Canoe birding paddle on lough oughter

cavan lakes have lots of shoreline and scrub

Recent paddle on the lakes from carrawtraw got the following bird list.

Sand martins.   ;  Nesting in masonry under Carratraw bridge
House Martin
Swallow
Meadow pipit   ;singing outside center
Pied Wagtail   ; feeding on grass outside center  
4 Hooded crows ; possibly this years young
10 (Approx) Lapwing   ;migratory ( finished breeding elsewhere )
3 young great crested grebes  and two adults
chaffinch
greenfinch
heron  1 young  and1 adult
coot probably about 4
9 mute swans non breeding adults
little grebe
dunnock
reed bunting
sedge warbler
water rail
4 buzzard ; likely to have been newly fledged young and adults.

 

Next Paddle is on 15th  August see ecotrails  

 

 

Grasshoppers

This is not a part of the world you would associate with grasshoppers ( too wet) but they are singing away on the farm notably in the areas that have not been “improved”, and get no fertiliser. I also had a grasshopper warbler on the farm this week  which I don’t think breeds on the farm although we do have suitable habitat. Will have to get up early next year in May or June to double check. I only got them in one tetrad  of the eight I did a timed Tetrad in this 10km square last year for the Atlas, but obviously there could be some breeding not too far away.

Grasshopper photographed in July, co. Cavan

 

Newspapers and birds

I write a piece for the Cavan Post to put Birdwatch Ireland and the local branch in the paper I thought I would post up my efforts on the web too !

Birds and well being

The best things in life are free
But you can keep ’em for the birds and bees
Money
That’s what I want

So goes the song and in many cases it can appear that environmental protection and job creation or rural development are at loggerheads.

However Ireland has changed along with Western Europe. For large numbers of people contact with the natural world in their day to day lives is more difficult. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds in UK invited members to post on line the magical moments involving wildlife that moved or inspired them. The response was huge. People described seeing bright red bullfinches on dull January days and breathtaking bluebell woods in May and many encounters with wildlife. It is worth taking a browse through the responses simply called “RSPB moments”. It also shows how important to many of us these moments are.
 More serious medical research has shown that contact with the natural world has an extremely beneficial effect on our health. Apart from the obvious fitness aspects of getting out and active in the outdoors the more subtle impact on mental health and mind, body and soul cannot be under estimated.
Governments are now starting to put costs on environmental degradation and species loss. Pollination done by insects is worth vast sums. Soil improvement achieved by earthworms is apparently worth 700 million euro annually to Ireland. Our wetlands and bogs act as sponges soaking up floods.
We promote our tourism image as green and natural . We also promote our food exports from a green, safe country. Both industries are worth millions and our customers in Western Europe are increasingly aware of environmental issues.
 The membership of the RSPB in the UK is now three million. The equivalent organisation in Germany has a membership of 4 million. Birdwatch Ireland has membership of 14 thousand. Birdwatch Irelands objective is to protect wild birds and their habitats. We are also a group of people who simply enjoy the magical moments that watching wildlife brings. www.Birdwatchireland. ie .
Local branch contact (087) 6699681

Also in the news is the turf wars of slieve rushen http://tinyurl.com/n8kqem

I have had a great spring doing atlas work up there so I have strong opinions on the need for conservation.

Billberries are ripe now on the slopes of slieve Rushen

 

sand martins nesting in masonry

Three sandmartin nests in holes inside archway (see below)

I had not realised how much sand martins were using buildings to nest in.

Main street Killeshandra ,sand martins nest site

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In Killeshandra ,Co. Cavan ,main street the sand martins are nesting under an archway. The other sites I know of , so far are:  under Carratraw bridge, the east face of  Butlers bridge, Rathkenny bridge (face) over the Annalee river and the masonry banks of the Kinnypottle river at Water street, Cavan town. 

 

 

caterpillar in february

fox moth caterpillar

This was a sunny day in late february when this fellow appeared among the heather, grasses and red sphagnum moss up on slieve Rushen. The books use the phrase “basking in sunshine before pupation in early spring”

 

looking back

I have enjoyed my recent trips to undertake bird atlas work in the Bawnboy, Swadlinbar region. This area is rich in  stone archaeological  sites. I have also been recording a more recent form of field monuments;— the digger!

As any one interested in natural history would be, I have mixed feelings about diggers . A lot of  habitat can be removed very quickly!

Our farm was home to breeding curlews, lapwing, yellowhammer, grey partridge, snipe ,  and corncrake. Not any more. The changes in land use in the past forty years have been responsible

My children will not be seeing the big spotty eggs of curlews or hearing the screech of barn owls as they hunt.

 

spying on wildlife

I was out counting ducks ,swans ,geese and waders this week for the wetland bird survey. I use a telescope which makes the whole thing a lot more enjoyable. With a telescope I can see birds instead of black dots on the water. Since a lot of what I’m looking at gets shot at they don’t let you get too near. The animals are definately thinking of spring and reproduction. The great crested grebes were displaying despite the fact that they don’t have their summer plumage and stuck together the way male and female canines do, were a pair of foxes who looked very feed up with each other. I was spying on all this from the other side of the lake.

 

birds of the grey wind

“Birds of the grey wind” time again

common darter, 3rd oct 2008, killeshandra

 

Listening out for the whooper swans coming coming in from Iceland . Apparently they make landfall first in the lough Foyle and lough Swilly regions and then move out to us in Cavan.
While we are bemoaning the weather,I like to think of the abilities of birds such as the whooper Swans who wait for the good flying conditions to make the journey down the Atlantic ocean. Birdwatchers are busy predicting how the weather will affect the migration.

Atlantic pressure charts for the week ahead:http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/coast/pressure/
A guide to interpreting synoptic charts:http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/education/secondary/students/charts.html
Found these websites details in an email from The BTO (British trust for ornithology).