Irish wildlife observations 2011

was down spinning earlier and saw two Dolphins in the bay jumping clear out of the water an all. never seen them before in the bay.

they were there this evening for about 1 hour 3 of them breaching fantastic sight,fished north beach greystones few weeks ago and they were only about 40yds from the shore
last year i seen a pod with close on 30 of them as far as i can remember off killiney beach magical stuff
you can report your sightings on www.iwdg.ie

looks like there is 3 new slim type fish eating machines in dalkey according to the news last night they have set up home between killiney and dalkey and spent all day yesterday breaching and eating mullet.yes its great these ars fabulas creatures when left alone .but its in our nature to adopt these as playful pets you will have no peace fishing there now as every body and there mother will be going out in canoes, rafts ,logs anything that floats just to get closer to them.i wonder was the incident in killiney yesterday a sign of things to come www.irelandswildlife.com/.../bottlenose ... splash-at- dalkeykilliney-bay/

There were at least 6 of those in front of us when I was fishing in Clare... they were swimming around and jumping...

on the raptor front,ive a sparrowhalk that visits the bird feeder at least three times a week,theres three kestrels on the road between ballindine and knock, here in mayo,one kestrel in the bog, feeding on the skylarks possibly? loads of cookoos sounding off over the last month but they have stopped now,its the male birds that call,and then go back to the france region after they mate.

on the raptor front,ive a sparrowhalk that visits the bird feeder at least three times a week,theres three kestrels on the road between ballindine and knock, here in mayo,one kestrel in the bog, feeding on the skylarks possibly? loads of cookoos sounding off over the last month but they have stopped now,its the male birds that call,and then go back to the france region after they mate.

Are the cuckoos headin off now? Ive been hearing one (or possibly 2) in Glenariff forest park over recent weeks, heard him again last night, but I logged on this evening to report an otter sighting in the sea at Cushendun rocks, Co Antrim. It was only about 30 yards from me at the start, unbothered, just headed off under water and surfaced a few more times before going out of sight.

Fishing was poor, 1 small pollack on spinner and 1 on fly rod.

on the raptor front,ive a sparrowhalk that visits the bird feeder at least three times a week,theres three kestrels on the road between ballindine and knock, here in mayo,one kestrel in the bog, feeding on the skylarks possibly? loads of cookoos sounding off over the last month but they have stopped now,its the male birds that call,and then go back to the france region after they mate.

Are the cuckoos headin off now? Ive been hearing one (or possibly 2) in Glenariff forest park over recent weeks, heard him again last night, but I logged on this evening to report an otter sighting in the sea at Cushendun rocks, Co Antrim. It was only about 30 yards from me at the start, unbothered, just headed off under water and surfaced a few more times before going out of sight.

Fishing was poor, 1 small pollack on spinner and 1 on fly rod.

seen a raptor of some sort near the forest and sea in west waterford 2 weeks ago and for the life of me i cant i.d. it, had a look on different websites and no luck, it was mostly white with black strips under the wing it didnt have the head of a juvenile owl and the closest i got to it on bird i.d. website was a buzzard

was down spinning earlier and saw two Dolphins in the bay jumping clear out of the water an all. never seen them before in the bay.

You got there before the press and tv

Sounds like it could be a male hen harrier?

Edit, sorry Sean, I thought you said white bird with black wing tips. I dunno what your bird is but you may very well be right with buzzard? Do you see many buzzards or are they scarce in your neck of the woods?

A male hen harrier is a long winged pale grey bird with black wing tips, you may well be perfectly aware of that already, I dont think I was the only one to think I was looking at some kind of sea bird, like a big gull, the first time I saw one, but a sea bird on its own farting about close to the heather doesnt add up when you see it. I thought thats what you were describing.

4.35am this morn I looked into a spot on Glenariff river about 70 yards above Waterfoot bridge, to check the water height. Exactly where I looked in, having got out of the car there were 2 half grown otters working their way up the far edge, approx 20 yards from me. They didnt seem to alter their behaviour that much with me looking down on them, just crept on upstream rummaging in the shallows. Saw a nice wee moorhen too. Tried to photo the otters but only ended up with poorly focussed pic of a river bank, chance didnt last long.

Will upload pic later of the goslings and white geese I met at the roadside too, someone owns those geese, they live virtually wild and clocked out their goslings in the wild at the river, when I stopped the car beside them 2 geese came towards the car hissing, no fear in them things, gonna take on a car.

Sounds like it could be a male hen harrier?

Edit, sorry Sean, I thought you said white bird with black wing tips. I dunno what your bird is but you may very well be right with buzzard? Do you see many buzzards or are they scarce in your neck of the woods?

