2 June, 2012 - Little Tern Colony

Just had a great evening/night/morning/afternoon helping out at Kilcoole.

Niall had a long overdue night off, so I covered for him and pinned my 'Little Tern colony day-warden' name badge to my hi viz 'watch out for the train' health and safety vest.

The weather thankfully stayed dry until I left today about 5.30pm, when it started to pour (stifled lol), and the temp didn't get too hot or too cold, so working conditions were great for being outside and making notes.

Laura was great to work with doing the warden checks around the tern colony. She explained what needed to be done, we worked together for a while, then she left me alone with a list of things to do and working like this we flew through the incubation checks and egg count checks. We found a few new nests too, which I think brought the total from 78 to 85 nests.
We saw off a hunting Hobby!
We noticed it first yesterday over the colony and ran towards it until it flew off.
Hobbys in the past have eaten Little Terns so no matter how magnificent they are, they have to be chased off.
Not that it made much difference, the hobby seems to have taken a liking to the area and seems to be hanging around.

The Hobby was beautiful, I'd never seen one before, so to see one up close was priceless.

When Niall returned this afternoon, the Hobby took a seat on one of the posts and I was able to manage a few shots grabbing my camera out of the caravan.

Hobby on the posts today behind the buckthorn, Kilcoole, Wicklow. No difference between male or female adult hobbys, so no way of knowing if this Hobby is a her or him.

Suddenly something caught the Hobby's attention

but it was only Niall, twitching it with one foot in the portaloo so he could add Hobby to his list of birds he sees from the toilet.

That's right Hobby, nothing to see here.

I think you can actually see the Hobby lifting its eyes whilst tutting in this photo.

Shame I couldn't manage any decent shots from the front, the russet legs are something else and the thick, bold streaking is beautiful, but from this photo you can see how long the primaries are and the brown colouring to the feathers, plus look at those eyes and hooked beak.

The Great Sugarloaf and Little Sugarloaf, from basecamp, Kilcoole

Last night, whilst I was wandering around the fields taking the above photo, I heard a rustling in the long grass from behind Niall's caravan (the one I was sleeping in), knowing there were foxes around I turned on my head torch (yes I own a nerdy headtorch) ... anyway.. turned on the headtorch and a short eared owl got up and flew, spreading out its wings less than a meter away from me!
I can count on one hand the number of times I've seen owls, so to have this happen on my own, in complete darkness was surreal. And brilliant.
I wondered for a millisecond was it a Barn Owl because of how white the owl seemed, but the size and shape all said short eared owl and the whiteness was obviously due to the glare of the headtorch.
The sighting was only a few seconds, so I can't be 100% certain it was a SE owl over a LE or a Barn, but I'd be 95% sure.
So there you go.
Incredible way to spend a couple of days.
Thanks Laura, Cole and Niall, birds, nature and toffypops.
and Hi to the two Johns, nice to meet you both.

Kilcoole - Mar 2012

4am and I woke up to a storm outside, rain pelting on the roof and on the windows.
'That's Kilcoole cancelled' I  figured and went back to sleep.
Woke up to blue skies and sunshine and headed down to Kilcoole for 10.30am.
The rest of the class were already there and we headed off down the path not knowing what to expect, except for dog crap, which is always guaranteed along Kilcoole.
And non stop watery eyes from the Kilcoole winds.

Kilcoole walkers must be stepping up their anti dog crap campaign - good luck to them

A lot of what we saw today was pretty far off, plus it was windy, so pretty poor photos.

Greylag Geese, Kilcoole Mar 2012

Greylag Geese, Kilcoole Mar 2012. I like the feet!

Greylag Geese, Kilcoole Mar 2012

Greylag Geese, Kilcoole Mar 2012

Greylag Geese and Brent Geese, Kilcoole Mar 2012. You can see how much bigger Greylags are compared to the Brent.

