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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,201 ✭✭✭gzoladz


    I saw my first kingfishers yesterday, near Botterstown following the Nutley stream towards the Martello tower.

    I went specifically to look for them. Unfortunately I could not get a photo as each sight lasted a few seconds.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,732 ✭✭✭Capercaillie


    gzoladz wrote: »
    I saw my first kingfishers yesterday, near Botterstown following the Nutley stream towards the Martello tower.

    I went specifically to look for them. Unfortunately I could not get a photo as each sight lasted a few seconds.

    I saw my first kingfisher there as well


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 883 ✭✭✭Keplar240B


    Recorded new species in garden today: willow warbler


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 883 ✭✭✭Keplar240B


    Keplar240B wrote: »
    Recorded new species in garden today: willow warbler

    The willow warbler is still in Garden(CITY garden) a week later two possibly three of them.
    At least I think its a willow warbler I don't know
    Beautiful bird they kind of hover at back of plants like ferns and pick off insects from underside of leaf
    What are they doing in city have they paused on their winter migration route
    there is a good few trees in the garden.

    best shot I could get with my crap camera thru window about size of bluetit
    Is it a willow warbler?
    20959450055_463680d018_b.jpg


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,643 ✭✭✭Woodville56


    Keplar240B wrote: »
    The willow warbler is still in Garden(CITY garden) a week later two possibly three of them.
    At least I think its a willow warbler I don't know
    Beautiful bird they kind of hover at back of plants like ferns and pick off insects from underside of leaf
    What are they doing in city have they paused on their winter migration route
    there is a good few trees in the garden.

    best shot I could get with my crap camera thru window about size of bluetit
    Is it a willow warbler?
    20959450055_463680d018_b.jpg

    Are both pics of same bird Keplar ? You mentioned there were a number of them Just looking at first pic seems like willow warbler ok, but second bird has darkish legs and appears to have shortish primary (wing) feathers - may be just the light / angle of shot but could it be a Chiffchaff ? Probably the experts here will be able to confirm ID - both species tricky to tell apart on plumage pics alone ? Other opinions ??


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,732 ✭✭✭Capercaillie


    Are both pics of same bird Keplar ? You mentioned there were a number of them Just looking at first pic seems like willow warbler ok, but second bird has darkish legs and appears to have shortish primary (wing) feathers - may be just the light / angle of shot but could it be a Chiffchaff ? Probably the experts here will be able to confirm ID - both species tricky to tell apart on plumage pics alone ? Other opinions ??
    Leg colour can be difficult to see when light is bad. Hard to see the wings as well from photo (short chiffchaff, long willow warbler). The call would be the best clue.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 883 ✭✭✭Keplar240B


    Are both pics of same bird Keplar ? You mentioned there were a number of them Just looking at first pic seems like willow warbler ok, but second bird has darkish legs and appears to have shortish primary (wing) feathers - may be just the light / angle of shot but could it be a Chiffchaff ? Probably the experts here will be able to confirm ID - both species tricky to tell apart on plumage pics alone ? Other opinions ??

    That was same bird defo,
    Found this video ID guide by BTO on youtube
    I say willow warbler based on it.

    No sign of them today.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 553 ✭✭✭thyme


    Anybody notice that there's no beech nuts this year, and the acorns haven't developed at all.
    So there will be a lot of birds and small mammals looking for an alternative food source this winter.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 32,688 ✭✭✭✭ytpe2r5bxkn0c1


    thyme wrote: »
    Anybody notice that there's no beech nuts this year, and the acorns haven't developed at all.
    So there will be a lot of birds and small mammals looking for an alternative food source this winter.

    Beech nuts here ok. Acorns are plentiful if a little late developing but they will be fine.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 553 ✭✭✭thyme


    Beech nuts here ok. Acorns are plentiful if a little late developing but they will be fine.

    Something strange must have happened to the trees around here so.

    We have a lot of beech and oak trees here and no nuts on ether tree, the acorns turned blackish and never developed.

    Some beech trees are producing new growth while others are nearly leafless, very strange.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 32,688 ✭✭✭✭ytpe2r5bxkn0c1


    thyme wrote: »
    Something strange must have happened to the trees around here so.

    We have a lot of beech and oak trees here and no nuts on ether tree, the acorns turned blackish and never developed.

    Some beech trees are producing new growth while others are nearly leafless, very strange.

