60 Waxwings, Stannaway Ave, Crumlin, D12

As I mentioned in my last post my beloved Sigma 150-500 lens has died.

John Fox suggested I use a 300mm f4 with a 1.4 teleconverter, it's what he uses all the time and what a load of birders use too, he had a spare one and very kindly offered me a lend to see how I fared with it.

My shot, taken with John Fox's Nikon 300mm lens, the same lens he's won awards with.

With all the Waxwing sightings being reported around Dublin, I figured I'd have another go at Stannaway Ave, there weren't any there last week, but there might be today.

For some unknown reason, C and her hangover decided that they wanted to come along with me which made me kind of nervous, but I embraced the challenge and we set off around Drimnagh looking up into all the trees for possible Waxwings.
'The Waxwings can look a bit like a flock of Starlings' I mentioned.
'I always get confused between Starlings and Swallows' she said, my eyes widened and I drove on in silent awe.


With no luck around Drimnagh, we headed into Crumlin, down Windmill Rd, Cashel Ave, Stannaway Rd and onto Stannaway Ave.
'This is Waxwing road' I said, and pointed up to the large flock of either Starlings or Waxwings in exactly the same tree I saw them in two years ago.

The light was impossible today to get any decent shots, frustrating when you've been stuck in work all week looking out at cloudless blue skies and beautiful sunshine. Still, the image here is an amazing one for the middle of Crumlin - beautiful.

The Nikon 300mm f4, unlike most lenses today, has no VR system and because I was handholding and excited and cold and taking these photos with nothing to lean against - the technical quality is awful, but to capture a Waxwing with a berry in it's beak is great.

Watching them eat the berries was interesting, they seem to snap the berry from the branch, balance it at the tip of their beaks then knock the berry back like they're downing shots, which maybe they were that time they were found dead, drunk from the alcohol content of the fermented berries :o/

I know if I was on my own, I would have stayed longer and waited to watch more and get more shots, but my passenger was starting to hunger and fade, so we waved bye to the Scandinavians and wished them a pleasant stay in Dubiln.

330 Brent, Sundrive Cycle track, Crumlin

Late start this mild December day, an amazing 7º for Dec 11th 2011.
I had gotten an email from Graham telling me he'd received an email from someone reporting 300 Brent feeding on a large roundabout in Crumlin on Friday morning (9th Dec 2011).

I didn't hold out much hope for them being there on a weekend, but I drove over anyway, driving round and round and round - but nada.
I drove up to the Convent but the gates were locked, so I drove a few metres further down to Dolphin Park.

As I drove up, a man was pulling the gates closed, he stopped when he saw me.
'Did you want to watch the game? It's over.'
'No, I wanted to watch the geese, but I guess I'm too late, no problem, I should have got here earlier - were there any geese here today?'
'Yeah they were some earlier, we watch them every year, they're great for fertilizing the pitches! If you want I can let you in and come back later and lock the gate?'
'No, no you're fine, I don't want to put you out.'
'It's no trouble, will an hour be long enough?'
"yeah that'd be great thankyou so much'.
And off he went - I had the field and access and the Geese for an hour!

I have no idea why, but I somehow expected to see about 700-800 Brent on the field.

There were 0.

1pm, 1.15pm, 1.30pm, 1.45pm, 2pm = 0 Brent Geese and Joe came back to lock up the gates.

This was the scene - for an hour - with rain.

Juvenile Rook. Also saw a couple of Common gulls, Herring and Black headed and plenty of Rooks, Jackdaws and Hoodies, Dolphin Park, Crumlin.

I drove back over to Clonmacnoise roundabout, drove round and round but still nothing doing, so I went home to get some lunch.

Back out again, it was 3pm, rainy and getting a bit dark.
Back around the flippin roundabout - nothing, so on to Sundrive cycle track.
I wasn't too hopeful but as I walked up the main path I saw the tops of heads, Brent heads!
And quite a few of them.

some of the 330 Brent Geese, Sundrive cycle track, Crumlin. 3.15pm 11th Dec 2011 (taken through metal grid fence).

PHWR with 4 juvs following
UNWR
FIWR} associate with HIWR
HIWR} associate with FIWR (both walking with 2 juvs following)
PFRY
CXWR
TPGY
I counted 59 juveniles total.