A male hen harrier is a long winged pale grey bird with black wing tips, you may well be perfectly aware of that already, I dont think I was the only one to think I was looking at some kind of sea bird, like a big gull, the first time I saw one, but a sea bird on its own farting about close to the heather doesnt add up when you see it. I thought thats what you were describing.

thats good info lad first thing popped into my mind was whats a seagull doing there and as i drove under it i got a better look but it wasnt just wingtips defo a few dark coloured feathers running down the underside of the wings, not sure if theres a population of buzzards locally first time ive seen anything like that in that area and im driving through about 10 times a week

Sean I'd say if you thought, -thats a weird place to see a seagull, then theres a good chance you saw a harrier and a male one. The female is a drab mottled brown, the male is the colour of a seagull at first glance. Many people think gull when they see a male harrier for the first time, I definitely did.

...and as i drove under it i got a better look but it wasnt just wingtips defo a few dark coloured feathers running down the underside of the wings, not sure if theres a population of buzzards locally first time ive seen anything like that in that area and im driving through about 10 times a week

Could it have been a lapwing Sean? They nest on the ground and defend their offspring ferociously, had a few close encounters myself so they could be easily confused with a predatory bird from their behavior.

lapwing_0901098683_sm.jpg

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...and as i drove under it i got a better look but it wasnt just wingtips defo a few dark coloured feathers running down the underside of the wings, not sure if theres a population of buzzards locally first time ive seen anything like that in that area and im driving through about 10 times a week

Could it have been a lapwing Sean? They nest on the ground and defend their offspring ferociously, had a few close encounters myself so they could be easily confused with a predatory bird from their behavior.

lapwing_0901098683_sm.jpg

seen a few of them before they hang about in flocks never seen one up on the high ground though either way the undercarriage is nothing similar plus the tail of what i saw was defo hawk like cheers for the info anyways martin

[cathalger]

Will upload pic later of the goslings and white geese I met at the roadside too, someone owns those geese, they live virtually wild and clocked out their goslings in the wild at the river, when I stopped the car beside them 2 geese came towards the car hissing, no fear in them things, gonna take on a car.[/quote]


Heres these hard ass geese guarding their young. Theyll guard the mallard ducklings too, sometimes it seems they are looking after the ducklings while their mother goes off and couldnt care less. A goose squared up to my springer a few years ago just upstream of this a bit, the goose was protecting wee ducks, the mother was off messing about somewhere else. Had to get the dog on the lead or there would have been dead ducklings.

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Last edited by cathalger on Mon Jun 20, 2011 1:41 am, edited 1 time in total.

Drove past a cock and hen pheasant on a country lane on the way to a mark on broad meadows/malahide estuary mark they where just walking down beside the ditch.... lovely colours on the birds

Chuckaroo and myself saw about 10-15 large dolphin surfacing and leaping clear of the water in Cushendun Bay there this evening, Co Antrim.

Another angler whistled to us, he was closer to them and spotted them 1st, thanks to that fella for the heads up. They were very dispersed and surfacing at diff times so hard to count. They looked bloody huge. The closer ones were still over 100 yards from us.

The place is coming down with wildlife, during the dolphin watching a big dirty brown rat ran down the far side of the river from where I was, in the estuary at the breakwater. Lol.

Was up the mountain yesterday, rummaging about photographing insects mainly but had the good fortune to catch a common lizard for the 4th time in my life with the aid of a sweetie box. Encountered 2 but only got good pics of the 1 I caught. Also got a pic or 2 of tadpoles in a small lough. Very late, one has the back legs already but the other hasnt even got those yet. There are tiny frogs everywhere also. The lizard became very dosile, either that or tired, after a while in the plastic box. It crawled onto my hand and seemed to be happy enough there, maybe it liked the warmth? 5 1/4" long. Seen them abit bigger before.

Thankfully this one didnt drop its tail off when hassled, the first 2 I ever caught dropped their tails off and the 3rd onein April 10 had dropped its tail off in an encounter with something else and had a black stump,tail growing back again.

Fascinating wee animals.

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on the raptor front,ive a sparrowhalk that visits the bird feeder at least three times a week,theres three kestrels on the road between ballindine and knock, here in mayo,one kestrel in the bog, feeding on the skylarks possibly? loads of cookoos sounding off over the last month but they have stopped now,its the male birds that call,and then go back to the france region after they mate.

Are the cuckoos headin off now? Ive been hearing one (or possibly 2) in Glenariff forest park over recent weeks, heard him again last night, but I logged on this evening to report an otter sighting in the sea at Cushendun rocks, Co Antrim. It was only about 30 yards from me at the start, unbothered, just headed off under water and surfaced a few more times before going out of sight.

Fishing was poor, 1 small pollack on spinner and 1 on fly rod.

seen a raptor of some sort near the forest and sea in west waterford 2 weeks ago and for the life of me i cant i.d. it, had a look on different websites and no luck, it was mostly white with black strips under the wing it didnt have the head of a juvenile owl and the closest i got to it on bird i.d. website was a buzzard

Buzzards vary quite a bit in colouration, from very light to dark underwing heres a few photos for comparisions

Common buzzard by Ronald Surgenor, on Flickr


common buzzard by Ronald Surgenor, on Flickr


IMG_1886 common buzzard by Ronald Surgenor, on Flickr

Incredible buzzard pics youve taken there Ronald, you want to see the kestrel pic I took yesterday, I might put it up here for the laugh, its so bad.

Good photos.