    Sounds like frost damage from last Spring. It happens. Some areas get good years and others don't.


  • Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 3,069 Mod ✭✭✭✭OpenYourEyes


    This is a blog post by Rob O'Sullivan of the HSI, initially discussing a specific blog post that got attention recently, but then it moves onto the topic of animal rights and conservation, and how they are often two different 'camps - the most obvious example being the type of people who 'free' mink from a mink farm without any thought or consideration for the huge impact it then has on local wildlife. Worth a read:

    http://thehsi.org/2015/09/10/animal-rights-gone-wrong/
    ..... the inconvenient truth is that some of the greatest enemies of the conservation movement come from within our own ranks. We delude ourselves when we allow ourselves to believe that any animal lover, or animal rights activist, is by default a friend of the conservation movement. There are radicals in our midst, and it is our responsibility to call them out when they are wrong.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 392 ✭✭Jayzesake


    This is a blog post by Rob O'Sullivan of the HSI, initially discussing a specific blog post that got attention recently, but then it moves onto the topic of animal rights and conservation, and how they are often two different 'camps - the most obvious example being the type of people who 'free' mink from a mink farm without any thought or consideration for the huge impact it then has on local wildlife. Worth a read:

    http://thehsi.org/2015/09/10/animal-rights-gone-wrong/

    Excellent article there, thanks for that OYE.

    The author was provoked into writing it by another piece by animal-rights fanatics, saying that natural predation by carnivores, for e.g. Lions killing Zebras in Africa, is cruel, and that those who care about animals should do what they can to prevent it. Therefore killing Cecil was the right thing to do, because that saved lots of his potential prey:

    "Which brings us back to Cecil. Just as we may be able to alleviate the suffering caused to wild animals by disease or natural disasters, we might also be able to do something about predation and the often-brutal competition that permeates the natural food chain. If animal activists care about wild animals as much as they care about domestic animals, then these are two main causes of suffering and death among wild animals that they should try to prevent."

    It's mind boggling just how moronic people can be: no consideration or importance is given to the fact that predators are absolutely essential to a healthy and functioning ecosystem. And the sheer arrogance of these people to think that it is the prerogative of one species - humans, to dictate to every other living thing on the planet how it should behave, is staggering.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 392 ✭✭Jayzesake


    Jayzesake wrote: »
    no consideration or importance is given to the fact that predators are absolutely essential to a healthy and functioning ecosystem.

    Native predators, that is.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,732 ✭✭✭Capercaillie


    Cut my first cut of silage on Sunday (cut late for Corncrake). Cut from Centre out, what normally takes 3 hours for a normal farmers takes 9 hours for me. In the Spring cut all the grass from my established Iris and heavily fertilised it with 10-10-20 at 200kg/acre. It grew massive and has also spread. Even with the terrible weather the patch where the iris way is dry. The iris has grown so much it is basically "drinking" the excess water!


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,006 ✭✭✭_Tombstone_


    11925627_615152371959919_745870634_n.jpg
























    :)


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,006 ✭✭✭_Tombstone_


    What about this one???

    RhamuVa.jpg


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,732 ✭✭✭Capercaillie


    What about this one???

    Northern hawk owl


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 9,700 ✭✭✭tricky D


    2 Killer Whales spotted off the Nose of Howth today.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,006 ✭✭✭_Tombstone_


    Wildlife photographer of the year 2015 winners - in pictures

    foxheader.jpg

    Aww, I don't like it.:(

    Surprising behaviour, witnessed in Wapusk national park, on Hudson Bay, Canada, in early winter. Red foxes don’t actively hunt Arctic foxes, but where the ranges of two predators overlap, there can be conflict. Though the light was poor, the snow-covered tundra provided the backdrop for the moment that the red fox paused with the smaller fox in its mouth in a grim pose.


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 392 ✭✭Jayzesake



    That photograph is very pertinent, as it represents the destructive impact of climate change on wild species globally. As the planet warms, the range of the Red Fox is rapidly extending northwards, that of the Arctic Fox is shrinking, and the two mammals are increasingly coming into conflict, with the smaller Arctic Fox invariably the loser.

