South Dublin Parks: Jan & Feb update

No megas to report in the South Dublin Parks since 1st January but patching here has been enjoyable all the same with a total of 56 species (60 points) recorded by the end of February.

With Kilbogget Park being the closest of them to home it has received most of my attention, boosted by my new tactic of diverting normal routes and walking through the park as much as possible on my way to the bus/mates houses/pub! This has resulted in adding Collared Dove, Snipe, Light-bellied Brent Goose, Siskin, Reed Bunting, Lapwing, Sparrowhawk & Raven to the list since the last update. Of these, 24 Light-bellied Brent flying South overhead on 6th Jan, a single Reed Bunting coming out of roost early morning on 9th Jan, a single Lapwing on the pitches on 5th Feb and 2 flyover Ravens on 22nd Feb were by far the best finds in local terms. The Snipe was flushed from the rugby pitches at 1am one night on the way home from the local Guinness dispensary! (dodgy)

Other highlights at Kilbogget have included peaks of 26 Mediterranean Gulls (starting to display these past few days), a super little flock of 21 Teal, two pairs of nesting Coot (apparently incubating since 18th Feb!) and cracking views of 2 Water Rail. Have also had a colour-ringed Oystercatcher from the Dublin Bay Birds Project feeding on the pitches which was ringed at Merrion Gates, Sandymount in February 2013.

Cabinteely Park finally yielded a Treecreeper in the wood on 6th Feb but other than that, 3 Little Egrets & a flock of 40 Redwing have been the only other sightings of note there. Not much to report from Clonkeen Park other than the usual few Med Gulls, Little Egrets & Grey Wagtails.

On the BirdTrack front, that's 10 complete lists/369 records added to the database from the parks over the past two months.

Easy Moorhen – Rathlin Visit 2

After weeks of seemingly endless howling gales, the weather on Sunday 16^th February finally allowed for a day trip to Rathlin. I had hoped the recent weather might have blown something into the harbour – a Little Auk or white-winged gull perhaps, but there were no real surprises to be found. Despite this, a further 7 species were added to the year list.

 

The Harbour

 

The first birds of note came in the form of 2 Great Northern Divers, loafing about 300m outside the harbour walls.  Inside the harbour, the Eider flock had doubled in size and still held a single Long-tailed Duck, which remained distant throughout the day.  Several Black Guillemots were also now gathered in the harbour.  Surprisingly, very few gulls were seen anywhere on patch, though a flock of c25 Common Gulls feeding in a flooded field provided brief hopes of something better.

Whilst standing near the West Pier inspecting the birds using a garden feeder, a couple of Rooks (51) flew west overhead - a species that could easily be missed during the year.  A single Ringed Plover (52) was amongst a small group of Turnstones in Mill Bay.  The best bird of the day came at Craigmacagan Lough, where bobbing around in the middle of the lake was a Moorhen (53) – which judging by last years escapades is perhaps one half of the only pair on the entire patch!  The feral Greylags appear to have returned to their breeding grounds already, which suggested the 16 birds seen later at Ushet Lough were of Icelandic origin.

The lack of Aythya ducks at their usual sites suggests they may well have evacuated the island during the stormy weather. There are often 75+ between Craigmacagan, Ally and Ushet Loughs at this time of year, but only a handful were seen today.  A couple more year ticks were seen in the Ushet area – Magpie (54) and Skylark (55) and several Gannets (56) passed Rue Point.  Once back in Church Bay, a male Red-breasted Merganser (57) appeared in the harbour; the 49^th and final species of the day. 

It was pleasing to hear the island had got off relatively unscathed following the storms, with the track near Rue Point the only noticeable casualty. Hopefully by my next visit some early returning breeders will have made their way back to the island such as Lapwing, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Black-headed Gull and Chough.

Score 57 species, 68 points or 45.03%

72 minutes

If that’s the answer what is the question? How long does it take a Common Crane to fly from Garron Point to Glynn? 72 wonderful minutes. 

