Irish Wildlife Observations - 2014

You know what to do by now. I'll kick off:

Saw a big dog otter on Jan 1st when I was out on the Lackagh river trying for the first salmon of the year. Lovely animals.

robin on waterfoot - tame as anything eating any scraps the anglers were giving it, standing beside their chopping boards!

While out fishing recently on a Donegal beach I noticed what must have been millions of transparent tube-like structures washed up on the high tide mark. They were about 15 - 20 mm in length. I think they are the remains of mucus and sand tubules made by sand mason worms, presumably dislodged by recent rough weather. The blue background picture has been enlarged to show a segmented structure.

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Seen a grey fox last night, black tips on his ears and a white tip on his tail. Very small, thought he had mange but he was right there in the head lights and I stopped, he had a full coat, never seen one like that.


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Seen a grey fox last night, black tips on his ears and a white tip on his tail. Very small, thought he had mange but he was right there in the head lights and I stopped, he had a full coat, never seen one like that.


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I think you saw what is often referred to as a Silver Fox, a melanistic form of the usual red fox which occurs occasionally. Nice!

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I think you saw what is often referred to as a Silver Fox, a melanistic form of the usual red fox which occurs occasionally. Nice![/quote]

That's exactly what I saw John. Very impressive looking animal.


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Thanks for identifying him for me!


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Was out for a stroll in Howth yesterday and saw what I think was a Sparrowhawk pluck something from the bushes about 10 yards in front of me-an impressive sight!

Last week I was watching the sunrise through the conservatory window at 9am when a sparrowhawk rocketed down from a nearby tree, grabbed a small bird from between the flower pots outside the glass right in front of me, and glided back into the trees. Gave me the fright of my life. I guess he couldnt see me behind the reflection of the dawn.

This isnt my video, spotted it elsewhere. It was taken right in the middle of cork city centre last week.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=7ETNRAzTrKE

That is just amazing all right.

Last week I was watching the sunrise through the conservatory window at 9am when a sparrowhawk rocketed down from a nearby tree, grabbed a small bird from between the flower pots outside the glass right in front of me, and glided back into the trees. Gave me the fright of my life. I guess he couldnt see me behind the reflection of the dawn.

I was having dinner in the back garden during the summer and heard a bird making a racket and a sparrowhawk had caught a young starling aout 5 feet from us. he dropped the bird and flew off when he saw us, was great to see right in front of you but the bird was dead the next morning unfortunately.

I know the thread says 2014, but I thought this was a good wildlife observation.One day in July last year myself and a mate where fishing along the Copper Coast for the weekend, while driving to a mark at 4.30am we both remarked about the amount of small garden birds along the road, when a Sparrowhawk appeared in front of the car. He was flying at 60k an hour five feet from the front grill and about 2 feet off the ground. He maintained this speed and position for about a kilometre obviously using the car as camouflage, we where driving along a road with trees on either side of the road and even though there where lots of blackbirds and other small birds at the side of the road he never attacked them. It wasn't until we notice that the trees finished and open fields with stone walls where just ahead of us did we realise his plan, as soon as we reached the stone walls he nailed a blackbird sitting on the wall in the blink of an eye. It was nature at its best, where over the years the Sparrowhawk has adapted to use cars a camouflage to gain the upper hand on his prey.

Spotted 3 otters just at the shoreline in annestown last week


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I know the thread says 2014, but I thought this was a good wildlife observation.One day in July last year myself and a mate where fishing along the Copper Coast for the weekend, while driving to a mark at 4.30am we both remarked about the amount of small garden birds along the road, when a Sparrowhawk appeared in front of the car. He was flying at 60k an hour five feet from the front grill and about 2 feet off the ground. He maintained this speed and position for about a kilometre obviously using the car as camouflage, we where driving along a road with trees on either side of the road and even though there where lots of blackbirds and other small birds at the side of the road he never attacked them. It wasn't until we notice that the trees finished and open fields with stone walls where just ahead of us did we realise his plan, as soon as we reached the stone walls he nailed a blackbird sitting on the wall in the blink of an eye. It was nature at its best, where over the years the Sparrowhawk has adapted to use cars a camouflage to gain the upper hand on his prey.

Incredible... If you'd had an action cam on the dash to video that, you'd have a Youtube top-ranker.
Wonder if it could've been riding the car's "bow wave" kind of like dolphins do with boats?

You right Hugo, it would have been brilliant to have it on video. I never though to record it on my phone, we were too engrossed watching him maintain the distance between himself and the car, with such ease and wondering what his plan was.

On a slightly different note anyone in the area with some spare time could pop into Wexford Wildfowl Reserve, There is several viewing hides including one looking seaward over Wexford harbour. Well worth the visit and some good fishing not too far away either.


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See http://www.wexfordwildfowlreserve.ie/wildlife.html for more information and updates.

Incredible... If you'd had an action cam on the dash to video that, you'd have a Youtube top-ranker.
Wonder if it could've been riding the car's "bow wave" kind of like dolphins do with boats?[/quote]

That's an interesting thought Hugo. If I had one of those cameras I would have got a good shot of a buzzard which glided across the road just in front of me on Tuesday this week; if I hadn't slowed down I would have hit him.

Jan 18th at howth head at sunset. 15 -20 porpoises fishing, and a lo of gull activity also in the same area.
a friend reckoned it was probably a herring shoal to create that sort of feeding activity at this time of year.

There is a Starling building its nest with a week in the eves of the house next door!,..
Last August i was seatrout fishing on a local stream, about 11pm an owl glided past, 20 minutes later i spotted it flying back upstream about 10ft away it flicked to left and snatched a little trout 5/6in from the water, never seen anything like it before... would rate it as 1 of best ever sightings of anything anyone else ever see owl catching fish?. i thought i had seen it all!!..