    That's largely why this particular image won, because of the much wider picture that it conveys.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 32,688 ✭✭✭✭ytpe2r5bxkn0c1


    Jayzesake wrote: »
    That photograph is very pertinent, as it represents the destructive impact of climate change on wild species globally. As the planet warms, the range of the Red Fox is rapidly extending northwards, that of the Arctic Fox is shrinking, and the two mammals are increasingly coming into conflict, with the smaller Arctic Fox invariably the loser.

    That's largely why this particular image won, because of the much wider picture that it conveys.

    I don't like it either. And Red Foxes have been in the Wapusk area for many many years. This is not a result of climate change.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 392 ✭✭Jayzesake


    I don't like it either. And Red Foxes have been in the Wapusk area for many many years. This is not a result of climate change.

    The judges who chose the photo in question don't agree:

    "In the Canadian tundra, global warming is extending the range of red foxes northwards, where they increasingly cross paths with their smaller relatives, the Arctic fox. For Arctic foxes, red foxes now represent not just their main competitor – both hunt small animals such as lemmings – but also their main predator. Few actual kills by red foxes have been witnessed so far, but it is likely that conflicts between the two mammals will become more common."

    http://www.nhm.ac.uk/visit/wpy/gallery/2015/images/mammals/4965/a-tale-of-two-foxes.html


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 32,688 ✭✭✭✭ytpe2r5bxkn0c1


    There were Red Foxes there in 1978 when I was there - long before it became a national park.

    I still don't like the picture. It's nothing to do with it being a kill scene or that the prey is a "cute" animal. I just don't like it as a picture. It does nothing for me and says nothing to me.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 392 ✭✭Jayzesake


    I still don't like the picture. It's nothing to do with it being a kill scene or that the prey is a "cute" animal. I just don't like it as a picture. It does nothing for me and says nothing to me.

    Fair enough, we all have our different personal likes and dislikes. But far from saying nothing, this photograph speaks volumes about the threat that climate change presents to species and biomes. Here's a recently published article on the same subject I was reading earlier:

    The Rapid and Startling Decline Of World’s Vast Boreal Forests

    Scientists are becoming increasingly concerned about the fate of the huge boreal forest that spans from Scandinavia to northern Canada. Unprecedented warming in the region is jeopardizing the future of a critical ecosystem that makes up nearly a third of the earth’s forest cover.

    http://e360.yale.edu/feature/the_rapid_and_startling_decline_of_worlds_vast_boreal_forests/2919/


    I think the judges of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competition were right to perhaps prioritise content over form here, given what's happening.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 32,688 ✭✭✭✭ytpe2r5bxkn0c1


    The point is it doesn't convey that message to me at all. I know Climate change is a big issue for you but it doesn't jump out of that particular picture for me.
    Anyway, sorry I didn't mean to start a row over a picture or another discussion on loss of habitat.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,732 ✭✭✭Capercaillie


    The more depressing photo was the one of the lion/tigers in the Chinese "circus". Their teeth and claws ripped off and living in tiny cages:(


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,006 ✭✭✭_Tombstone_




  • Closed Accounts Posts: 32,688 ✭✭✭✭ytpe2r5bxkn0c1


    The Oaks in my small, and still young, wood had a decent crop of acorns this year and today we had our first Jay to visit the garden. A wonderful sight and brings the species count for the garden to 54.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,732 ✭✭✭Capercaillie


    The Oaks in my small, and still young, wood had a decent crop of acorns this year and today we had our first Jay to visit the garden. A wonderful sight and brings the species count for the garden to 54.

    Great stuff. how big is your wood?:)


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 32,688 ✭✭✭✭ytpe2r5bxkn0c1


    Great stuff. how big is your wood?:)

    Shy of a half acre.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,643 ✭✭✭Woodville56


    Time running out for public submissions on Coillte's draft Strategic Plan 2016-2020 ! Hope their commitment to maintaining / protecting their broadleaf and old mature woodland biodiversity is upheld with measurable outcomes - too much to expect ?
    Mods - ok to move if not appropriate to this forum.

    http://www.coillte.ie/aboutcoillte/about_coillte/coillte_consultation/coillte_current_consultations/


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,003 ✭✭✭Zoo4m8


    North of Arklow this morning, a Red Kite low level cruising the new motorway verge, I presume looking for road kill, not enough cover on the verge to conceal much else edible. Fast overtaking the Peregrine as my favourite bird...
    Beautiful morning, countryside looking fantastic in the bright autumn sunshine ..:D


