wildlife locally

Kaldorn

hello,

I am doing a radio show on local wildlife,I need to hear from people who encounter any wildlife in their gardens or near their houses to use as a piece on the show,this could be anything from frogs to foxes. anything at all will be of interest to me,I will be covering a wide range of topics relating to nature and the environment so dont be afraid to pm me with any stories you may have..regards

Gaspode

Hi Kaldorn, do you want stories or just a list of what we see on a regular basis?

Pineapple stu

We had a kestrel in our back garden the other day, he caught a little bird and milled it. It was strange to see one of these in a housing estate.

Attol

I work in Ballycoolin and there are hares everywhere. I live in Clonsilla and there are 2 bunnies that must be escaped pets that I sometimes see around my estate. There's some squished squirrels and hedgehogs along the Ongar Road and Snugborough Road as well.

oblivious

cymro wrote: »

We had a kestrel in our back garden the other day, he caught a little bird and milled it. It was strange to see one of these in a housing estate.

kestrels adapt to urban environment very well, I have even seen one hunting over the red cow pub!

Jabcity

over the past week we've noticed a young hedgehog roaming our garden at night. having had hedgehogs before we knew what to expect. he does laps around the garden and eats slugs, snails and worms mostly. we leave him cat food sometimes, its safe for them and they seem to like it. he's about 2 inches short of a fully grown hedgehog, but Im not sure what age bracket that leaves him in. sleeps under a hedge at the end of the garde, lovely creatures altogether

StrawDub

I live beside porterstown park, the place is invested with rabbits. I have never seen so many of them in my life around the area before.

People would want to keep their dogs on leads, as I saw a rabbit being savaged last week by a loose dog, disgraceful stuff.

Gaspode

Kaldorn,
The following are creatures I see regularly in or around my garden on a regular basis. I have a wildlife book at home and myself and the children tick off any of the animals, insects or plants that we come across. There are too many plants and insects to list here, but here's some of the wildlife:

Birds:
Kestrel
Grey Heron
Cormorant
Mallard Duck
Moorhen
Coot
Blackbird
Crows/Jackdaws (whatever you want to call 'em!)
Woodpigeon
Collared dove
House Martin
Swift
Starling
Kingfisher
Coal Tit
Blue tit
Great Tit
Long-tailed Tit
Goldfinch
Greenfinch
Goldcrest
House Sparrow
Dunnock
Thrush
Robin
Wren
Barn Owl
Wagtail
Pied Wagtail
Magpie
Chaffinch
Mammals:
Bats (not sure which ones)
Rabbits (lots thereof)
Pygmy Shrew
Field mice
Rats!
Badger
Hedgehog
Fox
Grey Squirrel
Butterflies:
small tortoiseshell
Orange Tip
Peacock
Common blue
Speckled wood
Green Veined White
Painted Lady
Samll white
Cabbage white
Red Admiral
Amphibians
Frogs

This year there is an overabundance of rabbits, and consequently plenty of foxes on the prowl.
We also have a lot of very large reddish brown dragonflies around which is unusual enough.

There's certainly plenty of life around here, but I dont think there's anything unusual in there though. A lot of D15 backs onto open areas in which this sort of wildlife exists, and I'm lucky to have the Tolka so near, and plenty of pasture land around me.

Skyhawk1990

I've had a badger in my back garden a couple of times.I'm in coolmine btw.

Zaph

I nearly ran over a squirrel in the car park of IBM in Damastown a couple of weeks ago. Never seen anything more interesting than that in Hartstown though.

CrazyRabbit

Zaph wrote: »

I nearly ran over a squirrel in the car park of IBM in Damastown a couple of weeks ago. Never seen anything more interesting than that in Hartstown though.

Hmm...squirrels in IBM Damastown and I regularly see hares in IBM Ballycoolin. It's like a regular zoo at IBM

Kaldorn

Skyhawk1990 wrote: »

I've had a badger in my back garden a couple of times.I'm in coolmine btw.

i live in coolmine too,I would like to talk about these kinds of incidents on my radio show on phoenix,wherabouts in coolmine are you..i am in coolmine park

Kaldorn

deswalsh wrote: »

Kaldorn,
The following are creatures I see regularly in or around my garden on a regular basis. I have a wildlife book at home and myself and the children tick off any of the animals, insects or plants that we come across. There are too many plants and insects to list here, but here's some of the wildlife:

