What are you nature highlights of 2014?

Capercaille

Well?

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

No big spectacular or rarity. My local patch flourished during the past year. The good weather led to wonderful spring and summer wildflower displays. The local birds are thriving. The habitats locally all did well. Foxes, otters, badgers etc all had a good year. No disasters. No losses. All good for the first year in many.

magicbastarder

we finished off the year with spotting 4 buzzards from the car in the space of half a mile near the ward in north county dublin today. a few years ago, a single buzzard would have been noteworthy there.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

magicbastarder wrote: »

we finished off the year with spotting 4 buzzards from the car in the space of half a mile near the ward in north county dublin today. a few years ago, a single buzzard would have been noteworthy there.

Our local buzzards successfully reared 3 young again this year. All 5 were regular visitors to the garden.

Birdnuts

Finding some breeding pairs of Lapwing next to my dads cousins farm in Tipp, just outside Templemore. The last place I expected to see such birds!!

My trip to Turkey was pretty awesome with lifers like Black Vulture, LL Buzzard, Grupers Nuthatch and my first wolf!!

Capercaille

Birdnuts wrote: »

Finding some breeding pairs of Lapwing next to my dads cousins farm in Tipp, just outside Templemore. The last place I expected to see such birds!!

My trip to Turkey was pretty awesome with lifers like Black Vulture, LL Buzzard, Grupers Nuthatch and my first wolf!!

Wolf must have been savage to see!!!!

Birdnuts

Capercaille wrote: »

Wolf must have been savage to see!!!!

Twas a brief view at 4am in the morning in the headlights of our jeep. Much better pic below of same wolf later in the day taken by the local warden

whyulittle

Getting down to see the WTSEs at Mountshannon, even if at a distance.

Sitting watching for Hen Harriers at Boora and hearing something flash past my feet. Stand up to investigate it and seeing a little Stoat head popping up to look back at me!

Having Buzzards and a Raven over the garden, with the Raven nesting nearby.

magicbastarder

getting the poxy leylandii hedge at the end of the garden chopped down, and planting native trees in its place.

gzoladz

I will mention two: the first one was to go to see the Red Kites to Avoca, loved it.

The second one was to cycle the Royal Canal end to end. 2 full days spent surrounded by nature, just brilliant. Planning to do the Grand in 2015.

Woodville56

A few memorable sightings in the past year, notable mainly because they were firsts for my local patch-
(1) finally spotted an elusive Great Spotted Woodpecker in a local woodland last May after several early mornings listening to sporadic bursts of drumming - alas not seen in recent months - may have moved on by now, yet waiting in half expectation for a repeat of last year's late winter/early spring drumming sounds again
(2) intermittent sightings of a visiting (or passing thru) White Tailed Eagle - three sightings on a local lake in 2014 - maybe a longer stay bird in 2015 ?

Edit: almost forgot the season of the Dawn Chorus - always a joy to behold !

splish

Looking out the kitchen window one morning back in June and seeing this beautiful Kestrel in the garden.

OpenYourEyes

I had an immensely memorable year! Before the summer I got to see my first wild WTSEagle, on the North Slob in Wexford, and in November I got to see a Marsh Harrier there - not my first, but one of my absolute favourite birds, and the North Slob is a really special place for me having done an internship there last year, so to see those two fantastic species there on my brief visits was great!

In between those sightings I had the honour of being a warden on Rockabill for the summer. A fantastic and importantsite, and there's an immense feeling of satisfaction seeing birds using the habitat and nestboxes you've prepared for them (even if the odds were stacked in favour of that happening...). I think the most truly memorable experience was getting to watch Roseate Tern chicks making their maiden flights - vigorous flapping, eventually getting higher and higher with more practice, but then landing in a completely unplanned spot - gradually getting better and better as the day went on, and venturing further and further from their native patch - delighted to be united with their parents when they returned with fish!

In addition to that there's the sheer spectacle of being on a tiny island with around 7,000 adult birds - the noise and activity, and then the sudden eerie silence when a Peregrine paid a visit! Getting to see Roseate and Common tern chicks hatching and just watching them grow on a daily basis, getting to start ringing and get a lot of experience at it! And getting to watch the Black Guillemots and Kittiwakes throughout the season, and ring those chicks too!

All in all it has been a truly memorable year that I know I'll find it very difficult to beat in the years ahead!

Capercaille

OpenYourEyes wrote: »

I had an immensely memorable year! Before the summer I got to see my first wild WTSEagle, on the North Slob in Wexford, and in November I got to see a Marsh Harrier there - not my first, but one of my absolute favourite birds, and the North Slob is a really special place for me having done an internship there last year, so to see those two fantastic species there on my brief visits was great!