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,006 ✭✭✭_Tombstone_


    Winters here, tis fairly sh1tty out tonight. Snowing. Haven't really been filling the feeders that much since it was so mild but I'll go all out on them in the morning.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,775 ✭✭✭Bsal


    The last few days I have a coal tit taking sunflower seeds from the feeder and hiding them around the garden, on occasion a blue tit watches from a nearby bush and then steals the hidden seed :D


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,966 ✭✭✭laoch na mona


    how good would 10x32 binoculars be, I do a bit of hiking and are looking to get a set of binoculars which I could use to do a bit of nature watching on hikes. as they'll be for hiking the smaller the better


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 32,688 ✭✭✭✭ytpe2r5bxkn0c1


    Not a thing wrong with them for your purposes. I'd prefer 8x42 myself but they would be fine.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,775 ✭✭✭Bsal


    I had a goldcrest in the garden today, I haven't seen one in a few years in my garden.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,643 ✭✭✭Woodville56


    Interesting obs this morning on a small local lake - small flock of redpoll (c40 birds) feeding on raft of broken reeds/sedge and other floating vegetation just off the shoreline - never seen this behavior, quite strange seeing these birds alighting on floating vegetation - obviously some plant seed there for them ?


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,643 ✭✭✭Woodville56


    Anyone noticing increasing numbers of Mistle Thrushes about ? Plenty of Redwing & Fieldfare in this neck of the woods too !


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,141 ✭✭✭DellyBelly


    I see a swallow was reported in Wicklow yesterday...a juvenile. Hopefully it will make it South but he or she is leaving it very late...


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 18,067 ✭✭✭✭fryup


    what do the swans and herons do during the floods?? is their habitat encroached??


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 32,688 ✭✭✭✭ytpe2r5bxkn0c1


    fryup wrote: »
    what do the swans and herons do during the floods?? is their habitat encroached??

    Good question. Yes, they have to look elsewhere for accessible feeding. You'll see swans in waterlogged or flooded fields feeding on grass for example.

    Floods can be difficult for Herons as their prey are displaced.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,732 ✭✭✭Capercaillie


    https://medium.com/@anthonymcgeehan/draft-f4597bd928cd#.9ok18iax6
    Good account of the birds of Inisbofin. Rock dove, Corncrake, lapwings and Arctic terns have very interesting accounts!


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,319 ✭✭✭Half-cocked


    Disaster strikes - trichomonosis. Have a male Chaffinch and a male Greenfinch affected. Feeders are all soaking in a bucket of jeyes fluid, birdbaths emptied and upturned, all feeding stopped. Anything else I should be doing?


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  • Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 3,069 Mod ✭✭✭✭OpenYourEyes


    Disaster strikes - trichomonosis. Have a male Chaffinch and a male Greenfinch affected. Feeders are all soaking in a bucket of jeyes fluid, birdbaths emptied and upturned, all feeding stopped. Anything else I should be doing?

    I don't think so, except to withdraw all feeding for a week or two now. I had a Chaffinch with an infected foot recently so I forced myself to stop feeding the birds for two weeks.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,732 ✭✭✭Capercaillie


    Disaster strikes - trichomonosis. Have a male Chaffinch and a male Greenfinch affected. Feeders are all soaking in a bucket of jeyes fluid, birdbaths emptied and upturned, all feeding stopped. Anything else I should be doing?
    Clean all seed away from below the feeders.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,878 ✭✭✭whyulittle


    WTSE @ Boora!

    aaaaggghhhh! :eek:


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 619 ✭✭✭vistafinder


    A huge flock of Redwing landed on the trees behind the house yesterday and the volume of all the chirping was fantastic. Then they would all stop at once. Dead silence and then all off chirping away together again.

    Very entertaining.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,319 ✭✭✭Half-cocked


    Here's one with a happy ending. Driving home last night a black headed gull got blown across in front of me and smacked into my radiator grill while I was doing about 50kph. I stopped and saw the bird flopping around on the road and it was just missed by the wheels of a bus going the other direction. I managed to catch it and put it in a box overnight. Squirted a little water into it's beak this morning and it swallowed some. Back into the box while I was in work. Got home to find it fully recovered and rearing to go. I brought it down to the seashore and it flew off strongly and landed among a mixed flock of gulls about 300 metres away. I'm always amazed at how small black headed gulls are in the hand. They are obviously tough little birds as well:D


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