PHWR with its 4 chizzlers in tow.

By 4pm the sun had set and there was no sign of the Brent moving anywhere so I left them to it and went home.

175 Brent Geese and 4 tags, Crumlin

8.15am at the allotment gates and they're locked.
That was worth getting up early for wasn't it?
Drove over to sundrive cycle track and no brent either on the track nor up on the footie pitches.

8.48am Sunday morning - Footie pitches, Sundrive Rd park (Eamon Ceannt Park), Crumlin.

After a bit of a walk to see what other birds were around a familiar sight and sound descended.
And landed.

8.58am Sunday 27th November, Sundrive cycle track, Crumlin - 44 Brent inc 3 juveniles - no tags.

After about 50 minutes of waiting for more arrivals, none did.
Drove over to the allotments which were now open and saw a very small flock of Brent in Dolphin Park, along with a team having a training session which would mean the main gates were open.
Drove in and walked down to the bottom of Dolphin Park where I counted 70 Brent including 24 juvs.

From 10am - 11.30am there were only 4 tags to be read, max number of Brent reached 175 including 38 juveniles.
ZHWB
HARY (with silver) - I've recorded HARY in Crumlin 28 Feb 2010, 7 Mar 2010 and 14 Mar 2010
BXGY (with silver)
TXGY (with silver) - very similar tag, but didn't seem to be an associate (walk with) BXGY
I've never seen a green tag before - and it could have been white - but you can see in the pic below - its green.
I'll email the readings to graham and see if green has been recorded before.

BXGY - green not white? and it looked the same in all lights. Dolphin Park, Crumlin, 10am- 11.30am Nov 27th 2011, 14º

HARY!! Welcome back. Dolphin Park, Crumlin, Nov 27th 2011. Also recorded feeding in Pearse Pk and Cycle track in 2010. HARY is a female Brent, ringed in SW Iceland, she's 7 years old and has been recorded in Dublin for the last 4 years.

10.10am 70 Brent Geese inc 24 juvs. Dolphin Park, Crumlin, 10am- 11.30am Nov 27th 2011, 14º

10.44am arrivals from (presumably) Bull Island, Dublin

The bottom of Dolphin Park is being left to regrow this year - this is hopefully going to allow for readings to take place over the winter

Only thing would be whether the Brent eat all the grass over the next few months as there's so little of it growing.

I had to leave by midday so it was great to get some tags and numbers to report.

104 Brent Geese, a partial tag reading and a bag of daffodil bulbs.

Driving along Crumlin Road you'd be forgiven for not believing that beyond the blue sign of Synge St GAA is one of the largest inland feeding sites for Brent Geese in Dublin.
I've recorded 1,500 Brent feeding in this field alone and until last year thought we'd hit tag reading gold until barbed wire went up all over the boundary walls and stopped our access into the field.
Now the only way to get a gawk in is through the main gates which are nearly always locked unless there's a GAA match on - and when there's a GAA match on - there's no Brent Geese.
Today I saw the gates open and decided to drive in anyway, just to see if there was any 'evidence' that the Brent Geese were using the fields yet.
Some might think this is a strange way to spend a Saturday, I think it's aprobably a bit strange that it doesn't even dawn on me anymore!

Dolphin Park, aka Synge St GAA, aka Farmer Joe's field, aka inland feeding site for 1500 Brent Geese.

Dolphin Park, no Brent Geese (GAA match happening top of the field).

but plenty of dropping evidence to show they had probably been feeding on the field earlier in the morning (Nov 26th 2011)

The wall I used to climb over to read the BG tags - all barbed wire now, sniff.

I walked down to the bottom of Dolphin Park and noticed some new allotments to the right.
Bingo - if I could find the entrance to the allotments, I might be able to get views into Dolphin Park whether or not the main gates were open.
Result.

Clogher Road Allotments, 90 allotments opened last year in the grounds of Pearse College - all were taken.

Clougher Rd allotments opened 2010.

I got talking to Mick who said he noticed the Brent Geese arrive 2 weeks ago (Nov 12, 2011) and that he sees them nearly everyday from the allotments.

