Irish wildlife observations 2011

aNYONE WHAT THERES ARE THE FIRST IS A WORM, ITS BOUT 6/7FTLONG... SEE EM MUCH LONGER............OTHER IZ A GOWLIE OF SUM SORT.

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...along with a few dead Barnacle Geese & a log covered with dead Barnacles

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?

barnacles geese AND goose barnacles BOTH washed up at the same time....... confusing

defo goose barnacles Cathal, can also be called goose neck barnacles. the Spanish eat them
have never seen a whale washed up myself, would be interesting. thanks for pics

...along with a few dead Barnacle Geese & a log covered with dead Barnacles

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?

barnacles geese AND goose barnacles BOTH washed up at the same time....... confusing

defo goose barnacles Cathal, can also be called goose neck barnacles. the Spanish eat them
have never seen a whale washed up myself, would be interesting. thanks for pics

Cheers lads, Goose Barnacles or stalked Barnacles as there also called by some were ment to develope into to Barnacle Geese according to myth I should have tried them for bait Cathal, will give them a go next time I find them has to worth a go they do look like lug. There's a nice smell off the Whale now well rotted it is strange for two male Fin whales to get washed up just a few weeks & miles apart The skelton of the first Whale was removed & will be displayed at some stage. Heres a link with some good footage http://www.google.ie/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=f ... Vg&cad=rja

aNYONE WHAT THERES ARE THE FIRST IS A WORM, ITS BOUT 6/7FTLONG... SEE EM MUCH LONGER............OTHER IZ A GOWLIE OF SUM SORT.

Hi Cortaz, dunno what your worm is? Is it really that long? A friend said he dug up some peculiar black worms while deepening his wee port in recent years but I dont think he said they were just as big as that.

The crab? Looks a bit like an edible but Im sure you know it well enough so it could well be the Hairy Crab, Pilumnus hirtellus, with nippers like that. Did you take any other shots?

Cathal.

...along with a few dead Barnacle Geese & a log covered with dead Barnacles

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?

barnacles geese AND goose barnacles BOTH washed up at the same time....... confusing

defo goose barnacles Cathal, can also be called goose neck barnacles. the Spanish eat them
have never seen a whale washed up myself, would be interesting. thanks for pics

Cheers lads, Goose Barnacles or stalked Barnacles as there also called by some were ment to develope into to Barnacle Geese according to myth I should have tried them for bait Cathal, will give them a go next time I find them has to worth a go they do look like lug. There's a nice smell off the Whale now well rotted it is strange for two male Fin whales to get washed up just a few weeks & miles apart The skelton of the first Whale was removed & will be displayed at some stage. Heres a link with some good footage http://www.google.ie/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=f ... Vg&cad=rja

Be great if they get that skeleton mounted and preserved, take a bit of work that. The Spanish can eat away at them, Im sure theyre lovely. A sperm whale washed up here in March 05, fella I know sawed what he could of the lower jaw bones out if it and it completely rancid, he got most of the lower jaw bones out, 13 foot long. Not another bone was saved and the tide took it away, as it disintegrated.

aNYONE WHAT THERES ARE THE FIRST IS A WORM, ITS BOUT 6/7FTLONG... SEE EM MUCH LONGER............OTHER IZ A GOWLIE OF SUM SORT.

Hi Cortaz, dunno what your worm is? Is it really that long? A friend said he dug up some peculiar black worms while deepening his wee port in recent years but I dont think he said they were just as big as that.

The crab? Looks a bit like an edible but Im sure you know it well enough so it could well be the Hairy Crab, Pilumnus hirtellus, with nippers like that. Did you take any other shots?

Cathal.

Cathal,I will get sum better pics, next day i,m out. the worm things are weird, and cud b sum sort of slug r ???

Them worms are weird alright,ive come across a few of them when lookin for peelers around balbriggan,anyone any ideas some are about 12' long or bigger and a purple sheen off them,havent seen any for a few years though

6ft.worm thingy n crab, any ide cathal?