Golden Plover and evidence of a killing behind them

Wigeon, Shelduck, Cormorants with white breeding patch and Curlew over the channel, Kilcoole

Difficult to see but there's actually a Buzzard in the middle of this picture. We managed to see a young male Hen Harrier gliding beautifully over the reeds in a sunny haze - lovely to watch for the few minutes. Eric said it was the black tips to the wings which made him think it was a juv male.

Took a photo of these Lapwing in flight and noticed a bird at the bottom of the flock in the photo. Tried to work out from its marking what it was and figured it's a Redshank.

In the Buckthorn we saw a Goldcrest and this Reed Bunting (lightened and cropped in camera editing).

We had a great class outing and finished up by about 1pm.
Thanks to Eric and the rest of the class.

Kilcoole / Newcastle

Made it down to Kilcoole for 10.30am to meet up with South Dublin BWI branch.
Despite the grey clouds, rain and desire by most I'm sure to stay in bed, there were about 20 birders up for the walk led by the ever patient and seemingly all knowing Niall Hatch.

Nearly immediately we all got our reward for getting out of bed as we managed the best views I've ever had of a female Kestrel hovering. The chestnut colour was nearly glowing as the sun decided to break through the rain clouds. Absolutely beautiful.

This viewing was unfortunately disrupted (as they tend to be on group outings) by the shout of Stock Dove! A bird I've never seen in Ireland.
I shifted my scope over to the stubble fields which were full of feeding Wood Pigeons and yes, amongst them all Niall had managed to spot a Stock Dove!
Great to see.
I would have liked to have seen it out from the stubble just to distinguish the lack of white wing bars (could have been a juv wood pigeon).

Gannets, Guillemots, Shags, Razorbill, Cormorants, Sandwich Terns and Black Headed Gulls all out to sea.
No Divers that we saw.

Wigeon, Teal, Mallards, Mute Swans, Little Egrets, Sandwich Terns, Curlew, Common Terns and the Black Backed Gull still in with the Cormorants at Webbs field.

A flock were seen in the distance flying inland over the sea - 'Is that a flock of geese flying in'? Someone asked.
I scanned up as reports yesterday had mentioned 100 Brent Geese already spotted in Antrim and Clare, but all I could make out was that the flock were ducks, not geese.

'That's a flock of Wigeon', said Niall, 'you can tell from the white patch near the shoulder'.
Nice tip - be great if I remember it!!

In the reeds I managed a brief glimpse of a Sedge Warbler, but no other warblers/buntings that we saw.
No Stonechats either.
All the Little Terns gaawwn. All the Lapwings gaaawwn.

Ringed Plovers and Dunlin (still in summer plumage) were skipping the light fandango, turning cartwheels cross the shore, the many Wheatears on the beach shingle, they all called out for more.
I wished I had my camera, but there you go, sometimes it's just better to see everything.

The others left about 1ish but I kept walking down to the Breeches and Newcastle.
I wanted to see the remnants of the Little Tern colony.

It was strange with everything gone - the Hide, the lad's caravans, the lads!, the Colony News board, the fencing - and especially absent, was the sound of the Little Terns with their noisy comings and goings to and from their nests.
It all seemed very quiet and 'empty'.

As ever, Hunger struck so I walked the long walk back to my car to have some lunch before heading down to the East Coast Nature Reserve.
The rain had cleared so I figured it would be safe to bring my camera with me.

To be honest - I've never really had much luck seeing anything unusual in the ECNR, apart from the Garganey this summer. I've read reports of other people seeing great birds from the hides, so there are great birds around, just not on my watch.


Today was no different.
I opened the hide door and was happy to see I had it to myself. It meant I could be as noisy as I wanted setting my scope up, moving the bench, moving the bench again, getting my camera ready, moving the bench a little bit again - and no evils from anyone!
After a while, I realised why I had the place to myself.
Nothing of much interest was out there. I watched the Moorhen for a while, a male Mallard zipping its feathers and a female Mallard snoozing, but eventually I felt it was time to move, so I walked over to the new 'Woodland Hide' - which is quite a walk by the way, especially on a warm day with scope and camera/ biggish lens. Took me 25 mins hide to hide.
Again nothing unusual to be seen from the Woodland hide either.
Bad timing I suppose.

