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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. (5 Viewers)

Hi "Harrierhead" welcome to the forum. That owl might be the same one that has been sighted on the Avenue Road and Xerox area over the past year or so.

I wonder if a few nestboxes were provided in the mature trees could we get them to use them?
 
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The sightings seem to be concentrated in the area circumscribed by Xerox, Castlebellingham and maybe Tallenstown. I have also had reports in the area of north Drogheda. I've searched every outhouse between Blackrock and Castlebellingham and also several outhouses on the other side of the M1 (+ norman towers etc) during the summer but no luck (barn owlets make a huge amount of noise and the nest/roost site area is covered in white droppings like whitewash - generally i think they use outhouses if available in preference to nest boxes etc and there are plenty of abandoned buildings in the area). Checked the outhouses around Tippin's but couldnt find anything there either...

33 great northern divers at balaggan yesterday.
 
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I have also had several reports from fishermen on the Castletown River of close encounters with Barn Owls particularly in the Toberona area.

Perhaps a direct approach from the North Louth BWI branch to the local fishing organisation(s), requesting that any owl sightings be passed on, might be fruitful. After all, being a fisherman involves spending hours at night out in rural areas.
 
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Lurgangreen Goose fields

gareth2005 said:
A small poster in the local angling shop might also do the trick?
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Sounds like a good plan! If you let me know where the shops are around Dundalk I can make up a small poster and put them up.
Re; Barn Owl nest boxes. There seems to be a massive decline across Ireland.There is a chap doing a PHD on Barn Owls at BirdWatch Ireland. The decline may be linked to poison put out for rodents rather that a shortage of nest sites so when he makes some reccommendations we can start acting on them.

The geese have started using the Goose fields on the Dundalk-Dublin road. The fields at the southern end seem to be favoured. I had 300 Greylag Geese 5000 Golden Plover, 1000 Lapwing with Curlew and Redshank in the field beside the last house. The flock was hard to view as the birds were only about 30 metres from the road behind a thick hedge and getting out of the car would have surely put the whole lot up.

Keenans Cross Pond had nine Whoopers 8 Pochard at least 4 Gadwall and the Ring necked Duck
 

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The fishing season is over til the spring and even then salmon angling is banned at the moment to allow salmon stocks recover on the east coast. far fewer anglers will be out when it does open again but it would still be worth a poster in one or two of the fishing shops. i think euro tackle is around the corner from oscars pub near the vodafone shop.
i have also seen pellets beside a post on the river dee near annagassan recently although i don't know if barn owls crap pellets or whether the would produce 'whitewash'!
 
harrierhead said:
i have also seen pellets beside a post on the river dee near annagassan recently although i don't know if barn owls crap pellets or whether the would produce 'whitewash'!
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What did the pellets look like? Worth taking a photo? Barn owl pellets are usually very dark, almost black. (pellets are regurgitated indigestible parts of their prey: tooth, bone, fur, claw, feather).

A notice for the anglers is a great idea - might write to the local papers also.

Recent signtings at this time of the year are likely to be juvenile birds dispersing, looking for territories. Two dead birds were found along Hynestown recently. Barn owl population in ireland is reckoned at around 250 pairs.
 
Barn Owls and rodent poison

"The decline may be linked to poison put out for rodents rather that a shortage of nest sites."

The most commonly used poison is based on a rodenticide called bromodiolone. It works by thinning blood so much that the pressure drops to the point where the heart cannot function. "Curtains" for the rodent! Importantly, it gets destroyed as it works so the poison only affects the host animal. Therefore, a barn owl that ingests a rodent killed this way will not be harmed in any way.
 
fredbern said:
"The decline may be linked to poison put out for rodents rather that a shortage of nest sites."

The most commonly used poison is based on a rodenticide called bromodiolone. It works by thinning blood so much that the pressure drops to the point where the heart cannot function. "Curtains" for the rodent! Importantly, it gets destroyed as it works so the poison only affects the host animal. Therefore, a barn owl that ingests a rodent killed this way will not be harmed in any way.
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Interesting, I often worried about my father putting put poison for the dozens of rats that come in from the fields every winter back home, especially with the Buzzard always nearby.

I've heard that Barn Owls were spotted around the Stephenstown pond a few years back, havn't heard any reports of late though. There are a variety of nest boxes there but i'm not sure if they are monitored or maintained.
 
fredbern said:
"The decline may be linked to poison put out for rodents rather that a shortage of nest sites."

The most commonly used poison is based on a rodenticide called bromodiolone. It works by thinning blood so much that the pressure drops to the point where the heart cannot function. "Curtains" for the rodent! Importantly, it gets destroyed as it works so the poison only affects the host animal. Therefore, a barn owl that ingests a rodent killed this way will not be harmed in any way.
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That's certainly the theory Fred. However there is some reasonwhy barn owls are in such steep decline - with only 250 pairs left in Ireland they are in serious trouble. The thinking is that barn owls hunt nearer to farmyards than other raptors and that they simply pick up more residual poison. Also poisoned rodents are dozey and easier to catch. Significant amounts of redenticide has been found in barn owl livers. Also while adults may be able to tolerate the residual poison, nestlings may not. But motorways are also a huge problem - 600 dead barn owls found by motorways last year in the UK...
 
gareth2005 said:
Interesting, I often worried about my father putting put poison for the dozens of rats that come in from the fields every winter back home, especially with the Buzzard always nearby.
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Buzzards and other raptors, including long eared owls, appear to tolerate the rodenticides fairly well...possibly because they have less exposure due to more varied diet and wider hunting range.
 
fredbern said:
"The decline may be linked to poison put out for rodents rather that a shortage of nest sites."

The most commonly used poison is based on a rodenticide called bromodiolone. It works by thinning blood so much that the pressure drops to the point where the heart cannot function. "Curtains" for the rodent! Importantly, it gets destroyed as it works so the poison only affects the host animal. Therefore, a barn owl that ingests a rodent killed this way will not be harmed in any way.
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Very interesting.

I dug this out from the latest edition of Wings, its from an article by the barn Owl project co-ordinator.

' Potentially harmful second generation rodenticides are widely used in Ireland and, as Irish Barn Owls rely on ..rats and mice to a greater extent than they do in other European countries, the hazards from secondary poisoning are likely to be much greater here.'

Maybe different types of poisons have different impacts on Birds of prey.

Ring necked Duck and 4 Gadwall at KCP
Smaller numbers of geese in the geese fields at Lurgangreen
 

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harrierhead said:
you won't catch many pike in the castletown gareth2005! i hear gas lake in blayney is fishing well
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No I stay away from the rivers and head out on the lakes instead. The fishing shopin town supplies most of the local anglers this time of year who fish in Monaghan and Cavan.
 
A question for you Dundalk-based blokes...are Twite fairly regular around Soldier´s Point at this time of year? Thinking of making a trip up this weekend to have a look. Thanks in advance.
 
Sancho said:
A question for you Dundalk-based blokes...are Twite fairly regular around Soldier´s Point at this time of year? Thinking of making a trip up this weekend to have a look. Thanks in advance.
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Hi Sancho. This is something we only discussed recently - for some unknown reason twite are regulars at Soldiers Point and we were trying to work out why! They seem to visit the same small area year after year and yet only appear very rarely at other similar habitats. I called there briefly on Monday and did not see them - perhaps some of the other contbibutors to the forum may have more up to date info?
 
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Twite were there yesterday, as were brambling in the scrub under the old railway bridge at fitzpatricks (which is a pub half way between greenore and carlingford).
 
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