Irish Wildlife Observations 2013.

The thread seemed to get quite a bit of interest last year once again. Thanks to all who contributed and posted pictures, it seems to be a useful thread to have in which to share wildlife related things and to discuss them.

Thanks to all who made the 2012 wildlife thread a success, please report and photograph if possible the wildlife you see while fishing this year also.

its great to the thread up again for this year,i enjoyed last years one
sorry my first photo is not great,all i had at the time was the phone when i spotted two deer a stag and hind,i think they came out of the wood in the fog to graze,i think they were red deer
i have not seen deer around where i work before so its great to see them,they were a lot bigger in size then what i thought deer were

deer2.JPG

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Very interesting pic Gfkelly. The fog is fairly thick- I wonder did they know you were there at all?

Very interesting pic Gfkelly. The fog is fairly thick- I wonder did they know you were there at all?

they knew i was there aright a was driving a tractor at the time,i stopped and took the photo they waited there for awhile until i got out and started walking towards them,they were less then 200m from me but didn't seem too worried

Otter eating a rockling, took about 20 encounters before i finally got a decent pic

First class Seanie, were you giving it fish to bargain for a photo?

First class Seanie, were you giving it fish to bargain for a photo?

No caught it all by itself , you could nearly set your watch it , the first 10 minutes of the ebb

I stopped at the bridge over one of my local rivers and was lucky enough to spot not one but two dippers. One seemed to be collecting nesting material while the other was trying not to look impressed. Sadly they were on the shaded side of the river so the photo isn't great. While I was waiting for the 2 dippers to come within one frame, I heard a buzzard mewing overhead, there were 3 of them wheeling about. Later at the lake where I was fishing, I was surprised to see a bat out feeding in the middle of a very sunny afternoon but couldn't get a picture. Autofocus finds it difficult to pick out a small bat against a large blue sky. There is a large wind turbine being erected on a hill top overlooking the lake and as part of the construction work, a drainage ditch has been dug down the field towards the lake and straight through a badger sett!

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Seen a very large otter in the river Liffey yesterday munching on decent sized fish just outside Heuston Station . First time I have ever seen an otter in ! He was preoccupied and did not seem too interested in us looking at him. He must like shopping trollies!

Another blank for fish today but some interesting wildlife. Across in Donegal I was lucky enough to kick up a hare while checking out a new mark but he was long gone before I got the camera ready. At a small pier I saw a pipit fighting his reflection in a van window, he must have thought it was 2 against 1 as he also saw his reflection in the wing mirror, see;
http://youtube.com/watch?v=5Lvrs_G2M1Q He must do this a lot as there is a lot of excrement on the door panel. I was surprised at how close I got before he flew off......to go and fight at my car window and mirror! Later on when I was travelling home I came across a young albino rabbit grazing the long acre. No, it isn't an escapee pet, he had normal coloured rabbits for company and eventually disppeared down a burrow with them. I've seen wild black rabbits often enough but a wild albino is a first.

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Interesting Photos John Ive a video somewhere from around this time last year of a Blue tit doing the same. I must have a look for it & post it, better late than never!

Here a link to the video
http://youtube.com/watch?v=BXDPGGBGjiY from March last year! & also two photos of The Barnacle Geese from yesterday, there not great quality but shows how many were in one field in total there were three fields with the same amount.
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not that it was out fishing but driving between inistioge and new ross on a sunday night a few weeks back
i could see a pair of eyes looking back at me down the road
got closer 50yards and could see it was a cat
it was over sniffing a dead pine martin and beside that was a leveret!

the cat bounded away but it looked like the leveret was in the mouth of the pine martin crossing the road and got hit
i had never been beside a pine martin before - what struck me was the size of it
much bigger than expected - larger than the cat
it was in great condition, pity to see it like this

didnt think the leveret would be on its menu - just goes to show

was out walking on sunday in wexford and disturbed a kestral that was calling out hard, the nest must have been near by - it was in rock outcrops

the 2 dogs were driven mental!

Anyone see any swallows yet?
I thought i heard one fly over my house but didnt see it?

[seanie35]

Seen 2 swallows yesterday near ferrypoint. Also seen one an otter again
[img]http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/04/16/6yse7emu.jpg[/img]

Last edited by seanie35 on Tue Apr 16, 2013 3:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.

2:15 pm...blue skies and sunshine here in Cork...and there is a Bat flying around the tree tops next to my house.....

saw a cormorant diving for food in between the 2 bridges in Enniscorthy yesterday afternoon !!

lovely looking bird but what a pest to have around in the waters.

Between them and the seals its no wonder the fishing in the harbour and on up the river is poor..

Oops heres otter again i hope

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saw a cormorant diving for food in between the 2 bridges in Enniscorthy yesterday afternoon !!

lovely looking bird but what a pest to have around in the waters.

Between them and the seals its no wonder the fishing in the harbour and on up the river is poor..

are you sure its not the run off from instensive farming all along the river
both the physical particles and the added chemicals
or the grey water being added to it from the town and others along the slaney
how many tertiary sewage treatment plants are there along that stretch of river?
the over fishing of wexford harbour and the seas close by
the dredging of these areas

these days if i see a cormorant or a seal its a good sign - theres some food for them in a particular area, then that means there must be some fish about

saw a cormorant diving for food in between the 2 bridges in Enniscorthy yesterday afternoon !!

lovely looking bird but what a pest to have around in the waters.

Between them and the seals its no wonder the fishing in the harbour and on up the river is poor..

are you sure its not the run off from instensive farming all along the river
both the physical particles and the added chemicals
or the grey water being added to it from the town and others along the slaney
how many tertiary sewage treatment plants are there along that stretch of river?
the over fishing of wexford harbour and the seas close by
the dredging of these areas

these days if i see a cormorant or a seal its a good sign - theres some food for them in a particular area, then that means there must be some fish about

great response to that comment there Corbyeire
the amount of people cursing cormorants and seals, or any other natural predators for that matter, disgusts me. fed-up listening to it to be honest. every time i meet someone who has this opinion then i tell them that these animals have every right to be there and do NO damage to our environment as compared to the amount of damage that we do
we have people up this way shooting seals and cormorants, in big numbers! its f*#king disgraceful - pardon my language
im always glad to see such animals about
cheers
Chuckaroo