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


    Finally a swallow. 25th April!


  • #33
    The_Outsider
    Registered Users Posts: 52 ✭✭The_Outsider


    Our first one has arrived, at last !
    Doing laps of the house and fields this morning.
    All on it's lonesome though.... odd
    great to have them back


  • #34
    jones 19
    Registered Users Posts: 270 ✭✭jones 19


    Heard the cuckoo on Wednesday. Lovely sound from an amazing bird.


  • #35
    Graces7
    Registered Users Posts: 32,634 ✭✭✭✭Graces7


    Heard the faintest echo of a cuckoo early today, probably drifting across the ocean from the mainland. We shall see.

    Definitely a cuckoo this morning and getting nearer. Very mobile.


  • #36
    ytpe2r5bxkn0c1
    Closed Accounts Posts: 32,688 ✭✭✭✭ytpe2r5bxkn0c1


    Grasshopper Warbler calling constantly in front of the house this evening.


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  • #37
    Snowc
    Registered Users Posts: 613 ✭✭✭Snowc


    Spotted which I think are two cuckoo s under my bird feeder today but flew off before I could get a picture and landed on a telephone line and made a cuckoo sound but sounded a bit different than normal but I'm gone slightly deaf so hopefully will show again tommorow so I can get a picture, I am delighted anyways


  • #38
    ytpe2r5bxkn0c1
    Closed Accounts Posts: 32,688 ✭✭✭✭ytpe2r5bxkn0c1


    Snowc wrote: »
    Spotted which I think are two cuckoo s under my bird feeder today but flew off before I could get a picture and landed on a telephone line and made a cuckoo sound but sounded a bit different than normal but I'm gone slightly deaf so hopefully will show again tommorow so I can get a picture, I am delighted anyways

    I'd love to see the photo. I've only ever seen them singly. Naturally they pair up for breeding but I've only seen them singly myself.
    Had a male in the garden in 2016.


  • #39
    New Home
    Moderators, Arts Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators Posts: 76,312 Mod ✭✭✭✭New Home


    I was having a "chat" with one that was perched on my neighbours' aerial, this afternoon. Yes, I'll admit it, I'm LITERALLY for the birds. :D


  • #40
    Graces7
    Registered Users Posts: 32,634 ✭✭✭✭Graces7


    Graces7 wrote: »
    Heard the faintest echo of a cuckoo early today, probably drifting across the ocean from the mainland. We shall see.


    Definitely a cuckoo this morning and getting nearer. Very mobile


  • #41
    DBB
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators Posts: 9,726 Mod ✭✭✭✭DBB


    Cuckoo calling a few moments ago in north Offaly! Didn't hear any here last year, this one chose a beautiful morning to reveal itself :)


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  • #42
    Pretzill
    Registered Users Posts: 4,683 ✭✭✭Pretzill


    jones 19 wrote: »
    Heard the cuckoo on Wednesday. Lovely sound from an amazing bird.

    Heard him yesterday for the first time this year.


  • #43
    Pretzill
    Registered Users Posts: 4,683 ✭✭✭Pretzill


    There are three swallows here they look to be very happy in each others company - at first I thought it might that one of two pairs didn't make it back but now I think it might be a male courting two females - do they do that?


  • #44
    Day Lewin
    Registered Users Posts: 4,601 ✭✭✭Day Lewin


    I haven't yet, but look forwards to hearing it soon, in the rural location where we often visit and the cuckoos always call. Near, far, the quintessential sound of early summe.:
    Hoping, too, for the rare sight of the male cuckoo, flitting swiftly, low from hedge to hedge.


  • #45
    Graces7
    Registered Users Posts: 32,634 ✭✭✭✭Graces7


    And early today saw two swallows having an aerial ball overhead.. There is a big open boatshed near by so maybe that is where they are headed. I have opened the shed door here just in case...


  • #46
    OpenYourEyes
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 3,068 Mod ✭✭✭✭OpenYourEyes


    Had my first Swift on Great Saltee island over the weekend. Large numbers of Willow Warblers moving through, and smaller numbers of Blackcaps and Chiffchaffs, with two Garden Warblers, a Whitethroat and a Reed Warbler too. One of the Blackcaps had a French ring on it, so I'll be interested to hear where it was originally ringed. Two of the Willow Warblers had BTO rings too, likely to have been ringed at the same site (not Great Saltee though).


