IRELAND & MAJORCA TRIP
25.4.22 – 12.6.22
DAY 1 Monday 25.4.22
Kara, Ant and both their sons, Linc and Patrick picked me up at 17.00 to take me to the airport for my 21.00 flight. It was a family affair! I had requested the early delivery as, of late, it appeared there were delays at the airports due to staff shortages, mainly from Covid infections. In fact it appeared that ‘my’ flight was the only one leaving Brisbane airport after dark! The bag drop queue was pretty much as usual, it took me about 30 minutes to progress to the desk, and then it was into the deserted Duty Free for my usual tobacco order and, this time, a pair of Ray Bans sunglasses. I had hoped for the Aviator style, but they didn’t have any. I got a similar style anyway. There was only one coffee shop/bar open in the rest of the complex so I grabbed a coffee and headed out to the smoker’s area as per usual.
Despite the lack of activity the departure gate for my Emirates flight was a 10 minute walk past lots of empty unattended gates, from the general food/beverage area and the only people in that whole wing were my fellow passengers and the odd random cleaner or airport functionary.
Cutting a long story short – we boarded and pulled away from the gate on time before taking a 30 minute scenic tour of the airport runways, then it was up, up and away.
14 hours later it was wheels down in Dubai and 2 hours after that, off again for the 8 hour second leg to Dublin. All in all an average, boring, barley comfortable 24 hours. It is what it is. Luckily with my relatively short legs, Economy class is reasonable, but after sitting for that long I find I just get plain uncomfortable. Its barely manageable really. I feel that another 30 minutes and I’d go screaming off into the cockpit…..
DAY 2 Tuesday 26.4.22
I got my bags, cleared customs and headed outside for a smoke before walking across to the car park area and lining up for my Sixt car hire. There was quite a queue and a guy approached me immediately and suggested that I get the shuttle bus to their off-site office and get the car there? I was happy with that and along with a few other car hire hopefuls took the 5 minute ride in the shuttle bus to the external depot.
It didn’t take too long and an agreement that the car hire company would hold a 2,000 Euro option over my head in case I damaged the car, plus a 100 Euro option – in case I got speeding tickets or other traffic infringements - I had never seen that before. They gave me a 2 door Clio – I had, in fact, ‘ordered’ a 4 door VW Polo but was too tired to argue the point and it didn’t really matter anyway, it was the same cost, 299 Euro or approx $Aud445 for a week…….. It was a brand new car and only had 50 kms on the clock.
I headed out onto the M50 and in medium traffic surged along at the 80 km/hr posted speed limit. Then weird things started to happen. It seemed I couldn’t completely control the steering. It felt like something was loose at the front and I had to continually correct the car’s direction. The steering wheel jumped in my hands and I swear I thought I was going to lose it on a couple of occasions. I found this very disturbing and gingerly exited as soon as I could and drove back to the car hire depot. At slow speeds on the minor single land roads it handled perfectly?
It turned out, as maybe you have guessed, that the ‘lane control’ system was activated. I had never driven a car with this feature and once it was de-activated the car behaved like a normal …. Car. Quite embarrassing really, but I hadn’t expected, what I would term as such an ‘advanced’ system, in a small, relatively low-priced car.
I got to Mum’s and found her awake and well. We chatted and later had dinner and I tried to stay awake to fit into the Irish time frame and avoid the consequences of jet lag.
The only birds I saw were a handful of Western Jackdaws and a Hooded Crow at the airport and a couple of Eurasian Magpies flew across the motorway, and one was in Mum’s garden. I did see a European Rabbit hopping and feeding quite unconcernedly in the grass a few meters from the runway while we sat in the plane and waited for our gate to open.
Day List: 4 Trip List: 4 Mammal List: 1
(Explanation! The Day List is the number of individual bird species I see on this particular day. The Trip List is the number of specific species I see during the trip. The latter increases (hopefully) as time goes by. The Mammal list is similarly constructed!)
DAY 3 Wednesday 27.4.22
I woke early and stayed in bed as long as I could, unable to sleep any further despite being fairly tired.
