County Louth (formerly Dundalk Bay) local patch. (1 Viewer)

[Peter Phillips]

Cape Clear

in my limited research into distribution it appears that red squirells(up to 1998) where still present in a narrow band that stretched from the west of ireland through fermanagh,cavan,monaghan and into louth the current status may be flawed. as you say margaret, take pine martin for example not suppose to be present in louth but at least 2 have been victims of road kills in the past 3yrs in the ravensdale area and as you have made me aware off, confirmed breeding on the louth/meath border

It looks too red and its tail is a bit too bushy for Grey.

I am just back from a great week on cape clear in Cork. The week started with an Icterine Warbler then Greenish and Dusky Warblers and finished with a Grey-cheeked Thrush yesterday.
Attached are some photos from the trip. There is some debate as to the ID of the brown warbler. Comments welcome.

Peter

 

[Enda]

thanks Breffni/peter for your opinions. feedback has been in general, positive towards red . some nice shots there,Peter you couldnt have picked a better week for to be in cork

 

[Sancho]

In summary both are introduced to ireland and bear no genetic relationship with a previous population of "native" irish reds, if such a thing ever existed. On that basis my humble opinion would be that a cull could not really be justified.

At a really interesting talk in Glendalough last year, someone who was doing research into squirrels (sorry, can´t remember his name), said Coillte and the like want to cull Greys because they damage young trees (I think they "ring-bark" them, i.e. strip away a section of bark right around the trunk, so the trees die). The argument was that at the current rate of spread of greys, none of the new trees planted by Coillte etc. will be alive in twenty years. I might be exagerrating here, but that was the gist. Killing trees might justify a cull; so might failure to be cute (Joking). There were still reds to be seen in Bray up to nine years ago, and I saw one in Glencree about the same time. Exclusively greys here now though. Another BF member saw reds in Kindlestown about two years ago...that´s a totally isolated conifer wood. I don´t know if reds survive anywhere else in Wicklow, but would be really interested if anyone has info.

 

[breffni]

Hi Eanna,
When's the last time you saw a stand of hazel?

Yesterday at Dundalk docks a long billed dowitcher, presumably the previous bird returning, and two curlew sandpipers with seven ruff. Good numbers of teal now arriving...

 

[HH75]

Lurgangreen,this morn had curlew sandpiper,merlin,a yellow legged egret(presumed little egret) & a hybrid com/black headed gull? (thats my guess anyway) cruisetown fields had a ringtail hen harrier and a ruff at seabank

Referring back to your post (no.1072?), it is quite normal for juvenile Little Egrets, which I presume that this one is, to have more or less yellowish/green-yellow legs. The gull just strikes me as a Common, perhaps a bit bleached?

 

[breffni]

Any wisdom to dispense on the "mystery bird" Harry? (And can you please tell some of them birds down there to stay until the weekend, when we will be visiting?)

 

[HH75]

Any wisdom to dispense on the "mystery bird" Harry? (And can you please tell some of them birds down there to stay until the weekend, when we will be visiting?)

I couldn't even arrange for the Dusky to stay for ME, never mind keeping birds around for others! :C
Peter showed me the warbler pics on Cape, and I really find myself more confused than I should be by them. Think it was more likely an Acro than a Hippo, and maybe just an odd-looking Reed?

 

[Sancho]

Is it greys that are stripping the hazel? On the cape birds, lovely photos Peter, I was down there too last weekend, saw those and a few more, but missed the Dusky too (it showed up in the bog the day I left). I was still delighted with the weekend, though. I'm pretty sure I saw that "mystery warbler" in the willows above Cotter's, I had no idea what it was and put it down to a variant Chiffer or maybe a juv Garden Warbler? Being a (permanent) novice, I let it go as unidentified. Best of luck this weekend, Breffni, let us know, and thanks for the LB dow at Dundalk, maybe this weekend I might finally venture to Co. Louth.

 

[s. james]

It seems to be generally said that red squirrels are mostly only seen in the west of the country, though we saw red squirrels in Redhills in County Cavan last month. Would be very interesting to think that they may move eastwards. I've heard it said that pine martins prey on grey squirrels though not on reds and if that's true and we do think that pine martins are becoming more prevalent, could that be a factor in this?? Will be interesting to hear what anybody else thinks on this Enda.

Red Squirrels in some Belfast parks/nature reserves and other spots in the east of NI although they're greatly outnumbered by Greys.

