In mid July I went on an organised birding/wildlife trip to southern Ireland. Now that the Forum has settled down a bit I thought it was time to produce a report. So here goes.
It was a two centre holiday with three days based near Wicklow and then the remainder of the time based at Wexford. This area is known as the sunny south-east and on this occasion it lived up to it's billing with glorious weather for the whole week.
This was the lovely country hotel we stayed at Rathnew just north of Wicklow. It is reputedly the oldest coaching inn in Ireland and has been in the same family for over 200 years.
As the local letterbox showed it seems that all traces of British colonialism have not been entirely eliminated. At least it had been painted green. LOL
House Martins nesting in the courtyard of the hotel.
We explored various locations in the Wicklow mountains in search of birds like Dippers without much success so had to be content with some flowers. This Bog Cotton (Cotton Grass) looked a bit like a snowfield. Apparently, it was the most prolific seen for some years.
Quite pretty close up
Also came across a Sundew growing in the boggy acid soil.
About the most exiting thing we came across was this re-enactment of a Viking invasion on Glendalough which was being filmed ror a TV series. LOL
In truth I found the birding in and around Wicklow a bit disappointing. I think it was just too hot and most of the smaller birds were hiding. We heard quite a lot of birds like warblers and buntings singing but they were difficult to see. We did come across this Spotted Flycatcher though which I was pleased about as I haven't seen one for years.
It appeared to have taken over a House Martins nest.
Before leaving the Wicklow area we visited a guy who had created series of small lakes specifically to attract dragonflies along with flower meadows for butterflies, moths and other insect life. There were large Emperor Dragonflies whizzing around - fairly new to Ireland I understand - but the only dragonfly I managed to photograph was this one, which I think is a Four-spotted Chaser.
The night before he'd set out moth traps and he showed us some of the moths he'd trapped. Here's just a few that I managed to photograph.
Large Emerald
Elephant Hawk Moth
Garden Tiger
And two whose names I've forgotten. This one which looks like a twig but believe it or not is a moth.
And this one which was almost invisibible against the granite wall.
If anyone can give me the names of these last two please feel free.
I'm going to leave it there before you get too bored. I'll add to the thread later with the stuff we found around Wexford where the birding got a bit more interesting.
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Tony
My Flickr Photostream
Lovely, TJ. I'm a big fan of cotton-grass, that field looks wonderful. Sorry that the birding was a bit below par but the insects seem to have compensated :) The penultimate, twig-like moth is a Buff-tip - don't recognise the last one but I'll see if I can find out - bet someone beats me to it though :)
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aiki said:The penultimate, twig-like moth is a Buff-tip
Thanks, aiki. Funnily enough I'd just this minute found it looking through my moth book. I really should write down the names at the time. Got a feeling the other one might be a Peppered Moth but by no means certain.
Peppered moth looks about right - was it quite a good-sized beast? I'm embarrassed - you'd think I would recognise what's probably the most famous moth species in the world!
Wow!! Fantastic pics and report TJ! Sounds an interesting holiday.
Like Aiki, I'm a massive fan of cotton grass too! That certainly is a stunning display!
Been finding Buff-tip eggs and caterpillars a lot just recently but no adults yet! They're gorgeous moths. Agree with the Peppered moth ID too! There's a melanistic, nearly black form too!
"All weeds are flowers, once you get to know them" (Eeyore)
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Our next part of the trip was based at Wexford. We stayed in a large modern hotel in the town centre. Compared with the nice country inn this was a rather soulless place but the staff were very friendly and efficient and the food was good.
Five species of tern (Little, Arctic, Common, Sandwich and Roseate) breed in the area mainly on Tacumshin Lake and Lady's Island Lake south of Wexford. I guess these are brackish lagoons because they are only seperated from the sea by a sand bar.
Unfortunately, the Little Terns had a poor breeding season last year due to the bad weather and had moved elsewhere so we didn't get to see them. We saw all the others but getting photos was a bit of a challenge because they fly so fast.
A very distant crop of a Sandwich Tern but you can just about make out the yellow tip to the otherwise black bill.
Common Terns were a bit more obliging especially the one that perched. Black tip to otherwise red bill showing nicely.
Arctic Tern with the all red bill and much longer tail streamers compared with the Common.
For me the best of the bunch was the Roseate Terns. These are the scarcest of the tern species with very low numbers breeding around the coasts of Ireland and the UK. In flight they look much whiter and slimmer than the other terns. From the ground the bill appears all black but as you can see the base of the bill is red during the breeding season. A first for me.
Although we missed out on seeing Little Terns we were lucky enough to see a vagrant Gull-billed Tern - too far away to get a photo. Last time I saw one of those was in Lesvos.
More to follow if you are not getting too bored.
Brilliant report and photos Teejay - thanks for sharing your trip. The Tern photos are stunning - such elegant birds. Love the moths too, your pics show just how beautiful they can be
Best wishes, Jayne
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Thanks all, glad you liked them. OK, penultimate part.
Probably, the highlight of the trip was the day we spent on Great Saltee island. This was to see the colonies of seabirds that nest there including Gannets, Guillemots, Razorbills and Puffins. Just so you can see where it is located here's a map.
It's a half hour boat ride from Kilmore Quay but because there's no harbour you have to transfer to a RIB to get ashore. Here's some of our group.
The island is privately owned by the self proclaimed King Michael the First.....
..... who has his own throne. This was not King Michael but one of our group. LOL
Here's a view of the island viewed from the southern and highest end. The stack you can see top right of the scene is one of the two main Gannet nesting colonies.
Right enough of the tourist spiel, now for the birds.
Here's a closer view of the Gannet colony on the stack shown above
The birds were wheeling in the skies everywhere but I made a bit of a hash of photographing them. Their whiteness was constantly fooling the exposure on my camera. Here's a couple of the better in flight shots. I think I need the help of Bob's_retired_now to improve my tracking skills as well.
The amount of black on the flight feathers and tail of the second one led me to believe it was not a fully mature adult (4th calendar year?)
The birds on the southern most stack were a bit easier to photograph. Here's just a couple. Only two youngsters visible.
One thing that surprised me was the number of Great Black-backed Gulls on the island. They are formidable looking birds when you get up close and personal but were fairly approachable. Here's mum with two offspring ......
........ and dad (I assume) keeping a watchful eye .......
.... and voicing his displeasure.
A Fulmar with its strange looking bill
A Kittiwake pair.
Razorbill
That's enough for now. I'll take a break while you digest that lot and add the final few later.
Absolutely gorgeous series of Terns and love these sea birds too! Have always loved the markings on immature Gannets! Think you did a superb job of tracking as well!
Wonderful, TJ. What a thrill to see a Roseate Tern so close. I love the assorted cliffside/clifftop seabirds, esp the Razorbills.
Just caught up with this TJ it's wonderful and not boring at all. Brilliant to see all the places you went, they look fantastic, and what a great range of birds! Stunning photographs. Thanks for sharing, hope you had a brilliant time!