The morning was mainly spent hanging around at home until I was free to go and do some shopping – mainly food, but also put credit on my Irish mobile SIM card which still worked! I’ve had it now for several years and simply put some credit on it when I get here. The last time was in June 2020 – very handy, otherwise I’d only rely on Wi-Fi and that’s not always available obviously.
The afternoon involved a visit from a solicitor to finalise Power of Attorney for Mum and update the executor of her will.
And that was it more or less. The only birds I saw were a pair of Dunnocks, a couple of House Sparrows and the resident European Robin in my Mum’s back garden. I don’t know how long this particular individual has been here – or even if it’s the same bird, but it turns up most mornings for a handout. If it was the same bird it would be about 15 years old which I think is unlikely. It doesn’t look any older than last time…..
In my few short smokes in the back garden - a few Common Wood Pigeons, Western Jackdaws, Black-headed Gulls and one Common Starling overhead and a Collared Dove landed in a neighbour’s tree while a male Common Blackbird put in a brief appearance in the front garden. I also had two Common (Correction) Holly Blues in the back garden flitting around a white flowered creeper thing and a White-tailed Bumblebee doing its thing.
Not very exciting, maybe get out birding tomorrow…
Day List: 51 Trip List: 53 Mammal List: 2
DAY 4 Thursday 28.4.22
Last night as I staggered off to bed around 21.30, having dozed on the couch for the past hour watching World Championship Snooker, I noticed the security light was on on the front of the house. Peering out into the brightness I found 2 Red Foxes trotting openly around both our front garden and the neighbouring yards! They were quite casual and confident in their environment. The next morning waking around 5 I looked out again and one of the individuals trotted up the neighbour’s front path in the dim pre dawn light.
Nice!
I got up shortly afterwards, made some breakfast and left the house at 7. By 7.30 I was at Kilcoole.
I haven’t mentioned the weather yet. The last couple of days have been dry and (for Ireland) gloriously sunny topping out around 16c. Not super warm but certainly very pleasant. When I arrived at Kilcoole, in anticipation of a similar morning, I wore only a long-sleeved T-shirt under my birding shirt. It was about 8c I reckon and chilly enough, the sun hadn’t managed to pierce the overhanging cloud and, in fact, it remained dull and overcast all morning. I guess it reached about 12c, but certainly felt colder. Most of the people walking their dogs ect were wearing beanies and coats. I kinda regretted not bringing at least my hoodie, but it was a bit late by then so set off down the track along the back of the shingle beach, overlooking the reserve on the other side of the single gauge railway line.
It’s always been a favourite place, Kilcoole. It holds many memories for me as a young teen when I used to walk along the railway track from Greystones and look for nests on the beach and in the surrounding fields. I always feel ‘at home’ at Kilcoole, even though I only get to visit on occasion.
It wasn’t a bad morning – nothing remarkable, but a fairly good 43 species list for the location. I did have a House Martin, which had just returned from its winter holidays in Africa and was ‘notable’, according to an older local birder I met later, but probably one of my favourite birds – Common Shelduck – showed well and made the morning special.
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| Common Shelduck |
Other items of interest…. The Little Terns were gathering along the beach in anticipation of breeding in the next few weeks, a Red-throated Diverclose in to the beach in summer plumage was really nice. Approx 20 Northern Gannets offshore, a flock of about 20 Dunlin, in summer plumage at The Narrows and several Eurasian Skylarks, one perched up and sang well (taped).
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| Eurasian Skylark |
I got back to the car at 10.00 and headed a little further south to the East Coast Reserve at Newcastle.
I added several birds to both Day & Trip Lists, but failed to find the Grasshopper Warbler I had been advised was on site. It wasn’t the day for GWs to sing, dull and overcast, and a singing GW is the only way one would find it, never mind see it. I did have a Common Kestrel, hovering briefly outside one of the hides, photographed a feeding Song Thrush (always like a nice Song Thrush) and 3 or 4 European Greenfinches were a nice pick up, the species having become a lot less common than in the past, but seem to be making a comeback?
