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.