Irish Wildlife Observations 2012.

[chuckaroo]

thanks for the photo chuckaroo the kitiwake i saw was like the one with the black bill in your photo,i knew it was some thing different to what i normally see when it dived under water like a cormorant,i didn't see it fly,it swam off in to the distance

hold on, kitiwakes dont do that, im pretty sure

[marlin vs]

some Brent Geese.

[cathalger]

Lovely shot Marlin vs. Wer you close or do you have a good lense? Nice.

[johnwest]

hi lads maybe some one can help me id the bird in the photo,sorry about the quality of the photo it was taken on the phone and zoomed on the computer

what bird.JPG

the bird was about the size of a blackbird and it was diving for food,it would stay 1 or 2 minutes under water,first time i have seen this type of bird
my first thoughts were that it might be a Storm-Petrel and i looked them up online,its looked similar to a Storm-Petrel but it looked a lot whiter
it was not a gull or a Fulmar,it was a lot smaller and had a different shape head
thanks for any help

I would agree with Chuckaroo as I'm pretty sure kittiwakes don't dive to feed. Any chance it might be a black guillemot in winter plumage? Here are a couple of pics I got from the Internet.

[johnwest]

some Brent Geese.

Great shot, where did you see them?

[JOHN1]

the top one is an adult bird with a yellow beak and the bottom one is a juvenile in it's first year with black beak

I knew i had written this before,copy and paste is so handy at times

[marlin vs]

Lovely shot Marlin vs. Wer you close or do you have a good lense? Nice.

I was fairly close on that shot,johnwest they were on the back-strand in Tramore.

[cathalger]

Johnwests pics look good, only thing that crossed my mind (couldnt tell much from the photo), if it was the size of a blackbird might it have been a little auk? Thatd be the right size and they do dive, if it was largely white maybe it was a young one- like Johns black guillemots, theyre very pale.

Edit- juvenile petrel? Theyre the other really small ones, right? Shearwaters are a good bit bigger? The small size should narrow it down.

[JOHN1]

Johnwests pics look good, only thing that crossed my mind (couldnt tell much from the photo), if it was the size of a blackbird might it have been a little auk? Thatd be the right size and they do dive, if it was largely white maybe it was a young one- like Johns black guillemots, theyre very pale.

Edit- juvenile petrel? Theyre the other really small ones, right? Shearwaters are a good bit bigger? The small size should narrow it down.

storm petrels are our smallest sea bird, but as far as i know they dont land on water they only tip of the water to pick up bits and pieces of food, good chance of seeing them on a rubby dubby slick

[alby]

I enjoy reading this thread, very knowledgeable people.

Tell me this, I was recently fishing in Kerry, and an otter came out of some vegetation beside an estuary, proceeded to walk casually into the water a few feet from one of my mates, and cruise by us not a rod length away on his back laughing at us spinning for bass.

Is it common for this to happen? It’s a very well fished area.

[roooster]

seen a luvly young barn owl resting/hunting on a fence post when walking back from fishing 2 nights ago,it was bout half-eleven at night,such a rare & stunning bird.went to get my camera but of course it was gone by the time i got to get a picture..

[cathalger]

I enjoy reading this thread, very knowledgeable people.

Tell me this, I was recently fishing in Kerry, and an otter came out of some vegetation beside an estuary, proceeded to walk casually into the water a few feet from one of my mates, and cruise by us not a rod length away on his back laughing at us spinning for Bass.

Is it common for this to happen? It’s a very well fished area.

Hi Alby,

It must have been a bit of a surprise for it to have passed by just so close, I wonder did it even see him? They can be quite indifferent to humans, probably the young ones more so- I am refering to times I have had them just look at me quizzically from the water both in river and the sea. One came lopping up the road towards my car in June after dark, lights on and engine running. I thought it was going to come all the way to me, it wasnt until I let the car roll down the hill a bit towards it to get a pic that it stopped and stared at the car as if what the hell is that thing. It looked fully grown but I cant help think it was quite young and silly.

They will just study you from the water, looking at you looking at them. On another occasion I was fishing a flood in a river from a rock platform the same level as the water. Yer man attempted to exit the water right at my feet- it just surfaced there where it had done so probably hundreds of times before. It had a panic attack and exploded under water again and I almost fell on my ass from the fright, neither of us were expecting to see each other.