Mick showed me around the allotments, he pointed out the wind turbine and explained how it powers the water which comes up from a well which they dug.
Mick told me how his family hasn't had to buy any veg since he started work in his allotment, all they needed came from his farmed bit of Crumlin earth.
He showed me the paintings on the end of some of the cabins, Phil Lynott, Brendan Behan and Gabriel Byrne - all raised or lived in Crumlin at some point in their lives.
As Mick was talking I was distracted by the sight of 20 Brent Geese landing down in an area next to the GAA fields.
'Where's that area Mick?'
'That's a bit of land belonging to the Convent on Sundrive, they wouldn't mind you driving in. Let me just give you some daffodil bulbs before you go.'
How kind.

The entrance into the convent was locked so I drove over to Pearse Park in Crumlin where I've seen 500 Brent in the past.

Pearse Park, Crumlin - no Brent Geese, but one piece of Evidence to show they've been using the field. The grass was very short so I'd guess that's why I didn't find lots more evidence like I did in Dolphin Park.

Drove over to Clonmacnoise roundabout, Crumlin and Sundrive Cycle track (above) - but no Brent or evidence at either site

It was only 4pm and the sun was going down already.
I drove back around to try and find the entrance into the convent and got lucky.
I parked my car and tried to locate the field I thought I saw the geese drop down into.

Sight for sore eyes - Brent Geese, enjoying long grass and 13º degrees, Convent garden, Dublin - Sat 26th November 2011

I counted 104 Brent Geese including 24 juveniles.

I only spotted one tagged Brent -?XWR I watched for ages to try and catch a glimpse of what the letter on the white tag was - but the grass was just too long

Eventually they all took off and as I watched them lift up, I saw that they were joining another flock of about 200 flying over Dolphin Park.
I hoped they'd all land, but instead they all flew off towards the Sandymount Chimneys to roost.

Sandymount Chimneys from Crumlin, Dublin 12.

3 hours looking around Crumlin got me an inland sighting of 104 Brent and a partial tag reading.
Still felt like a good days birding though.

70 Kildare Road, Crumlin, Dublin 12 - the home of Brendan Behan.

you'll find it in the strangest of places

Crumlin Road, Dublin 12

Starling roost

For anyone living in the Dublin 12 area - when I was driving along the canal the other evening I saw approx 600 Starlings doing their roost dance into a hedge off one of the roads along the canal near Crumlin.
The Starlings started at approx 200 and in the space of 5 minutes grew to approx 600 Starlings.
It was quite an amazing sight. I've never been up close to anything like it and would suggest to anyone  in the area to pop over for a look from 5.10pm until 5.22pm. 5.23pm and the show's over, they've all roosted.

It was great to see the starter group of 200 circling and watch how the additional groups of Starlings kept joining the flock. Eventually, the mass started to land in a nearby hedge and in gradual groups of approx 80 Starlings, they started to 'get sucked into the hedge like a hoover' (Dempsey, 2011).

There's easy parking as the road was just after the new petrol garage on the canal and before the blue gates to the ESB?
A woman saw me looking at the Starlings and said they do this every evening and 'you should hear them in the morning!' She didn't sound best pleased.
Anyhow - go see them! It's stunning.
If you park on Parnell Ave you'll get great views.


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5 mins from Drimnagh

Finally had to go to the dr's and get antibiotics, so spent yesterday staying in. Well, I say staying in - we went into town to buy some earmuffs (€5 from georges st arcade- bargain) and a neckwarmer to avoid future antibiotic prescriptions. Seems I haven't been togging up properly going out and the freezing air has been causing my sore ears and throat. Went to see the King's Speech (not bad, great visually, 6.5/10), tried to get a coffee in the hyped Foam cafe, which was closed, so ended up in an all you can eat Chinese for €6.95 - happy days. Ended day watching dvd of Social Network (very good, 8/10).

Today I drifted places which were close to home.
I drove round the Crumlin Brent Geese haunts to try and get some tags. GAA was on in Pearse Park, GAA was on at the school fields and no BG's on Clonmacnoise or Sundrive.
There was a big flock of 100ish Redwings in Sundrive, along with 15 Greenfinches, 5 Goldfinches, 3 Blackcaps, 2 Bullfinches, Song and Mistle thrushes. No Brambling.

