than rats. More the size of a big full sized cat (not small) but definitely thinner and longer than a cat. I have very little knowlege of small animals like that and never even heard of Pine Martins in my life until read recently about them. I would think whatever it is it came from the large protected woodland nearby. Just rushing back to work now.
 
It was more a chocolate brown colour than tanny brown and not long haired and my biggest memory is that the tail was a different shade than body of animal though not positive if darker or greyer. Just positive it was a different shade and noticing that stopped me from having time to focus on head anymore than to see it small, only got side view of animal and no idea if there was a creamy part under throat but no white on legs or body. There was a small dog very, very badly injured at house at a road near there about 2 years ago which puzzled a lot of people at time. Would a mink or pine martin or whatever attack a small dog ?
 
Hi all,
On the subject of mink/stoat can i ask if anyone can give any advice of telling the difference between otter and mink when swimming? I have seen either an otter or mink swimming in the Ramparts on the Ardee Road just upstream of the brewery. One night it chased off a grey heron but i couldnt get a good view and anytime it swims towards the bridge its too dark to get clear look. Also if you are into bats its a great place to view them hunting over the water!

I took a walk further up Ardee Road into the fields where they are planning to build estate called Mount Hamilton. A quick walk produced stonechat, large no.s of swallow and h.martin, grey wagtail, sedge warbler, goldfinch, a pair of ragged looking adult long tailed tits busily feeding some fledglings, starlings, linnet and finally a buzzard.
 
Pariah said:
Whilst stoat is the commonest mustelid running around during the day. There is a possibility it was one of several others. Pine martins are restricted to woodlands pretty much. This is the picture supplied above. They are quite difficult to see (only ever seen one myself).

Stoat is quite common. Same general shape as above, about the size of a large rat. A lighter golden coat with a creamy white chest and belly. Black tip to the thin upright tail.

Mink is an introduced species and is highly variable in colour due to the high level of breeding for the fur industry. The majority of mink are dark coated and would easly fit your description of being small cat sized and small headed.
The can range in colour from white to grey to tan and to dark chocolate or black.

Polecat, another introduced species is also a possibility. Though not as common as mink, they do occasionally escape. Similar size to mink, the nominate colour is brown and grey body with a racoon like face.
Ferrets are a smaller version of these and again an escapee species (tho not usually recorded, they are a reasonably common pet species).

Id put my money on a mink.

Owen
Click to expand...


Hmmm not sure i'd argee with you there Owen. Attached a pdf showing how to id mink (was not aware of these multicoloured mink in ireland!) and polecat-ferret (ferrets are the domesticated version of western polecat (m. putorius).

Dolce, if you were in an upland country area (dorans hill?) I would guess stoat is most likely. The fact that it was long and thin and showed a dark tail clinches it I think. Mink, being semi-aquatic, will not stray far from water. Any mink you see are likely to be dark all over except at the chin, so no dark tail will be distinguished.

In water mink sits fairly high and trails its tail which floats, so that often you see a nose followed by the trailing tail. Otter shows no trailing tail.

Given your location in the north it might be worth contacting Daniel Buckley with a description of your sighting but i'd guess stoat.
 

Attachments

  • polecat ferret.pdf
    1.1 MB · Views: 351
Last edited:
nialltkeogh said:
FYI.

The Little Tern colony at Kilcoole is in full swing now.

c.100 adults yesterday (up to 150 in recent days) with 6 nests containing 10 eggs found so far. A pair of Oystercatchers and 3 pairs of Ringed Plovers also nesting within the fencing.

Hows things at Baltray?

See Ya,
Niall
Click to expand...
Hi Niall

Haven't found any eggs yet at Baltray, although the signs are there that they are preparing to lay, as in landing, digging holes, courtship displays. We'll be keeping a very close eye over the next few days as we'd expect to see eggs any day now. Numbers are up and down with the highest count we had being 70, but it is very hard to get a proper count as they spend a lot of time out at the tide line behind a ridge.
 
Thanks Breffni, definitely an otter then as no tail was showing. Surprisingly there are a lot of trout in that part of the river, apparently the river was stocked by brewery workers a few years back when it was open.
 
flock of about 20 crossbills in the mullahattin/jenkinstown area today.
a cuckoo yesterday in the same area.
 

Attachments

  • crossbill25may08.JPG
    crossbill25may08.JPG
    269.8 KB · Views: 72
  • cuckoo24may08.JPG
    cuckoo24may08.JPG
    90.2 KB · Views: 69
Great Crested Grebe on Drumcath Lake today, possible breeding site for Louth ??

Also signs of a possible source of pollution to the lake from a nearby poultry farm... Who can I report this to? Any links?
 
Was speaking to a rep from the enviroment section of the Louth CoCo and he will investigate it. If this does not yield results then I can contact the EPA. Thanks anyway
 
Enda said:
flock of about 20 crossbills in the mullahattin/jenkinstown area today.
a cuckoo yesterday in the same area.
Click to expand...
Great photos Enda, don't know how many times I've tried for Crossbills there, the most I got was a possible call, and you got a cuckoo in flight, nice work.
 
Found the first little tern egg at Baltray yesterday evening. They seem to be a bit behind other colonies, in Kilcoole and in the UK, but hopefully now that things have started they'll catch up quickly.
 
Great - the black guillemots at Giles quay have produced six eggs to date, three in the new nesting holes, this is also a bit late...
 
Enda said:
Thanks Margaret,just got lucky.right place right time
yes,there was a couple of juveniles that i saw,cant say how many exactly
juv pic attached
Click to expand...


Thanks for that Enda-useful info for the Bird Atlas. I had another 3 Spotted Flycatchers (different birds) near Ardee this morning.
 
Three db brent still hanging around with the 40 brent who apparently are not going to bother to migrate...also a trio of scaup in the area. Also at least two argentatus-type herring gulls at ballaggan...
 
Suspected pollution at Drumcah has been inspected by NE Fisheries board, they say it is due to stagnant water and decaying weed which creates an oily slick... Anyway they are happy that all is OK.
 
Warning! This thread is more than 7 years ago old.
It's likely that no further discussion is required, in which case we recommend starting a new thread. If however you feel your response is required you can still do so.

Similar threads

H
Birdwatching more locally
2 3
Replies
51
Views
5K
Mysticete
Mysticete
Colin at Dereham
Anything new or different on your local patch.
Replies
2
Views
1K
Colin at Dereham
Colin at Dereham
Troubador
Zeiss SFL 10x40: A Field Review
2 3 4
Replies
60
Views
18K
Dyrlege
D
wolfbirder
Hardcore Madeira Madness - 15 - 20 June 2022
2 3
Replies
59
Views
9K
wolfbirder
wolfbirder
A
Local Patch Etiquette & Best Practice
Replies
3
Views
2K
Paul Chapman
Paul Chapman

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 3 (members: 0, guests: 3)
Back
Top