The Hide (chat thread)

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

No, single broods and early at that.

Being at the nest site doesn't necessarily mean brooding again.

Keep an eye on them.

whyulittle

Don't know how many fledged in total, but 4 birds back there this evening. Fledged 3-4 weeks ago.

ThunderCat

In the garden yesterday I found a pair of wings, not just feathers but actual wings and the bones that would normally connect them to the body. Nothing else was there. Anyway id guess they were from a juvenile starling judging by size and colour. But I was wondering would this be the work of a Sparrowhawk or would it more likely be a Cat? I live in an urban housing estate and have seen both Cat and Sparrowhawk around the place before. Thanks.

Capercaillie

Corncrake after peeking his head out of my yellow Iris patch. Possibly two more calling males in hay meadow. Late arrivals, but still have a chance to breed:):):)

tricky D

Random Recent Observations:

Martens didn't build a full nest but built a roosting platform about 10cms in radius.
Egg piece discarded below same platform. May have been playing with it, having got it from another nest elsewhere. I've seen them playing on the wing with feathers before.
Swift wing from kill left in garden - wonder what could have caught that.
Feather pluckings from young Gull also lying around.
Young Herring Gull just now attacked by adult. Cue parent engaging in dogfight with said attacker.
Various small cetaceans around Howth and Sutton but have yet to get a glimpse.

whyulittle

A load of flying ants emerged here this afternoon/evening. They are currently being hoovered up by a rake of Black-headed Gulls over the house!

cameramonkey

whyulittle wrote: »

A load of flying ants emerged here this afternoon/evening. They are currently being hoovered up by a rake of Black-headed Gulls over the house!

Was in sandymount in Dublin this evening, same carry on. Thousands of gulls soaring and pouncing on those flying ants. Also saw two kestrels in Poolbeg.

Bsal

Sitting out in the conservatory just now and heard what I think sounded like a Curlew fly overhead.

Half-cocked

Bsal wrote: »

Sitting out in the conservatory just now and heard what I think sounded like a Curlew fly overhead.

I'm hearing the odd one flying over Baldoyle in the evenings.

vistafinder

I am trying to figure out what birds of prey I saw while out cycling yesterday. I heard the calling before I stopped and saw 2 birds soaring and one was very vocal. I am only presuming it was a youngster they were fairly high up but I couldn't see any difference in size. They were soaring like buzzards but the call was very different.

I think they were white tailed sea eagles had a look around the internet to hear what they sounded like.

Would the more experienced bird watchers know are they very vocal at this time of the year or any idea what else it might have been? This is probably all very vague.

But I really hope they were.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Unfortunately, most birds of prey are vocal when flying with juvenile birds.

cameramonkey

Saw a strange looking bird being mobbed by gulls today in Harolds Cross at about 6 . It wasnt a buzzard.
It was larger than the gulls than the gulls. At first I though it was a heron but it looked less elongated and a bit stockier. It had a long neck but not as long as a heron. It was flying highish drifting south in the direction of Terenure/Kimmage.

Zoo4m8

Egret?

fryup

whats this? a leech of some kind?

cameramonkey

Zoo4m8 wrote: »

Egret?

Could have been.

vistafinder

fryup wrote: »

whats this? a leech of some kind?

Where did you find it?

The picture is a bit dark.

Capercaillie

provisional results form Corncrake census West Connacht.
60 calling males.
32 calling male (of 60) on Mullet Peninsula, two of which are mine (Fiachra and Aodh.
A decline but good considered the terrible numbers from earlier in season.

Zoo4m8

Cleaning algae and duckweed from a pond on Thursday was very surprised to find quite a large number of tadpoles underneath..have never seen them this late in the summer..


And on the subject of firsts..a chap arrived into the yard a short while ago with a large insect (unfortunately dead) in a bottle which he wanted me to identify, I'd never seen one before, very big, wasp like with ovipositor , a quick look at 'Collins complete guide to Irish wildlife' confirmed it as a Giant Woodwasp...widespread apparently but rarely seen, anyway another first :-)

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

7 Red Admirals on the late flowering Hebe today. Good to see them back.

Bsal

Seen a Brent Goose paddling around just off Barnageeragh/Skerries on Sunday, never seen one at this time of year before.

Capercaillie

Bsal wrote: »

Seen a Brent Goose paddling around just off Barnageeragh/Skerries on Sunday, never seen one at this time of year before.

An early failed breeder perhaps

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Bsal wrote: »

Seen a Brent Goose paddling around just off Barnageeragh/Skerries on Sunday, never seen one at this time of year before.

Bull Island has, in several years, recorded many Brent arriving in August.

Bsal

On a short drive around north county Dublin today I counted 8 dead hedgehogs on the roads, 3 on a 500 metre stretch of road alone. Looks like the fields being harvested are disturbing them.

Half-cocked

Bsal wrote: »

Seen a Brent Goose paddling around just off Barnageeragh/Skerries on Sunday, never seen one at this time of year before.

We've had sick/injured Brent staying on all Summer in the past, it might be one of these, or as posted above, early migrants do arrive in August but this one is very early.

Capercaillie

Pictures from Inishbofin. A dense nettle bed surrounding a holiday home. Nettles extended into garden. Male corncrake set up territory in nettle bed. Property owner then cut all nettles down in his garden and dumped the rest on nettle on field. Nettle beds are prime areas where hen corncrake lays her eggs. Hopefully no nests were destroyed.

Better news up the road a farmer putting in a nettle bed for corncrake. A well known ornitologist is going to help put it in. The ornotologist was up on my farm helping me put nettle beds in. Going to use same techniques used by me, which were developed by NPWS.

Capercaillie

Area where nettle bed to be planted. Was an area of dense rushed. Rushes dug out and drainage improved. Rotted silage bales with topping of rotted farmyard dung with nettle rhizomes. Hopefully a crex late 2017 or 2018.

Zoo4m8

I presume that they don't use rushes as cover then?

Capercaillie

Zoo4m8 wrote: »

I presume that they don't use rushes as cover then?

They prefer not to use them. NPWS recommend that no more than 30% of hay meadow are rushes. In early/late cover areas it needs to be as little as possible

Zoo4m8

Capercaillie wrote: »

They prefer not to use them. NPWS recommend that no more than 30% of hay meadow are rushes. In early/late cover areas it needs to be as little as possible

Well established rushes would be very dense of course with very little in the way of manoeuvre room except between clumps, top cover wouldn't be great either..nettle areas must seem like a mini forest to them.
Large patch of rushes on the 'new' place, rarely any birdlife in it apart from the other evening when a group of warblers obviously found something interesting in it, flying in and out from a nearby hedge.

Capercaillie

Zoo4m8 wrote: »

Well established rushes would be very dense of course with very little in the way of manoeuvre room except between clumps, top cover wouldn't be great either..nettle areas must seem like a mini forest to them.
Large patch of rushes on the 'new' place, rarely any birdlife in it apart from the other evening when a group of warblers obviously found something interesting in it, flying in and out from a nearby hedge.

Yip. Corncrake like a sward that is open so they can run underneath the vegetation. In conventional silage fields you want nice dense sward (High N does that for you). In corncrake hay meadows you want open sward but vegatation good and high (N low and K high).
Crex just can't cope with the dense nature of rushes.

Nettles are the best habitat there is for crex. A mini-forest is a good description. Full of insects/snails/slugs, what more can you want! Crex eat the same things as blackbirds and they need to be able to forage off the ground directly. The mini-nettle forest provide that!:)