Some pictures I took recently

Birdnuts wrote: »

I think all non-native invasive species need to be eradicated, whether they be mink, grey squirrels or giant hogweed. Our native flora and fauna is under enough pressure from habitat destruction etc. as it is. Good pics though!!

I completely agree. I should have been more clear with what I meant really. What I meant to say was that killing a handful of squirrels every now and again where densities are high, has little impact on their population and is unlikely to see any benefits. The squirrels killed will be quickly replaced by squirrels from the surrounding areas and in a short space of time newly-born squirrels will have the population back to square one.

Intensive and targeted culls are a different story however - and most benefits would be seen if these were done at the edges of their range (e.g. around the Shannon to stop/slow their spread West) or in areas where there are still Reds (to reduce/eliminate competition and stop the spread of disease). Doing these at the right time of year (i.e. just before they start breeding) would again see significantly better and longer-lasting results than doing it at any other time of year.

They also damage forestry - so it makes sense to do such an intense/targeted/properly-timed cull in commerical forestry , but in parks and other non-commercial forested areas I don't think the impacts are big enough for a cull to be worthwhile, given that a few dead/decaying trees can be important for biodiversity.


So I should have said that they do need to be controlled - but if its not done properly its not going to have any impact, and given the difficulties in carrying out such a cull to ensure its effective the cull should be targeted at areas at the edge of their range and where there's Reds. While I'm not against the idea of people controlling them by shooting/trapping/falconry throughout the year in their local area, this isn't going to have a significant impact on their population unfortunately.

From what I've read I think the discovery of Squirrel Parapoxvirus will do a huge amount of damage to our Red Squirrels in the coming years, and I think we'll end up with a situation where we're trying to keep the Reds in Galway/Mayo safe but can do little for those elsewhere. Fingers crossed on a suitable vaccine being developed!

Great Tits




Blue Tits


Robin




Coal Tits

KJ wrote: »

Can somebody help name these birds.

Blue Tit
Male Blackbird
Moorhen (juvenile and mature adult)
Male Chaffinch
Male House Sparrow