Black Cap, Sundrive Pk, Dublin 12

 

Brent Geese over Crumlin

Brent Geese landing in Sundrive Park cycle track, Crumlin

The only tag in the flock of 109 geese - WRSX - there were 8 juveniles in the flock

I waited about 20 mins to see if any more geese would join their buddies but it didn't happen, so when they flew off, I did too.
I was going to head over to Phoenix park, but for a change I called into the Irish National War Memorial gardens. It's a really lovely, old mature park, with some areas giving off a Roman or Greek amphitheatre feel. Maybe that was just my fancy, but it's a place to go and take a book and read in the warm sun. Maybe.

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One of the first birds I saw there was a Sparrowhawk which was pretty cool.

Sparrowhawk, bars going across the chest and rounded wings.

Again there were a lot of Redwings, Song thrushes and Mistle thrushes foraging in the leaves.

Amazing camouflage, no need for a Real Tree jacket here. Mistle Thrush in the leaves. Honest.

Mistle Thrush

Song Thrush

Song Thrush

Song Thrush

Walking along the river, there were plenty of Rowers rowing by, teams of girls, boys, singles and doubles.

Rowers along the Liffey, Dublin

They didn't seem to disturb the family of 8 Little Grebes, Moorhens, Mute Swans, BH Gulls, Mallards or Coots.

Little Grebe, already moulting into summertime breeding plumage

Little Grebe, still in full winter plumage. River Liffey, Dublin.

Heron, River Liffey, Dublin.

Yes, you really have got huge yellow feet. Moorhen, River Liffey, Dublin.

The sun went down just before 5pm. In the light of the sunset I saw the pink buff of a male Bullfinch and the red spot on a Lesser Redpoll nearly glowing before the night set in and everything turned dark.

Glowing buff of male Bullfinch, there was also a female in the tree.

Glowing red spot on Lesser Redpoll's crown. There was a small flock of 6. All with streaky rumps, all lesser Redpolls.

So, that was my day. Nice to have the evenings staying brighter, longer.

Brent Geese - Crumlin

My plan for the weekend was brent geese hunting yesterday and today I was thinking I'd make it down to Kilcoole.
However Friday night pints in the Lord Edward, followed by Owensie's album launch, followed by pints in the Thomas House, followed by a house party meant that yesterday was a complete wash out. Instead of looking for Brent Geese, we spent the whole day crying and laughing at a dvd I bought of the amazing life story of yorkshire woman Hannah Hauxwell. Still got a dvd of her in USA to watch yet - can't wait. Wish she'd visited Ireland instead of Rome, Vienna etc. she'd have loved it here.

Anyhow, this morning I headed out to the Crumlin Brent Geese sites and thankfully saw a flock of 200 in Sundrive cycle track, about 50 on Clonmacnoise roundabout and another 180 in a school field. There weren't any in Pearse Park when I was there, but there was very fresh 'evidence' that they'd maybe used the fields a few hours earlier. I also looked in Stanaway park and Lorcan O'Toole Park but nothing happening there. There's no access whatsoever now to Dolphin Park where I saw 1500 last year - it's all high walls and barbed wire.

After I read some tags (3DRY, HARY, VCRY+VURY, CJWW, CXWR+D6WB), counted 5 juveniles in the flock of 180 and only 6 juvs in the flock of 200, and checked for any dark bellies - I went home for some lunch and debated whether to drive out to Tallaght to check out Tymon North park for Brent Geese or maybe head down to Kilcoole.
I decided I'd try and get some more BG tags, so found myself walking fields upon fields of Tymon park - none of which had any Brent Geese or evidence of droppings. The trees were pretty quiet, I kept my eye out for Brambling, but didn't see any.

So that was my day. Before I headed home I dropped over to Phoenix Park to see what was going on there. I think I heard the GS woodpecker near where I saw it before Christmas, but I couldn't be sure. I saw a Jay at the spot I nearly always see a Jay, I saw Chaffinches, Greenfinches and Goldfinches - but no Bramblings. I also went down to the pond near the zoo to see if a Scaup was down there, but all I saw were tufties with their tufts. I'd like to see a Scaup. And a Brmabling. I have visions that whilst I was down at the pond in Phoenix park there was a Scaup giving a lift to a Brambling across a pond whilst I was looking the other way.