They do seem to be very relaxed at times like you saw. I'm sure others have seen the same kind of chilled out behaviour.

Another evening I was watching a pool at dusk waiting to fish for sea trout, everything was coming together nicely and I was just biding my time until the light went down, conditions were perfect and I was full of confidence. 2 of them came bouncin up the gravel bank just down stream of me, they didnt see me. They entered the tail of the pool which I was lookng forward to fishing with dusk just beginning, they were only 25 feet away. I didnt want them there so I hurled a big stone into the pool to try to let them know I was there and to scare them off. One of them surfaced just as the stone was hitting the water, about 10 foot from it, still hadnt seen me. My plan to frighten them was in vain because the bloody thing thought my stone going in was a jumping sea trout and took a mad rip right to where the splash happened. Cant really recall the rest as that put the tin hat on it, I think they eventually saw me and cleared out. No sea trout were caught after that nonsense.

[Mr Mackerels]

ASH TREE INFECTION WHAT TO LOOK FOR- LINK BELOW:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-20181129

[johnwest]

16/11/2012. I saw a skein of geese today, they were flying low across the road and seemed intent on setting down on Upper Lough Macnean, along the Cavan-Fermanagh border. They were fairly large, dark birds; possibly whitefront geese (?) but were out of range before I could get stopped and try for a picture. Later on while taking a tea break near Bundoran, I saw a peregrine falcon flying overhead. As it flew by, a small flock of brent geese took to the air, coincidence or would birds that size be spooked by a peregrine? While I was fishing, I was entertained by a flock of sanderlings feeding quite close by. It is amusing to watch as they run backwards and forwards with the waves, what exactly do they find to feed on at the water's edge, all I can ever see is bubbles and sand! At one point I was rudely awakened by the violent bucking of one of the rods and thought I had the bite of a lifetime, it was another flock of sanderlings flying into the line. A couple of them actually landed in the water but flew off again none the worse for wear (but probably as surprised as I was).

[johnwest]

"I taut I taw a puddy tat!",
back garden this morning.

[joebhoy]

Johnwest absolute cracker of a picture.......

[chuckaroo]

was fishing last friday and could have sworn i saw a whale breach offshore from Ballycastle, Co.Antrim!
I wasnt totally sure about the exact size of it (it was just a little too far from me) as i only saw its large dark body as it came down re-entering the water after having breached, it made a huge splash! i kept my eyes pinned on the whole area waiting for it again but it didnt reappear soon after. It wasnt until about at least 30mins later that I saw another splash way off to my left.
Still not sure what it was but my gut instinct was defo a whale! It was just the way it came down into the water again, just like a breaching whale i.e. unlike a large dolphin.
Is this a common thing around Ireland? Has anybody else seen anything up this way??
I couldnt believe it!

[joebhoy]

Chuckaroo are you sure it wasnt a whiting...?

I have seen plenty of whales off the Antrim coast when heading back home to Scotland on the ferry. I have never seen one breach but i guess they must be there looking for the herring shoals......

Must have been some sight...

[chuckaroo]

I have seen plenty of whales off the Antrim coast when heading back home to Scotland on the ferry. I have never seen one breach but i guess they must be there looking for the herring shoals......

Must have been some sight...

fantastic sight, for what i saw of it. ive seen big whales before around the world but to see one on my own 'home turf' really was special!... if it was a whale that is..
interesting to hear that you have seen many whales between antrim and scotland nice 1. cant say that i have myself but nice to know

Chuckaroo are you sure it wasnt a whiting...?

damn, i never even considered it to be a big whitiing! of course it could have been. actually no, dont think it was tho, i threw a lug worm at it and it wasnt interested

[gfkelly1969]

I have seen plenty of whales off the Antrim coast when heading back home to Scotland on the ferry. I have never seen one breach but i guess they must be there looking for the herring shoals......

Must have been some sight...

fantastic sight, for what i saw of it. ive seen big whales before around the world but to see one on my own 'home turf' really was special!... if it was a whale that is..
interesting to hear that you have seen many whales between antrim and scotland nice 1. cant say that i have myself but nice to know

Chuckaroo are you sure it wasnt a whiting...?

damn, i never even considered it to be a big whitiing! of course it could have been. actually no, dont think it was tho, i threw a lug worm at it and it wasnt interested

there seems to be a few whales around at the moment http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-20580373

http://www.iwdg.ie/index.php?option=com ... 9&latest=1