 

[Peter Phillips]

It looks too red and its tail is a bit too bushy for Grey.

I am just back from a great week on cape clear in Cork. The week started with an Icterine Warbler then Greenish and Dusky Warblers and finished with a Grey-cheeked Thrush yesterday.
Attached are some photos from the trip. There is some debate as to the ID of the brown warbler. Comments welcome.

Peter

I just recieved a reply from Killian Mullarney. He thinks there is nothing to suggest the bird is not a Reed Warbler.

Well Done, Harry Hussey and Kieran Cronin!

 

[Enda]

Referring back to your post (no.1072?), it is quite normal for juvenile Little Egrets, which I presume that this one is, to have more or less yellowish/green-yellow legs. The gull just strikes me as a Common, perhaps a bit bleached?

have yet to come across a common gull with redish bill and pinky/ red legs which of course you cant see from the crap pic but surely you didnt think i called it a hybrid just because it looked pale,

 

[Peter Phillips]

Cruisetown Strand

At least 3 'Northern type' Wheatears at Cruisetown Strand today.

 

[breffni]

Great weekend birding ballycottin, mizen and galley head areas picking up isabelline shrike, lesser withethroat (the fourth in as many weeks), greenish warbler, yellow-browed warbler, firecrest, black redstart, jack snipe, little stints, and yellow-legged gull (dipped rb fly, buff bellied piptis and short toed lark). A few crappy record shots below...Enda got good shots of the shrike. At toor we had a flock of siskin busily gleaning the under side of leaves of a alder-like tree that i couldn't identify but was very attractive to the warblers...

 

[Peter Phillips]

Siskins

Great weekend birding ballycottin, mizen and galley head areas picking up isabelline shrike, lesser withethroat (the fourth in as many weeks), greenish warbler, yellow-browed warbler, firecrest, black redstart, jack snipe, little stints, and yellow-legged gull (dipped rb fly, buff bellied piptis and short toed lark). A few crappy record shots below...Enda got good shots of the shrike. At toor we had a flock of siskin busily gleaning the under side of leaves of a alder-like tree that i couldn't identify but was very attractive to the warblers...

There was a big fall of Siskins on Cape last week. Many of them appeared to be feeding on aphids from the undersides of the leaves.

 

[Sancho]

Great weekend birding ballycottin, mizen and galley head areas picking up isabelline shrike, lesser withethroat (the fourth in as many weeks), greenish warbler, yellow-browed warbler, firecrest, black redstart, jack snipe, little stints, and yellow-legged gull (dipped rb fly, buff bellied piptis and short toed lark). A few crappy record shots below...Enda got good shots of the shrike. At toor we had a flock of siskin busily gleaning the under side of leaves of a alder-like tree that i couldn't identify but was very attractive to the warblers...

Congratulations! Sounds like a great weekend. Siskins were coming out of the woodwork on Cape the previous week, at one point about a hundred arose from the area around Cotter´s, joined together in the sky, and headed northwards, oddly enough, towards the mainland. Don´t know what that was about. Another odd thing about Cape was the concentration of Robins...I´ve never seen so many packed into so small an area.

 

[Enda]

Isabelline shrike from mizen head,co cork at the weekend.showed well,but a bit distant.
viewing from the road only

 

[Peter Phillips]

Salterstown/Hermitage

10 Red-throated Diver and One Great northern Diver at Hermitage. One Sandwich and a minimum of eight Arctic Terns at Salterstown today.

 

[MargaretM]

Siskins were coming out of the woodwork on Cape the previous week, at one point about a hundred arose from the area around Cotter´s, joined together in the sky, and headed northwards, oddly enough, towards the mainland. Don´t know what that was about. Another odd thing about Cape was the concentration of Robins...I´ve never seen so many packed into so small an area.

Would these Robins be migrating from Northern Europe heading towards Spain or Portugal? Would you just expect to see a small number passing through each year?

 

[breffni]

Checked the hedgerows and gardens around here on the back of that easterly yesterday - two goldcrests and a chiffchaff the best plus a hundred or so dunlin. Today quiet.

 

[ardnasx1]

Checked the hedgerows and gardens around here on the back of that easterly yesterday - two goldcrests and a chiffchaff the best plus a hundred or so dunlin. Today quiet.

I'd a goldcrest in my garden yesterday, that's about as far out as i'm getting these days!