 

After taking an excited call from Ian Dickey saying he was watching a Crane flying about the coast near Glenarm, I was soon on my way to try and see it.  However, a second phone call soon told me it had been lost to view, flying south.  With no stubble fields for absolute miles, I felt this bird was not going to land anywhere nearby and once it gained altitude would have two options – head for Lough Neagh or keep going south towards Larne.

The coast road was traversed in a timely fashion and I was soon set up on the platform at Glynn Station.  I thought if the bird did continue along the coast this would be an attractive stop off point, as the tide was going out and there was lots of exposed mud.

 

I knew this attempt to get Crane on my patch (and county) list was a long shot and what greeted me just below the platform seemed to suggest my extended lunch break would end in tears.  Grazing away merrily amongst Greylags was the infamous Larne Lough hybrid goose; like a heckle from the birding Gods.  What the hell, I thought, it’s within digiscoping range so I hunkered down behind a wall to take a few shots and check through the throng of gulls. 

Hybrid Goose, Glynn Station

I was reviewing my efforts on the back of the camera when all of a sudden the whole mass of gulls and geese lifted – I looked up to be greeted by the sight of a large skinny silhouette gliding through the swarm.  It’s the CRANE!!  I pointed my compact camera towards the bird and fired off a few shots as it tried to come in to land.  But the local gulls were having none of it and the bird soon gained height and headed inland.

Gloroius Grus grus 

 

At this stage I will admit to doing a few Mourinho style fist pumps along the platform! But as I began to regain composure, I saw that the bird was doubling back and heading towards me.  I managed to get to the car, grab my zoom lens and take a few better shots as the bird again looked set to land.  This time a Buzzard appeared to scare it off and it quickly moved on south towards Whitehead. 



Full Fat Score

So a full 3 points were secured for the patch year list and a new species added to my patch and county lists. All thanks to my best ever birding moment whilst standing on that damned platform at Glynn. 

This brings my score to 83 species or 100 points. Since my last update things have been predictably quiet, with Grey Wagtail, Little Gull and Skylark the only other additions.

 

Little Gull, Sandy Bay, 5 February

 

All the 6's - Part Deux !

The year started with a flurry of species but I have not added anything new in the last 10 days.
Since my last posting I have added eight species to the list including Velvet Scoter and Fulmar, neither of which I saw last year. 
The still obvious missing species are LBB Gull, Raven, Redwing, Fieldfare and Sisken amongst others. 
I wonder how much of my patch will be left by the end of the winter. I have never seen anything like the continuous storms and Ben Head and the beach at Mosney are literally getting washed into the sea. There have been a number of times when I couldn't get to the beach because the estuary had become so flooded that it looked like a lake (unfortunately not attracting any new ducks) and overflowed onto the roads.
No doubt this current storm will knock a few more lumps out of Ben Head.
84 species, 98 points and most importantly 66.66% !

Eamonn

Nearly birds – Larne Lough, January

The New Year got off to a rather sodden start, but a steady 57 species were tallied on the first day of January.  The best of which included 5 Purple Sandpipers at Sandy Bay and 5 Red-throated Divers from Chaine Park seawatch hut, but best of all was a Treecreeper in the Town Park; a species I had failed to locate during atlas fieldwork here.  However, the month will best be remembered for a couple of “nearly birds” – one a hybrid goose, the other, a Glossy Ibis which remains tantalisingly outside the patch boundary to this day.

 

The old seawatch hut - Fulmar, Kittiwake and Gannet so far

 

As usual for the patch it was not difficult to find a Mediterranean Gull, with a 2^nd winter bird at Sandy Bay on 6^th the first to make it onto the year list. Throughout the month at least 4 Med Gulls were regularly encountered around the patch (1^st year, 2^nd year and 2 adults). Thankfully I didn’t have to wait too long to add Goosander to the list either, with a female off Glynn Station on 2^nd.  Owing to the rough weather during the month, Great Northern Divers were unusually common around the patch with a regular bird at the Inver River for much of the second half of the month.  A 1^st winter Lesser Black-backed Gull was seen here on 10^th.

