Irish Wildlife Observations 2012.

there were 2-3 buzzards in a site i was working in, in co laois 10 years ago - they have to be well spread at this stage

Cheers Corbyeire, yeah I'd say theyre well spread by now as you say, I saw 1 there on Sunday afternoon in Castletown estate near Celbridge, Co Kildare.

Johnwest like your bird pics, the turnstone is a lovely bird, nice shot. Red squirrel tail very useful and versatile winging material for salmon flies, any kind of streamer, and is popular too for dry mayflies too like wulffs, 2 upright wings pointing away from each other in a V.

But prob very useful for streamers for the sea, fry patterns. Did you dry out your tail yet?

[quote="cathalger"]Johnwest like your bird pics, the turnstone is a lovely bird, nice shot. Red squirrel tail very useful and versatile winging material for salmon flies, any kind of streamer, and is popular too for dry mayflies too like wulffs, 2 upright wings pointing away from each other in a V.

But prob very useful for streamers for the sea, fry patterns. Did you dry out your tail yet?[/quote]

Yes, the tail is well dried out, any suggestions on some sort of preservative treatment? I don't fish for salmon but will try a few Wulff mayflies as you suggest, not too long now until the trout are in the sights!
A lot of these guys on the roads tonight;

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while out shooting came across this poor chap, looked like he had been stuck for a good few days,

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you should have put up the caption "you just know it aint your lucky day" was the leg broke?

leg was broken in a few places and barbed wire had riped right through to the bone

horrible slow death. shame to see it suffer that long

Terrible to see a fine animal die like that,must have been a very slow death

Seals..........theres a good few buzzards around waterford with the passed 4/5 years.

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common / harbour seals one of the rarer of the two species (they like sandy beaches) greys prefer rocks mostly, but will haul out on shale or sand from time to time

Just spotted two more seals chilling out in ringaskiddy, near the beach by the car park just past nmci. Wasn't fast enough with the camera...

Saw a dipper feeding in my local river today while trout fishing, I've never seen one on this river before though I've seen them on other rivers in the area. I attempted to get a quick photo but was interrupted by a nice little trout taking my fly. Also saw a mink making his way along the opposite bank, I see them all too often, too far away for a picture but here's one from last year at the same location.

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Saw this bird feeding close to where I was fishing today. I think it's a Great Northern Diver but will stand correction. It caught quite a few crabs and a small fish, probably a blenny, while I was watching. I timed a few dives at around 50-60 seconds. Unfortunately it was very dull which doesn't really suit a telephoto lens so the photos are not top quality.

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That's really cool.

It looks like a blenny or weaver fish in its mouth!

John D.

Yep. Great Northern Diver. We have a few in the bays, here in the west,at the moment as well. Nice photo.

Caz

saw three of those feeding hard at louisburgh yesterday

not a bird expert myself but saw these in north donegal the other day. little group of them darting and flitting about in perfect unison as they skimmed over the water surface. pretty cool.
have seen them before but was just wandering what they were. ta

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The buzzard I mentioned earlier , which came to the field in bad weather , disappeared for about 4 weeks then returned the day after young lambs were put up there and has visited most days since . It doesn't go near the lambs -- would it take a sickly one , or only dead ?
Amazing dogfight between that and a pair of ravens which nest nearby . One chased the buzzard while the other sat up in a tree making a huge noise . Ravens won .

Bluebells and Elderflower are starting to flower already in the Bantry area. This is about 5 week earlier than usual. The seasons are very mixed up in the last few years. Last year a few Elderflower trees flowered in May as usual and they flowered again in October and were in full leaf by the end of January this year.