I left the woodland hide and headed down to Newcastle beach where I waited to try for some decent photos of Wheatears.

Made me smile anyway.

I positioned myself amongst the boulders and sat and waited.
And waited.
I could see the Wheatears further down on the shingle to my right, happily bobbing around, feeding, standing, looking about, bobbing around a bit more and it was tempting to just get up from where I was to move closer to them, but I stuck it out and stayed put, all good things come to those that wait and all that.
Plus, it was a lovely evening and the sun was setting so the waiting gave me a chance to have some quiet time and practice my wistful 'looking out to sea' poses.

Eventually, I smiled and said my thankyous as a Wheatear hopped close to where I was sitting.

So, you're off in a few weeks eh? Good luck with that. Was nice seeing you. Hope you enjoyed yourself.

Even if I say so myself - not a bad shot.

Yes, you're right, it's all to do with the subject matter. Female Northern Wheatear.

Female Northern Wheatear, Newcastle, Co Wicklow

Good luck with your flight to Africa. Don't forget to pack your earplugs and eye mask for the long flight.Think this might be a 1st Winter Wheatear?

Some of the Wheatears we see on the East coast over the next few weeks have actually flown from Greenland or Canada on their way to Africa. How's that for a migration trek?!

Ok, time for the next pic - READY?? Newcastle today.

Check this pic out - on boundry fence between Newcastle beach and ECNR

The colour of the breast has me excited about a juv Stonechat! I haven't got my Collins with me, Eric's shows a Siberian immature, but says immature similar to female adult - which this could be? Googling images only goes so far.

Reddish, peachy breast, dark eyes, black legs, pale chin, speckled white around the eyes and nape..Also like the white wing patch in above photo. If it is a Stonechat, that's a Result for ECNR!

and is this a juvenile Dunnock?

So - Stonechat? Go on, shatter my illusion.

K70 and K73

First off, Congratulations to the 40,000+ women who ran in todays annual Women's mini marathon in Dublin, it's the biggest Women's event in the world and raised over €14 million for charites last year.
Girls rule.
But then, down at the Kilcoole Colony, there are some boys doing some work which totally rules too.

Since the beginning of May, Niall, Jason and Cole have been working literally round the clock to do everything in their power to protect the Little Tern nests and eggs. Wardening, recording nests/ eggs/ chicks, preventing predation, talking to the public, putting up and maintaining the fencing around the colony. And most importantly updating the Colony News board which every passer by stops to read.

Colony update 3rd June 2011

Whilst scanning the shingle, I noticed a Tern which looked like it was incubating rather than just sitting resting. There was no Nest number nearby, which meant this was a possible new nest which needed to be recorded. I watched it for a while and pointed it out to Jason. He agreed it was worth a walk across the shingle to check out. Thumbs up meant that it was indeed a nest. Result.

Jason marked out a stone 'K70' and recorded that there were 2 eggs in the nest.

Niall put metal rings around the legs of the first 4 chicks, weighed them and measured their wing span.

Cole, getting the area ready for Bloom.

I noticed another couple of Terns looking parental, watched them for a while then pointed them out to Niall, he agreed they looked like they were new nest candidates, but decided the Terns had been disturbed enough for the day and he'd go over and check them the next day.
The next day he texted to say it was a new nest with one egg. Nest K73 (which meant they'd also found another 2 nests).

On Saturday, despite waking up to a warm, sunny, still day in Drimnagh, the type of day where you could drop a feather and watch it fall in a straight line down to the ground, when I arrived in Kilcoole, the gusts of wind there were so strong I was seeing poodles being swept up from the ground and flung across the sky yelping. 
I don't know how the guys still have skin left on their faces, the wind in Kilcoole is incessant. Once home after the days volunteering, my face was on fire, and yes mum, I had put sunblock on.
Again, link to the Kilcoole Little Tern colony blog is http://littleternconservation.blogspot.com/

Ringed Plover, in training for the mini marathon.

