Monday 19 March 2012

Slieve Gullion, Co Armagh

Not much to post about birds from the top of Slieve Gullion, Co Armagh, I'm just wanting to show off that we climbed to the top.
Actually we didn't from the bottom to the top, there's 2 car parks and we drove up to the highest one and climbed from there..
But we did climb a little bit (about 2 hours climb, 2 hours descent) and it was a great way to celebrate Paddy's day.
 
Birdwise, Slieve Gullion was very quiet, some Skylarks, loads of Ravens, no raptors (that I saw).
At one time I counted 14 Ravens in a flock together, something I've never seen before. I thought Ravens were more solitary, especially around now, breeding season, so I'm presuming they were juvenile Ravens, too young to breed (Ravens wait 2 or 3 years to breed).
It was quite something to see 14 together.

On a fine day you're supposed to be able to see Dublin bay from Slieve Gullion, the views were amazing.

Top of Slieve Gullion, Co Armagh. As far away from parades and pubs as you can get on Paddy's day.


I'm thinking fox dropping rather than raptor pellet, but feel free to disagree. I'm not sure a fox would be running around at the height I found this, but it matches a fox dropping more than any raptor pellets from what I can find.