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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. (1 Viewer)

havent picked up on that buzzard, Freddie,but i do recall u mentioning it before. must keep an eye out for it.Yellowhammer must be among the most striking of our "common" birds we are lucky here in co. Louth to still have reasonable numbers left unlike large parts of the rest of the country
 
gareth2005 said:
Have missed this thread over the past few months ( No broadband - Moving house etc )
Good to see its still growing.
Plenty of Swallows/Martins around Stephenstown Pond on Sunday, I dont think this cold weather will do them any good though.
Have also spotted a sparrow hawk hunting around the estates on the avenue road. Havent seen one here before, I spotted it twice aound the ESB building over the weekend.

Gareth
Welcome back. I also have noted the increase in sparrowhawk activity in this area over recent months, including regular harassment of birds at my bird table. There was once a period when they nested in Clarkes Forest, but as far as I am aware this has not been a breeding site for several years. One thing I always noticed is that the local sparrowhawk's preferred method of attack was soaring high up and then diving on their prey, rather than the low level surprise attack method more often associated with the species.
Also had some wonderful views of a Barn Owl tonight hunting along the "Xerox" bypass - came within 10 feet of me. Pity I'd left the camera at home. :C
Derek
 
Thanks Derek.
Also saw a Buzzard yesterday along the motorway at the turn off for Julianstown. I could have sworn it had a yellow wing tag on its right wing ??

Must keep an eye out for that Barn Own, saw one a few weeks ago at Dunmahon on the Ardee road, not sure how big an area they cover or if it could be the same one.
 
Hi Derek, Gareth et al,

With regard to the barn owl mentioned, I have seen long eared owl at the same place, Xerox. It was the one and only time I wished for the traffic lights to stay red!! I was heading south on the "old" main road, the owl it would appear was heading west and was obeying the lights!!
 
Seems like The Xerox area is THE place for owl watching - I have seen barn owl here before (Castletown Road used to be a regular hunting route too, but developments in recent years have ended this). I also spoke recently to a lorry driver who said one scared the **** out of him, when it nearly flew into his windscreen on the Xerox dual carriageway.
The one last night headed towards Dunmahon, so it may well be the same one referred to by Gareth
 
i saw a barn owl crossing the roundabout just before the bypass was completed near Xerox and thought to look along the empty bypass - unfortunately it was opened before i could get a chance (note the xerox plant is just south of dundalk near the M1). Also was one last winter catching something on the wing from the quay wall at the spirit store. According to the folks at the ballymac hotel they used to nest in the outhouses there until just a few years ago.
 
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today at midday there were a pair of slavonian grebes displaying just north of blackrock, one full summer plumage, the other intermediate plumage, visible from the spot where the golf course sign is (distant video grabs below). Also were two pair of red throated diver displaying (chasing one another around in the water, swirling in circles and making a quacking-like calls - no eerie wailing alas) off giles quay...and the usual black guillemots, now 22 birds in all.
 

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Well done everybody involved in the event at carlingford that was screened tonight on nationwide it came across very well
 
Enda said:
Well done everybody involved in the event at carlingford that was screened tonight on nationwide it came across very well

Cheers Enda (notwithstanding my own embarrassing contribution)...

We are organising another event in Carlingford on the weekend of 29th - 30th of April, consisting of a talk by Eric Dempsey on the Saturday night and a guided outing the following day - details here: http://www.carlingford.ie/events.htm
 
Just thinking when looking at Black Guillimots at Gyles Quay. This is now one of the larger colonies in the area. Is Louth County Council aware of their presence in the quay walls?
It would be a bit late arriving down some day to find all the holes filled up!
I also note that the old building beside the County Council's offices along the inner relief road was cleared out during the week. It was heavily covered in ivy and left nesting starlings and blackbirds homeless.
 
you may be right Derek about it being the largest colony locally, counted 14 today at clogherhead (not sure how accurate i am, may have been some more in nesting holes didnt hang around long enough to check) i think theres 20 at gyles. Breffni has being doing some monitoring of black guilemot numbers and im sure will keep us updated. probaly more likely to fill in the nest holes at clogherhead given that major work is being undertaken at the pier at the minute(unless they are aware of the colony)
Good nos of divers off hermitage todaywith 24 red throated & 9 great northerns.willow warblers were showing in the hedgerows &a couple of wheatears beside the pond small nos of sandmartins & swallows were also around the pond
 

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3 dark bellied brent are now present today at cruisetown also 10 whimbrel & 2 white wagtails with good numbers of hirundines coming in off the sea
ballagan had 2 white wagtails & a female merlin
yesterday at hermitage a very early common swift flew past. with a steady stream of hirundines also,common tern at salterstown
 

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Enda said:
3 dark bellied brent are now present today at cruisetown also 10 whimbrel & 2 white wagtails with good numbers of hirundines coming in off the sea
ballagan had 2 white wagtails & a female merlin
yesterday at hermitage a very early common swift flew past. with a steady stream of hirundines also,common tern at salterstown

great shots for such a grey day - better than mine anyway...
 