Little Tern mobbing an Oystercatcher. Oystercatchers have been known to eat Terns eggs, these Oystercatchers have shown no interest in the eggs however, which is why they've been allowed to stay in the colony, but the Tern's instinct is still to mob them when they're unsettled.

CUCK- COOL!!

Today was the first time in my life I got to see a cuckoo and I was a bit awestruck (simple thing that I am).
And not just one Cuckoo, but 2!! I saw the female first then couldn't believe it when I saw another in flight to the left of her.
I was walking down to the Little Tern colony when I noticed a bird in flight which was too slender and had too long a tail to be anything 'usual'. Couldn't be the cuckoo J and G saw in Sunday could it???
It very much could.

WOW. A Cuckoo.

An actual cuckoo.

The Cuckoos were quite tame and I got a lot of shots, I'm including the flighty ones to show the arty plumage hidden beneath the grey/brown upper feathers. And just look at that eye!
I tried to feel for my phone to ring Niall to tell them to come up and look at the Cuckoos, but annoyingly I'd left it in the car. When I met Niall later he told me he'd texted me about the cuckoos, but I didn't see the text. I'm glad I didn't too, because it way nicer to see them without expecting to.
The browner Cuckko is the female and the greyer, darker one is the male.
Eventually they flew over the other side of the Buckthorn and I headed on down to the colony telling everyone I passed, 'there are cuckoos in the Buckthorn'!.
People still love cuckoos (everyone I told seeemd delirrih) despite their dubious nesting skills.
If you don't know anything about Cuckoos, here are 2 astounding videos which show off their Survival of the Fittest instincts to the point that you nearly cry!! or laugh, depending on your demeanour!

This first one shows the cuckoo finding the host nest and eating one of the eggs, whilst laying one of her own into the nest.



If you thought that was bad - you aint seen nothing yet. The survival instinct kicks in pretty early.

wow - eh?

I'd say they have my Awe more than anything else. It's easy to judge their behaviour as cruel, but it's an obvious survival instinct and it's worked well for them for hundreds of years. Nature is nature and it ain't all cute and fluffy.

Hopefully these 2 will stay around Kilcoole and they're not just on passage somewhere else.

Update on the Little Tern colony is that there are now 44 active nests and the possibility of chicks hatching in the next few days.
In prepararation for this Niall got us gluing stones ans sand to plastic pipes to make cool shelters for the littl Little Terns, should come in handy over the weekend too as the weather is supposed to be a scorcher!
About time the sky realised it was summer eh.

Cuckoole

Another day volunteering with Jason down at the Kilcoole LT colony.

When I arrived there were three lots of good news.
1. Rupert the Scraggedy hadn't been in and taken any more eggs.
2. There were an extra 2 nests, making a total of 41 nests by 29/05/11.
3. Ger (another volunteer) and Jason had just heard and then clearly seen landing on one of the colony fence posts - a Cuckoo!! right next to them. A cuckoo! (I've never seen one from a distance let alone close up.

so there was one bit of bad news.
1. I'd just missed seeing and hearing a Cuckoo close up.

I did manage to see this lovely little Skylark closeup, feeding and rummaging around on the ground.
It checked me out and kept on rummaging until a couple walked along the path and it flew off.

Skylark, Kilcoole

Skylark, kilcoole

There were loads of Gannets yesterday too, about 20 dive bombing the sea

Gannet, Kilcoole

Gannet, Kilcoole

Male Reed Bunting singing away on the Buckthorn, Kilcoole

With Brian and Danny calling down to colony aswell and lots of walkers being out, the presence of humans (I'm assuming) meant that there wasn't a Rook or Hoodie to be seen and it was quite an event free day. We also think there might even have been an extra few nests.