In between those sightings I had the honour of being a warden on Rockabill for the summer. A fantastic and importantsite, and there's an immense feeling of satisfaction seeing birds using the habitat and nestboxes you've prepared for them (even if the odds were stacked in favour of that happening...). I think the most truly memorable experience was getting to watch Roseate Tern chicks making their maiden flights - vigorous flapping, eventually getting higher and higher with more practice, but then landing in a completely unplanned spot - gradually getting better and better as the day went on, and venturing further and further from their native patch - delighted to be united with their parents when they returned with fish!

In addition to that there's the sheer spectacle of being on a tiny island with around 7,000 adult birds - the noise and activity, and then the sudden eerie silence when a Peregrine paid a visit! Getting to see Roseate and Common tern chicks hatching and just watching them grow on a daily basis, getting to start ringing and get a lot of experience at it! And getting to watch the Black Guillemots and Kittiwakes throughout the season, and ring those chicks too!

All in all it has been a truly memorable year that I know I'll find it very difficult to beat in the years ahead!

I'd love to do a few months work on Rockabill. You must great satisfaction in assisting the most important European Breeding Colony for Roseates.

Cork boy 55

Many many small ones seen and heard some huge flocks of birds in large forests
and many close encounters with mammals and insects

but the one that stands out is When hiking in a really wild remote spot(very few people go there)
Seeing this Mallard Duck behavior


I was walking along a path through heather and suddenly around corner a hen Duck and was there with a flock of duckings at close quarters,
The duck freaked out started quaking like mad and they all ran for it,
ducklings falling all over the place ,
then they are ran into a "side-alley" and hid in the heather.
So I kept walking
and as I was walking past the hiding spot
the hen flew out and landed in front of me and started pretending to be injured, squawking and flapping
so I kept walking and She kept up this charade in front of me for a good 100 meters walking in front of me.
Then finally it started to fly back to duckings in Stages.

I don't know how common that is for country people, I never seen it before.

if threatened by a predator, the hen will pretend to be injured, squawking and flapping on the ground. This will
successfully distract a predator and keep him away from her young
http://northwestwildlife.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Mallard-Duck.pdf

Rosahane

I decided that, on my morning walk with the dog, I would try and identify as many wildflowers and flowering trees as possible.
I got close to a hundred including some orchids.

Next year its orchids and grasses.

ThunderCat

My highlights both came right at the end of the year, in the last few days in fact. I spent the Christmas period at a relations house in South Wales and I saw a female sparrowhawk with it's prey in talon for the first time ever. I missed the kill by seconds but I saw it fly from the pathway to a secluded spot in a nearby front garden to start eating it. Think it was a starling she had. And this was in a very built up housing estate. After speaking to my relations they said that the bird is well known to the residents in the nearby streets and frequents all the garden feeding stations in the area.
The other highlight came later that day on a roadside in the Brecon beacons where I saw 3 red kites flying low against the brilliant blue sky.

Capercaille

My Corncrake (might have been a second) calling for the summer months was highlight. You could hear him from 0.5 km away. Corncrake (Fionn) this year sang (most of the time) from just inside the gate to one of my meadows. The gate is opposite a stone wall. He liked to get a good echo off the wall. One night just after midnight he was calling away. I went up to get a good recording. I had the terrier with me on his lead. I was recording from the lane, but he was so close the dog could smell him. The dog was straining hard on the lead to try and catch him. Still never got even a hint of a view. He was successful though in all his calling, A hen with chicks was seen later in the season on a wall beside my Iris cover bed.
https://clyp.it/ojptdaap
Saw a small flock of twite feeding on the farm during November.

dodderangler

Been out hunting and fishing a lot more this year so I've seen some amazing sights.
Seen my first badger in a few years back in feb rolling in the grass, local buzzards came back to area they disappeared from last year and had chicks, found a place with at least 4 pairs of ravens in the forestry, seen spars and kestrel population on the up, plenty of rabbits about after last years mixxy problem( all healthy rabbits this year) plenty of deer about and of course not to forget my encounter with two wild boar in dublin.
Been good year

Capercaille

dodderangler wrote: »

Been out hunting and fishing a lot more this year so I've seen some amazing sights.
Seen my first badger in a few years back in feb rolling in the grass, local buzzards came back to area they disappeared from last year and had chicks, found a place with at least 4 pairs of ravens in the forestry, seen spars and kestrel population on the up, plenty of rabbits about after last years mixxy problem( all healthy rabbits this year) plenty of deer about and of course not to forget my encounter with two wild boar in dublin.
Been good year

With the mixy last year maybe there wasn't enough prey for the buzzards to breed. Young rabbits would be a large part in Buzzard's diet. Good to see that they returned when the rabbit population recovered.

dodderangler

Capercaille wrote: »

With the mixy last year maybe there wasn't enough prey for the buzzards to breed. Young rabbits would be a large part in Buzzard's diet. Good to see that they returned when the rabbit population recovered.

Well I thought with amount of rabbits dead and dying they'd be easy prey but the buzzards still weren't about.
But they returned this year. Which is always a great sight to see.

Mathrew

We went for fishing, I really enjoyed, especially when we got a big one for the meal.