 

Med Gull, Sandy Bay

 

On the 21^st around 600 small gulls were seen going to roost at sea off Sandy Bay.  Since then, this number has doubled but so far hasn’t produced anything decent.

 

Among the joys of doing a home town patch are the ability to make regular checks at key sites and take the chance to twitch other people’s birds (though I’d much prefer not to).  Take the 24^th as an example, just before I switched off the work laptop to head out for lunch, a cursory check of irishbirding said a couple of Twite had been seen the day before at the north end of the patch at Waterloo Bay.  Within 10 minutes I was watching them feeding along the shore.

 

 

Patch Twite (honest)

Of course these things can also work against you. For example on 25^th I spent most of the day around the patch, including two visits to Sandy Bay seeing very little.  When I got home that evening someone had reported an Iceland Gull there.

The main shenanigans of the month took place on 19^th, when several text messages arrived mid-morning – a Glossy Ibis had been found a short distance south of Glynn, though sadly well outside the patch boundary.  Nevertheless, this bird was duly twitched, but somehow I also managed to add 4 patch year ticks that afternoon.  On my way to the Ibis, a Sparrowhawk flew across the road near Glynn Lagoon and a flock of Greylag Geese were seen drifting around above. After enjoying good views of the Ibis, I returned for a look off Glynn Station to see if the Greylags had landed there – they hadn’t, but a Carrion Crow was making a show of itself just below the platform.  I managed to locate the Greylag flock at the private lagoon at Glynn and amongst them sat the hybrid Snow/Ross’s x Barnacle Goose which had been knocking about the lough for a few days, in between appearances on the local news! Of course zero points can be claimed for the goose, but a couple of Tufted Ducks here were more than welcome.

 

 

Views of Glynn Lagoon (birders welcome at this one)

The final addition to the year list was seen late this afternoon (31^st) as yet another unsuccessful check of the gulls at Sandy Bay outfall was enlivened by a fly by Peregrine.  So nothing major was encountered during the month but as we enter February a few (thousand) gulls are due to arrive and will be getting my full attention.

 

Score: 79 species or 93 points

 

 

 

All the 6's

Since my last posting on 3rd Jan I've been slowly but surely ticking off the species, adding 14.  It's nice to get a few 'sure things' out of the way this early with Treecreeper on 11th, Common Scoter on 12th, Med Gull and Little Egret  on 16th and Great Crested Grebe on 25th.  Best of the bunch was a second winter Ring-billed Gull on 17th among the c.400 Common Gulls.  Two Dunlin battling against the gales this morning brought me up to 64 species, 78 points and, most importantly 66.66%.

Old Head of Kinsale - Mark Shorten

I have being birding the Old Head of Kinsale since about 1975 when I found my first "rarity" - two Ring Ouzels. It was where I learned much of my birding. I have done winter and breeding atlas there, brought my current wife on our first birding date and fought against the construction of the Golf Club (and did a tiny bit of vandalism) so I reckon I can call it my patch.

Looking for migrants can be an exercise in frustration as with little cover there, birds move through quickly. Often during migration I only check a limited number of areas, mainly through time constraints (drop kids to school - run to Old Head run back to collect from school). Hopefully I will spread my birding out in terms of times and areas checked.

The Old Head has a nice variety of birding offerings:


sea watching can be superb, though access is by permit through the Golf Club.
a seabird colony with hundreds of Guillemots 
Mixed farmland with a reasonable amount of arable and a small amount of tillage.
There is little cover in most of the gardens, few trees and most hedgerows are sparse.
Two very busy beaches with small numbers of Dunlins, Ring Plover and Sanderling
Behind the beaches are two reed beds with small amounts of open water.
Old Head harbour a rocky area which is the best area for waders.



So far by 9th January and with 4 visits I am on 62 species 72 points. Highlights being Gadwall, Golden Plover and 3 Brent Geese - a patch tick. For the year a minimum of 120 I hope, to get 150 would be amazing. We will see.