Irish wildlife observations 2011

could swear that i saw a video on youtube of a few guys fishing from a boat in Norway who also got footage showing porbeagle thrashing in the water as they chased salmon. Very very possible that they do the same here and have been given the name salmon shark locally...
i'll try and dig that video out of youtube now. think it was norway..

Edit: just did a bit of research. there is actually a shark called the salmon shark (Lamna ditropis) which is found in Alaska and north Pacific, the porbeagle shark (Lamna nasus) of the north Atlantic is a very close relative, they look almost identical. The salmon shark obviously chases salmon so can imagine the porbeagle acting similarly... and thus acquiring the name locally. Only guessing of course.....
Cant find that video i was talking about

fantastic pics cathal

Cheers corbyeire, was very lucky to be up the hills that particular night and to run into those newts, only reason I found the first 1 and started lookin a bit was because I stooped down to check out a horsefly covered in dew, it was shining like silver in my headlight. Newts are something Ive seen very little of before.

Charlie thats interesting, aye Hamish saw the sharks hunting salmon up out of the water off lough Swilly, he was all excited tellin me about it, must have been a spectacle. Ususally the only thing he gets excited about is a 200lb + skate or a 60lb tope or something like that.

Porbeagle is a serious predator, not sure I'd want to be connected to one at all, gimme a nice turbot or cod any day (still to catch a turbot of any size!)

Last Sunday walking the dog spotted a sparrowhawk fly up a hedge with a kill in its talons, not sure what it was, probably a small bird, the dog went into the ditch and put a woodcock out from exactly the same spot below the bush the sparrowhawk came out of. She went on to put up 2 more woodcock. Saw 1 buzzard.

chap in the office with me found an otter on the road, he got a tip but was still alive

he was miles away from any water, his theory was when they get big enough the parents chase him out of the patch - is this true?

[cathalger]

I couldnt honestly answer that one. Ive seen a couple of road kill otters quite far from any major water course before but theres ditches everywhere so maybe they navigate by them? To find grub or new territories. A man I know caught an otter in a snare he set for hares on top of a mountain pretty far from any fish holding water, this was a long time ago, he got a big surprise, but with the amount of frogs out on the hills around here, maybe it shouldnt surprise too much?

The same fella dammed a stream in his garden in more recent years and had some nice 'pet' rainbow trout in the wee pool. 6 or so, an otter discovered them and took them all in 2 nights, the footprints were there to be seen in the mud, so the otter got a bit of revenge.

It could well be young otters looking for new areas to colonise but I think theyll range quite far from water in search of easy grub? Maybe an otter expert will shed some light on it??????

EDIT---I saw a dead otter on the roadside just beside the village of Ballyvoy near Ballycastle at the end of October, approx 20 Oct, it was a friday morning, I saw it on my way over to Ballycastle but I hadnt time to stop and planned to stop and have a look at it on my way back home but 1 hour later on my way home it wasnt there. Someone must have either gathered it up or chucked it over the hedge, it didnt get up and move off itself cos it was as dead as a doornail. Very close to the Carey river just immediately east of Ballyvoy.

Last edited by cathalger on Thu Dec 01, 2011 10:49 am, edited 1 time in total.

on another note the woodpeckers have made their way down from wicklow and seem to becoming permanent around south wexford now

brilliant pics of the wee lizard!

i saw one in connemara about 15 years ago - basking on a rock. beautifull wee creature.

seen a pinemarten last week running acrosss the N5 near frenchpark , co roscommon.

also a herd of about 12 wild goats are always wandering around the shores of lought Beltra in mayo - the horns on the Billy are massive.

seen a Barnowl fly accrosss the road on the way home from beltra a fortnight ago as well - it has been about 25 years since i seen one - stunning creatures.

and the wee electric blue Zip of Kingfisher on the river at Athleague - was looking over the bridge to see if i could spot any trout and he zipped past directly underneath me - they really are one of the most beautiful native birds and such an exhilerating sight!

also had a pair of ravens fly by the house this week - the deep croaking call is so distinctive, they firsta ppeared round here a few years ago, and we usually see them once of twice a year - on their first visit they were seriously mobbed by jackdaws - they forcced one of the ravens onto the ground in the field behind the house - got to have look through the bino's - you really get an idea of the size when you you have a jackdaw closeby for comparison.

its great to be out and about and noticing all these things

oh aye, and seen a few salmon and seatrout in the bottom of the boat as well -

Davy thanks for this post, packed full of brilliant observations, sorry I'm only respondin now. All great stuff, totally agree, the kingfisher is a treat to see, uniquely coloured for our climate. Barn owl great too, the only good view of a barn owl I ever got was at the river Braid just on the northern edge of Ballymena very close to the Ecos centre, it was dusk and I was just headin back to the car after trout fishing. Atfirst I didnt quite know what I was seeing, a silent ghostly thing moving low across a field, I'll be honest, at first I thought I was seeing a pale coloured car driving along a road at the farside of the field but it was completely silent, took me a wee minute to realize I was seeing a hunting barn owl in the fading light.

Pine martin not something everyone gets to see either, Ive never seen one.