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I really havent a clue about the worm, as for the crab Im still thinkin Hairy crab going by the pincers in the first pic you put up, they aint always hairy but they have distinctive pincers, only other suggestion I can make is broad clawed porcelain crab, I mighrt do some googling here, to be honest I dont really know where that 2nd crab I mentioned appears but a few years ago, when trying to ID the hairy crab, I thought that porcelain crab was similar lookin,

anyone else offer ideas?

Cortaz could you post a close up of the upper side of the crab?

I might post that pic of the worm on Ispot and see what comes of that, did you get it in mud or sand or what?

Cathal.

Cortaz, forget the porcelain crab, not it, it was the name that caught my attention when I was IDing an unknown crab a while back, it looks nothing like yours. This might be a silly question, its definitely not an edible crab? I know its not, those black pincers are so like it though.

It seems that hairy crab I was talkin about is also known as Bristly crab, I know your is neither hairy or bristly but its the closest thing i can get yet, those are quite distinctive pincers, and that reddish maroon colour is right too.

Time will tell. We'll get it IDed eventually.

did you try the worm as bait

some deer pics from the garden,












ill put up a few more later

Super pics dbrock, are they fallow or sika or what are they? Maybe hybrids of some sort? I'm not great on deer types. At a time I thought the only spotty deer like yours, were fallow but I hear they dont necessarily have spots and some other types can have them so at this stage I havent a clue about properly IDing deer.

Great pictures, looks like you were pretty close to them?

Saw 2 red squirrels this month, one at a friends bird feeder in his garden in Cushendall village on 8th Dec. And last Sat(17th Dec) when going to Ballymena one ran across the front of my car up in the forestry at Parkmore, close to the Ballyeamon camping barn(a kind of hostel).
It looked almost black against the snow, a very dark brown red squirrel. Ive found them killed on the road up there many times, they just dash across the road at any time and take the chance, youd think theyd wait for a quiet time-with no car engine noise but they dont, not smart that way!

Cortaz,
an English man on Ispot (he's very helpful and great at IDing things) has suggested the worm could be 'Nemertea', he thinks they have been recorded up to 54metres!

Cheers,

aNYONE WHAT THERES ARE THE FIRST IS A WORM, ITS BOUT 6/7FTLONG... SEE EM MUCH LONGER............OTHER IZ A GOWLIE OF SUM SORT.

It looks like a Bootlace worm to me. Nice find. Apparently the mucous is toxic http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lineus_longissimus and http://na.oceana.org/en/explore/marine- ... tlace-worm

aNYONE WHAT THERES ARE THE FIRST IS A WORM, ITS BOUT 6/7FTLONG... SEE EM MUCH LONGER............OTHER IZ A GOWLIE OF SUM SORT.

It looks like a Bootlace worm to me. Nice find. Apparently the mucous is toxic http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lineus_longissimus and http://na.oceana.org/en/explore/marine- ... tlace-worm

Hi Gilks, yip I think you have it- Lineus longissimus. I'll paste in the ID given back on iSpot, same as yours but with english name 'ribbon worm'.......

Ribbon worm (Lineus longissimus) by Nick Upton. Nick Upton's reputation in Invertebrates. at 12:44 pm 29/12/11
Confidence: I'm as sure as I can be.
Notes: Long and slimy brown Nermertine worm... and quite common in the right habitat. Highly predatory marine / intertidal worms.

took a while to figure out what was in the gut of a bass frm few years back, Bootlace worm and syphon frm a Gaperclam.

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Hello Cortaz,
Is that what those things are called, gaperclams? The one with the big fleshy foot? I found them dead on Downings beach in Donegal back in February. Or something very similar to your pic above.

Do you mean the green thing in the centre of the pic?

Is that the ribbon worm in there too? The black gunky stuff?

Cheers.

Now its the new year, I wonder if we should do this thread again for 2012?

Thoughts welcome?????

Good idea. New stuff into a new thread please lads.