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Swallow movements

Spent 2 hours at Hermitage on Sunday and 45mins yesterday - not as good a result as Enda had - well done. Wheatear seem to be gone (3 males, 2 females on Sunday, none Tuesday).
Anyways the point being - the numbers of swallows passing due North. It averaged c.5 per minute while I was there. So, with say 15.5 hours of light per day, I'd estimate approx. 4,650 passing hermitage per day. Is there any info available on the swallow movements eg. coastal v's over land, and the probable destination of the swallows passing Hermitage. Can we assume they are all going to Northern Ireland, as they don't breed in Iceland, or could some branch off Eastwards and travel up the West coast of Scotland?
The other question I ask, why do they travel singly or in very small groups? Surely there would be more security in larger numbers. Perhaps they left Africa in larger groups but these split up as they travel North?
Any ideas or opinions.
 
This morningI went out to Killard just south of Strangford Co Down and for the first time this year at the sand martin colony there were at least 40+ which werent there yesterday. So they must have come up yesterday. Today at the Quoile in front of the Castle Island hide there were at least 50+ swallows feeding on the flies on the surface. Cant really help with Q as to where they go.
 
never give it much thought before. presume all heading for destinations north & west of dundalk bay. would it be right to suggest that birds flying past hermitage are heading into dundalk bay and therefore started to head in a northwest direction it would be easier if heading directly north to cross from dunany to cranfield pt .maybe somebody out there can answer Dereks questions instead of me just guessing
 
Derek Watters said:
Spent 2 hours at Hermitage on Sunday and 45mins yesterday - not as good a result as Enda had - well done. Wheatear seem to be gone (3 males, 2 females on Sunday, none Tuesday).
Anyways the point being - the numbers of swallows passing due North. It averaged c.5 per minute while I was there. So, with say 15.5 hours of light per day, I'd estimate approx. 4,650 passing hermitage per day. Is there any info available on the swallow movements eg. coastal v's over land, and the probable destination of the swallows passing Hermitage. Can we assume they are all going to Northern Ireland, as they don't breed in Iceland, or could some branch off Eastwards and travel up the West coast of Scotland?
The other question I ask, why do they travel singly or in very small groups? Surely there would be more security in larger numbers. Perhaps they left Africa in larger groups but these split up as they travel North?
Any ideas or opinions.

Derek, I'm no expert but I can give you the benefit of some books i recently read (elkins - weather and bird behavior and kerlinger - how birds migrate). Most powered flyers like thrushes migrate at night (cooler, less turbulence, less predator threat etc) in large flocks. Swallows however migrate in small increments by day. This is because they cannot support much bodyweight increase prior to departure (unlike say thrushes or waders) and so pick their way along in smaller flocks feeding along the way and flying during the day, and are largely dependent on suitable weather systems for their progress. I guess depending on the weather/wind they are headed for north/northwest ireland or scotland. UK has an estimated 400k breeding pairs so 5000 or so a day over 10 or so days would yield 25k pairs, probably about right!!!
 
Enda, Pluvius & Breffni. Thanks for the info. Very interesting facts about migration Breffni.
I guess you's must be thinking I was very bored looking at the swallows passing Hermitage, but as I watched these tiny creatures near the end of their epic journeys, questions came in to my mind about numbers, destination, etc. Enda says he never give it much thought before - maybe I'm spending too much time thinking and that's why I constantly miss the Merlins he regularly gets.
There was one other thing that struck me as well, which Enda mentioned. None/ very few of the swallows came in off the sea, at least the ones I watched passing seemed to be travelling ALONG the coast. Why then did some of them not fly the "short hop" across the waters of Dundalk Bay (Dunany to Ballagan to Cranfield) which would shorten the journey? (note - weather was perfect). After crossing the Med. and English Channel this should pose no problems.
Might post up my questions to IBN to see if any of the experts have any other ideas.
 
i think they follow coastlines for navigation purposes...

night before last i was listening to bats in the back garden with my cheap bat detector, after a while they went silent and i was about to go in when an owl flew through the garden, large, dark, powerful direct filght, could hear the wing beats, presume it was a long-eared owl. Also heard that a dead barn owl was seen along the M1 near dunleer. I had an eastern jackdaw and a few white wags and wheatear (poss greenland) along balaggan yesterday.
 
Hermitage this morning had 5 wheatears, 12 white wagtails and a male yellow wagtail (quite rare for co.Louth) it moved of after about 1 minute and didnt return but ive just heard that breffni has relocated it in the last 10 mins not far from hermitage ithink on the road that runs paralell with hermitage lane on the annagassan side
Any word on the dawn chorus,Breffni
 
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