As always, if you see any Brent Geese feeding please report them to grahammcelwaine@btinternet.com.

Jan 2011

Well, start of a new year has come to mean start of a new species list.
Last year I managed learn 126 bird id's, I was hoping for 150, but there you go. I know some people might see that many species over a couple of days but I'm not a huge number gatherer - quality not quantity for me at this stage.
Arrived back in Drimnagh last night, a little down to be back tbh. I left Yorkshire on the 29th for a wedding near Carlingford and stayed there until last night. Woke up this morning, with Dublin's grey concrete giving a whack to my senses. I'm missing farmland!
I really wish there was more public access to farmlands walks in Ireland.
I think a walk in Wicklow is called for.

Over Christmas I had received an email about possible Brent Geese around Crumlin, so decided I'd go and check the inland feeding sites in the area.

I did the rounds of Eamon Ceannt (Sundrive) park, Pearse park, the roundabout and Brickfields park but didn't see any geese or evidence that they'd been using these sites yet.
I drove over to Stanaway park in Crumlin to see if Waxwings were still there, but I didn't see any sign of them or any berries left on the trees.
Looking around the parks around gave me 26 species, most notable were 2 male Black caps and 6 Long Tailed Tits in Brickfields park and 1 Lesser Redpoll and 40 Linnets in Sundrive. There were a lot of Redwings around, probably about 80 in Sundrive but only 1 definite sighting of a Fieldfare in Lorcan O'Toole Park, Crumlin. I kept an eye out for Brambling, but still the bird is eluding me.

Happy new Birding year to everyone, here's to the changing seasons.

Crumlin Waxwings

Finally got to call over to Stanaway park in Crumlin late this afternoon to see if the reported Waxwing was still around. I've been searching the trees all around Drimnagh for weeks, with no luck.
So when I saw on Irishbirding that a waxwing was seen in Crumlin I was a bit put out. Traitors.

I walked around the park and saw a tree where they might be,it was full of Redwings, but no Waxwings, so I walked on. Nothing looked too promising, I walked around the park again and back to the area I originally figured they might be. Again, lots of Redwings, Song thrushes, Blackbirds and some Starlings. Then I saw these..

Exciting silhouettes

Very exciting silhouette

Waxwings, 4pm, Stanaway Park, Crumlin, Dublin 12. Flock of 8.

Waxwing

As you can see from the above photos, I got there pretty late in the day. If I had got there a little earlier, I would have got decent photos with more light, but I'm happy enough with these.

flipping wind, ruining my do.

It was great to see the Waxwings in Crumlin and it was really lovely to hear them, their song is really soft and gentle to listen to. Pity I won't get another chance to see them again until January now, but at least I got to see them today. In the park I also saw 8 Long Tailed tits over near some changing rooms.

Song Thrush, Stanaway Park, Crumlin

I wasn't the only one who got to see the Waxwings. I was telling passers by, whether they were interested or not about them.
2 women with their shopping were definitely not interested.
But three little kids, about 7 years old, seeing my camera lens, were - as they shouted over at me:

'Hey, are you a journalist?',
'No',
'Journalists aren't welcome in Crumlin' (7 years old!),
'I'm not a journalist, I'm looking at the birds.'
'Why you going round looking at birds (good question), what company do you work for?'
'Look', I said and I pointed up at the Waxwings.
They looked up, and I told them a bit about where the Waxwings had come from, why they were in Ireland and gave them my binoculars, hoping they wouldn't run off with them.
They didn't so I showed them how to focus on the birds etc.
They were silent and genuinely interested, like I think most kids genuinely are, once you calm them down.
'They're on pokemon!', one of them said, the others started laughing at him.
'No, honest there's waxwings on pokemon, with the mad hairdo's, there are, I'm telling you'.
They all got a look at the Waxwings and were excited by how unusual they looked.
'Those waxwings are cool missus, I'm going to tell me da' and off they ran.
I couldn't make that up.
Never played pokemon in my life and don't know what the little lad was talking about