  • #47
    Graces7
    Registered Users Posts: 32,634 ✭✭✭✭Graces7


    Nearly got a black eye when as I was going outside, a small bird erupted from inside the stone wall of the old cowshed opposite. Second time this week and I have a vague memory of this when i arrived here last September .The place was empty for 5 years. Wondering what? was too fast and alarmed


  • #48
    Graces7
    Registered Users Posts: 32,634 ✭✭✭✭Graces7


    Day Lewin wrote: »
    I haven't yet, but look forwards to hearing it soon, in the rural location where we often visit and the cuckoos always call. Near, far, the quintessential sound of early summe.:
    Hoping, too, for the rare sight of the male cuckoo, flitting swiftly, low from hedge to hedge.

    One place I lived, in Leitrim, the cuckoo used to fly past where I was sitting. I was amazed to see him being attacked by a crowd of smaller birds more than once.


  • #49
    vistafinder
    Registered Users Posts: 619 ✭✭✭vistafinder


    Grasshopper Warbler here too yesterday.


  • #50
    whyulittle
    Registered Users Posts: 3,878 ✭✭✭whyulittle


    First Swifts of the season here today.


  • #51
    Del.Monte
    Registered Users Posts: 12,363 ✭✭✭✭Del.Monte


    Thought I heard one this afternoon and checking my post on their arrival here last year https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=103423345&postcount=397 it was on the 5th May.

    Summer is really here at last. :)

    ****



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  • #52
    ytpe2r5bxkn0c1
    Closed Accounts Posts: 32,688 ✭✭✭✭ytpe2r5bxkn0c1


    Chiffchaff in the birdbath today.


  • #53
    Yester
    Registered Users Posts: 1,496 ✭✭✭Yester


    I have some particularly aggressive swallows this year. I got buzzed twice when i was going towards the shed where the nest is. Feck off lads, I'm on ye're side.


  • #54
    Pretzill
    Registered Users Posts: 4,683 ✭✭✭Pretzill


    Awful weekend - a feral/local cat destroyed the swallow's nest and killed all the chicks - they were close to fledging too :mad: this has never happened before and all the years the swallows and their relations coming back to the exact same spot.
    Thought all was lost until about an hour ago when I saw what I assumed are the parents coming back into the shed - will they try again?

    If I get my hands on this cat, or indeed its owner (looks relatively well fed - and have video footage of him coming back the night after the deed) I don't know what I'd do - I know nature can be cruel - but its not natural to have cats wandering all over the place destroying wildlife - the swallows had such a long journey and maybe I'm getting sensitive in my older years but it really upset me :(


  • #55
    pawrick
    Registered Users Posts: 1,721 ✭✭✭pawrick


    The swallows in my shed fledged on Friday, only 3 but better than none. Keeping an eye on the local cats as I'd hate to have the same thing happen as what happened above. Luckily for the birds I have an Alcatraz type set up going on for my own cats so the outdoor ones are confined to a cat run during the most vulnerable period but either way I'm lucky that they cant access the nesting area. Neighbors cats have all been TNR'd by us to prevent more kittens and hopefully long term this will help the local wildlife.

    in more good news spotted 3 buzzards yesterday around my house, havent seen them since near xmas so thought they were dead.


  • #56
    Pretzill
    Registered Users Posts: 4,683 ✭✭✭Pretzill


    Better news this morning 4 swallows between the two sheds - looks like they might be rebuilding - I'm constantly in awe at the swallows' determination.


  • #57
    pawrick
    Registered Users Posts: 1,721 ✭✭✭pawrick


    so another update on my swallows, spotted a second nest in my shed during the week, I can hear birds in it but cant see their heads yet.

    Would this be a new pair who created the nest or the same pair breeding pair? Previously I've had two clutches in the same nest but this is the first time I've had an entirely new nest built.


  • #58
    pawrick
    Registered Users Posts: 1,721 ✭✭✭pawrick


    Noticed a few people posting that their swallows were back again recently. First one of mine arrived this morning not too far from Athlone. Hopefully both nests are reoccupied.

    Not summer visitors but have lots of starlings nesting around the house and shed gutters as usual and a new addition of a magpie nest in my front garden. Probably a lot more birds nesting around the hedging/trees in the garden but i haven't looked beyond the obvious birds making a racket, pair of doves are also new to the garden.


  • #59
    Birdnuts
    Registered Users Posts: 9,625 ✭✭✭Birdnuts


    Saw my earliest Swallow ever on the first of this month - unfortunatly the following few days were very wintery so he probably didn't survive:(


  • #60
    HoteiMarkii
    Registered Users Posts: 127 ✭✭HoteiMarkii


    I saw one solitary Swallow here in south Kildare on Tuesday evening. Sand Martins have returned to a local sand and gravel quarry here too.


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  • #61
    feartuath
    Registered Users Posts: 341 ✭✭feartuath


    Saw a few swallows in north Clare on Sunday.


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