Birds:
Kestrel
Grey Heron
Cormorant
Mallard Duck
Moorhen
Coot
Blackbird
Crows/Jackdaws (whatever you want to call 'em!)
Woodpigeon
Collared dove
House Martin
Swift
Starling
Kingfisher
Coal Tit
Blue tit
Great Tit
Long-tailed Tit
Goldfinch
Greenfinch
Goldcrest
House Sparrow
Dunnock
Thrush
Robin
Wren
Barn Owl
Wagtail
Pied Wagtail
Magpie
Chaffinch
Mammals:
Bats (not sure which ones)
Rabbits (lots thereof)
Pygmy Shrew
Field mice
Rats!
Badger
Hedgehog
Fox
Grey Squirrel
Butterflies:
small tortoiseshell
Orange Tip
Peacock
Common blue
Speckled wood
Green Veined White
Painted Lady
Samll white
Cabbage white
Red Admiral
Amphibians
Frogs

This year there is an overabundance of rabbits, and consequently plenty of foxes on the prowl.
We also have a lot of very large reddish brown dragonflies around which is unusual enough.

There's certainly plenty of life around here, but I dont think there's anything unusual in there though. A lot of D15 backs onto open areas in which this sort of wildlife exists, and I'm lucky to have the Tolka so near, and plenty of pasture land around me.

i live in coolmine ,I would like to talk about these kinds of incidents on my radio show on phoenix fm

Kaldorn

meant to pm those

Gaspode

Kaldorn wrote: »

i live in coolmine ,I would like to talk about these kinds of incidents on my radio show on phoenix fm

So when's the show on Kaldorn, any other details for us?

ciaran76

Saw a lovely fox last night on the Porterstown road at about 7.30pm

I stopped and put on full beams hoping he would cross the road before other cars would come.Anyway I can see why they were called Madrá Rua as this one was as red as any I have ever seen.

He hopped up on the wall there and watched me until I started moving again. 1st fox I seen in ages in the area.

StrawDub

ciaran76 wrote: »

Saw a lovely fox last night on the Porterstown road at about 7.30pm

I stopped and put on full beams hoping he would cross the road before other cars would come.Anyway I can see why they were called Madrá Rua as this one was as red as any I have ever seen.

He hopped up on the wall there and watched me until I started moving again. 1st fox I seen in ages in the area.

Thats great to hear, a fox has been driving my dogs insane recently with its crying! I live beside Porterstown park along the rugged lane and this summer/autumn has seen a marked increase in the amount of wildwife in the area in many years. I have seen several fox's, hedgehogs, badgers and an infestation of rabbits.

achtungbarry

Kaldorn wrote: »

hello,

I am doing a radio show on local wildlife,I need to hear from people who encounter any wildlife in their gardens or near their houses to use as a piece on the show,this could be anything from frogs to foxes. anything at all will be of interest to me,I will be covering a wide range of topics relating to nature and the environment so dont be afraid to pm me with any stories you may have..regards

There is a strange species I have seen in recent years in Ireland and it appears to be quite common locally.

Its habitat appears to be outside shops or in shopping centres weirdly enough. This creature seems human like but just misses the mark. It is often dressed in a white tracksuit with cheap jewellery, sometimes the head of this creature is covered in a hood of some sort even when indoors. The male tends to give of a strong odour of linx while the female of the species seems to reproduce at an early age compared to other primates. The male also has a tendency to sport a rather thin fluffy hair growth under its nose.

These creatures seem aggressive and tend to be quite eager to provoke humans when in large groups but positively s### themselves when challenged alone.

They appear to speak an English type language that I believe is known as Bebo Patois and have a tendency to listen to really bad music aloud on mobile phones. They seem to particularly enjoy this activity while on buses.

I suppose they could be considered something of a nuisance species and something should probably be done to control their numbers as they appear to be of little use in the natural world. Unfortunately they appear to reproduce at an alarming rate.

I hope your radio show does a feature on this odd species. Best of luck.

Gaspode

We have a new visitor this year, a bird of prey slightly bigger than the kestrel. It's probably a buzzard but I havent been able to get close enought for a pic yet. I've tried getting a peep at it with the binoculars but it seems to spot me every time and disappears off into the trees.
I wonder if our kestrels wil lbe displaced by this bird/

oblivious

I have seen a buzzard around the Westmanstown/lucan area