Guess who's back!

After a week and a day of fruitless searches the Hoopoe returned today. The bird appears to have broadened its horizons, now venturing between its original scrub and laneway feeding grounds as well as popping into the more open garden next door. Not wanting to spook or scare the bird, I stood inside a small shed and let him come to me. As well as eating and preening, I also managed to catch him having a snooze! I also managed to get some video footage which i'll upload to Youtube soon, or check it out twitter @marcmcflurry.
Enjoy.

A Hoopoe, Saltees and more.

I took a few trips to the Saltees over the last couple of weeks in the hope of picking up a couple of early migrants and maybe a rarity if i got lucky. Unfortunately it has been a slow start to Spring and I've missed a Short-eared Owl and (raging) a Ring Ouzel! A Tree Pipit was the highlight of all my trips and even that was 'seen' rather than 'observed'. Here's a few of the pics from those trips.

Fulmar

Blackcap

Grey Seal

Chough

Rabbit

Chiffchaff

Raven (&LBB)

Tacumshin was another port of call recently, again slow for migrants with a handful of Swallow, a Wheatear and a distant Hen-Harrier the best.

Wheatear

Peacock

Ground Beetle (carabus granulatus)

Peregrine

A Whimbrel was the best on show at 'The Cull' recently but a phonecall  from a neighbour when i got home from that trip gave me one of the best birds I've seen this year as a Hoopoe had appeared in a local garden. It appeared very content, feeding on snails, grubs and earwigs on a rough patch of ground. The bird, a lifer for me, stayed from Wednesday evening til Friday afternoon giving myself and several other 'birders' some fantastic views. 

Whimbrel (Curlew in backround)

Hoopoe

Hoopoe

Hoopoe

Hoopoe

Hoopoe

Hoopoe

Hoopoe

Linnet

Hoopoe

Hoopoe

Sparrowhawk

Tree Sparrow

Swallow

White-tailed Eagle. Amazing.

An early start today saw M.P. and myself at Wexford Wildfowl Reserve at 7:45 in search of the White-tailed Eagle that was reported yesterday by Alyn Walsh and spotted once or twice the previous few days. A cold, wet and windy morning greeted us but the forecast predicted finer weather in the afternoon so we contented ourselves watching the courting/mating Hare and the selection of wildfowl (incl. 10 Barnacle geese), unfazed by the rain, in the hope that the Eagle was more likely to appear in more forgiving weather.

Our breakthrough came six hours later, a little after two o'clock, when I picked out a bird moving from the trees on the Raven and down below the sea-wall. It was only fleeing but i knew I was onto something so, using the scope I kept an eye on the area the bird was last seen and after about five mins I picked it up again, this time moving south along the tree line. The bird was very mobile and, given it's size, surprisingly tricky to keep track of as it stayed out at the Raven, soaring the treetops or ducking down to the dunes. M.P. managed to relocate the bird on a number of occasions but unfortunately binocular and scoped views were all we managed as the distance proved prohibitive to taking pictures, the two best i got barely constituting 'record' shots.

The best of the rest were views of a passing Hen-harrier (given up on when the eagle re-appeared), a Kestrel, hunting the sea-wall, just opposite the pumphouse hide and two sand martin viewed from the Pat Walsh hide.

UK trip

Ventured over to the UK, Oxford, this week to visit my good friend Keith and to try add some new birds, unusual or absent in Ireland, to my list. I arrived on Sunday and with Keith as my very accommodating guide and chauffeur we headed for RSPB Otmoor. On the way the tone was set for most of our road trips with Buzzard and Red Kite too numerous to keep track of as they soared above and beside the roads. No sooner had we arrived at Otmoor when I got my first ever views of a Woodpecker (Great-spotted), a stunning female which, with a little patience, gave excellent views. Other species of note were Pochard, which I hadn't seen for two years, Canadian Geese and Carrion Crow as well as a distant Hen-harrier.

 

An early morning walk with Keith and his dog gave my second lifer of the trip and my second woodpecker in two days, this time Green, as we tracked down a pair of calling birds to a small stand of trees. Views were mostly fleeting and alas no pictures but I did get a good look as one flew into one of the trees above me, regarded me briefly before flying off noisily.

Day two was planned for the Forest of Dean. En Route I saw a male Great-spotted Woodpecker as well as two Muntjac deer foraging beside the road. On arrival we headed for the view point above the forest where, after only two minutes, we were extremely lucky to see two Goshawk displaying in the distance. There were also several Buzzard present, a male Sparrowhawk, Siskin and Jay and, just as we were about to leave, a pair of Crossbill flew in and settled on the pines near us. A further drive for the Red-flanked Bluetail, a bird that had been seen nearly every day for almost three months, proved fruitless. DIPPED! It wasn't all bad though as I picked up a pair of Red-legged Partridge feeding on the road by a stubble field, more Buzzard and a lovely Male Kestrel.

 

Keith was working on day three so I tagged along as most of his work is in a forest and I wanted to try for a snap of a Nuthatch. I saw my first ever Marsh Tit as we walked through the wood but only managed to get a pic of one on a feeding station. Over the course of the day we heard a distant Tawny owl, saw several more Great-spotted Woodpecker and there were several very flighty Jay present. 'March' Hare ran through the wood within ten feet of us, oblivious to our presence and two Roe Deer crossed our path in the distance. Leaving the wood we came across a handful of wary Redwing as well as a Buzzard, scoping the ground for grey squirrel.

 

 

Our last stop was Portmeadow, a river and flood plain noted for its gulls. On the day all the gulls were too distant but we did see Greylag geese, Carrion crow and a pair of Fieldfare.

 

 

So that was that, I had a great trip. Six lifers, in no particular order, Goshawk, Great-spotted woodpecker, Green Woodpecker, Crossbill, Red-legged Partridge and Marsh Tit (8 if you want to count Irish Coal Tit and Jay as sub-species!). Mountain Hare (as opposed to Irish), Mantjac and Roe Deer