Did you see many salmon or sea trout on the floor of your boat this year? I never fished Beltra but hopefully some day!

Thanks again,

Cathal.

Hi Cathal

we did pretty well for sea trout on Beltra this year which was great to see, as stocks had totally collapsed and the is is the first year of real recovery, ( it is still C&R for sea trout, great to see them going back and building up the numbers


totally outfished by my dad on them tho, my worst day was a blank, he had 10 sea trout and a grillse!! you can imagine the slagging i got! had 3 salmon, up to about 7 1/2, and there there were some good double figure fish taken earlier in the year

as to the wildlife, arrived home today to find the cat with a woodcock in the front garden ! nice bonus for the fly tying supplies

pine martens are definitly on the road to recovery, i have been lucky enough to see a few over the years, including one in a tree in galway, he was only about 10 ft above me, and with no trees nearby for him to escape to, i good a real decent look at him - one of those days you wish you had a camera!

Not wildlife its flora I seen a garden full of Daffodils in full bloom It is the first time i have seen Daffodils in December. Met eireann said that Dublin had the warmest November ever long may it continue. :

[cathalger]

This is maybe more of a fishing curiosity than a wildlife observation but here it is anyhow.

I was approaching a pool on a local river back in August, on tidal water. I could see a dancing fly rod as I approached, hooped over. When I got there a young fella was just getting to grips with a nice wee brownie about 10 or 11oz.

He held it in the water after I took this pic, it gave a cough and then shot off. 3 miniature flounder came out of it but the young boy was only able to get a hold of one of them before the other 2 disappeared into the very silty brown water. I was up on a high bank , he had a hoke for the other 2 tiny flatties but they were gone.

This wasnt very far from the sea, about 200 yrds.

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Last edited by cathalger on Sat Dec 03, 2011 1:25 am, edited 1 time in total.

Earlier in the year I was having an early morning session on Inch beach in Kerry ,when two German tourist(1 male 1 female) got out of their tent stark naked and ran down the beach ,had a little swim and then went back to their tent .They said hello to me as they ran by. Unfortunately I didn't have a camera.

Mark

Earlier in the year I was having an early morning session on Inch beach in Kerry ,when two German tourist(1 male 1 female) got out of their tent stark naked and ran down the beach ,had a little swim and then went back to their tent .They said hello to me as they ran by. Unfortunately I didn't have a camera.

Mark

The things you see when you dont have a camera!

Hi Cathal

we did pretty well for sea trout on Beltra this year which was great to see, as stocks had totally collapsed and the is is the first year of real recovery, ( it is still C&R for sea trout, great to see them going back and building up the numbers


totally outfished by my dad on them tho, my worst day was a blank, he had 10 sea trout and a grillse!! you can imagine the slagging i got! had 3 salmon, up to about 7 1/2, and there there were some good double figure fish taken earlier in the year

as to the wildlife, arrived home today to find the cat with a woodcock in the front garden ! nice bonus for the fly tying supplies

pine martens are definitly on the road to recovery, i have been lucky enough to see a few over the years, including one in a tree in galway, he was only about 10 ft above me, and with no trees nearby for him to escape to, i good a real decent look at him - one of those days you wish you had a camera!

The cat did pretty well to catch a woodcock, nice bonus for you. A fella I know from Ballymena was on Beltra in the spring and got a 17lber, he was out in James O Hara's boat, you might have heard about that one?

Please report stuff you see Davy cos you are in a rich place for good wildlife, cheers,

Cathal.

[chuckaroo]

a few flocks of hooper swans flew (try sayin that after several pints.. ) over my head today as i was fishing in Red Bay. I managed a snap of a small bunch of them.
two larger flocks had at least 30 birds in each, all flying in the familiar V shape.
dont know if this is a common sight or not. they were heading north. im not an expert in birds so i think they were hoopers anyways ..noisy

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Last edited by chuckaroo on Mon Dec 05, 2011 12:50 am, edited 1 time in total.

Good picture Charlie. Nippy out today?

Good picture Charlie. Nippy out today?

definitely cold but i managed to fish within a 'window' in the weather. apart from cold fingers ive had worse.
i got in the car to head up the road and the heaviest blustery shower of snow-hail-sleet came down. i couldnt have timed it better the comp on the beach would have known about it!....
when i was fishing there were blue skies and the sun was out. it was fine. i was pretty well sheltered form the westerly wind and was grand - for an hour and a half....

Good picture chuckaroo, ther're Whoopers alright.

Here's a few pictures the second Fin Whale that was washed up in Co, Sligo since November 28th it was aroud 60feet in lenght & the first Whale was around 40feet boath Male Whales they were washed up with the stormy seas in the past few weeks along wit a few dead Barnacle Geese & a log covered with dead Barnacles. I have some better pictures I'll stick up when I get them resized at some stage.

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Brilliant pics Brian, really like your pic of the goose barnacles (is that what those are?). They lookn an bit like lugworm, you didnt try them as bait at all?

Thered be a right stink of that whale? Interesting that 2 of the same species have washed up so close together. Whats that all about? Just rough seas?

Great pics.