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| Song Thrush |
Bird experience of the morning, however, was a Eurasian Sparrowhawk that flew towards and past me on the track at knee-height! If I’d stepped suddenly to my right it would have run into me. Spectacular! It passed me, failed to catch anything and perched up briefly on the lower spar of the fence before flashing off into the distance. I drove down to the seafront and walked south, but the usual wet area was very dry and nothing was happening. I was also getting quite chilled as a southerly breeze had picked up and so headed back to the car and home.
No butterflies and only 1 White-tailed Bumblebee. (Note: there are, in fact, 4 species of White-tailed BB in Ireland. I didn’t look closely at the one I saw, so can only list it as ‘one of the four’. They all have yellow bands and white tails, closer inspection is required. It was quite a size so I assume it was a queen. I should have looked more closely at it..)
Day List: 51 Trip List: 53 Mammal List: 2
DAY 5 Friday 29.4.22
I was at the West Pier in Dun Laoghaire at 7.30. A brighter slightly warmer morning than the previous day. It had been 4c when I got up, but had increased to 8c. I brought my fleece with me, but it was actually a bit warm. Can’t win really!
Dublin Bay was a millpond. Hardly a ripple. Northern Gannets and Common Terns dived for food, but other than that there was little activity. I had been hoping for a migrating Northern Wheatear or two, but none appeared.
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| Great Black-backed Gull |
I saw 3 Grey Seals within the harbour itself and, on the walk back, two more showed close to the wall on the outside of the harbour. I can never resist Seals.
I drove to the East Pier but there were no birds around the rocks at the base so headed off to Booterstown Marsh, a few ks north along the coast.
Approx 500 Dunlin were feeding or roosting, along with several Common Redshanks and approx 80 Black-tailed Godwits. That was about it. Headed home and watched Mum sleep the morning away.
Day List: 22 Trip List: 55 Mammal List: 3
DAY 6 Saturday 30.4.22
I decided to go to the park near Sandymount that I had visited 2 years previously when restricted by the Covid mandates. The walk involved a 9 km round trip walking track through some low bush, along the edge of the main strand (low tide), then out along a breakwall area to the South Wall of the mouth of the Liffey. It provides a range of habitats and birds, nothing super exciting, but the resulting morning’s list of 37 species was satisfying.
The morning weather had started out misty and overcast with just the occasional spot of rain, however, when I reached the turn around spot at the end of the South Wall at about 9.00, it started to drizzle more enthusiastically and I was walking straight into it. It was typical Irish rain – not really wet, just damp, but a pain on the optics.
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Grey Heron    |
When I got back to the park itself one of those ‘Park Runs’ was in progress with the ‘eager’ group heading it up all wanting to be first, followed by the usual selection of slightly overweight in various states of fitness and ages all running themselves into future knee and hip replacements. I swear these events were the fiendish brainchild of an orthopaedic surgeon guaranteeing himself future employment. Whatever, it destroyed any further hope of birding along the track, but I had more or less covered it on the way out and the rain was annoying to both myself and the wildlife, so it wasn’t a huge loss.
Bird-wise I added a few species to my Trip List and saw most of the birds I expected to see at this location. I heard (and identified by song!) a singing male Eurasian Blackcap and found 2 Northern Wheatears along the rocks. The breeding Black Guillemots were sitting along the rock wall further out and a Tufted Duck landed briefly in the river that I thought was an unusual occurrence at this time of year?
Spent the damp, rather dreary afternoon watching World Championship Snooker – and feeding Mum on a regular basis.
Day List: 37 Trip List: 63 Mammal List: 3
DAY 7 Sunday 1.5.22
A dull, wet, dreary day. I didn’t do much. I only went out to shop for groceries and shoes. The latter because the pair I had left here in 2020 fell apart and defied any reconstruction I could attempt with glue. So an 82 Euro visit to Dundrum shopping centre later and I had a new pair for the potentially single event they will be worn at in a few weeks…..the 50th anniversary reunion of my senior school year.
I spent most of the day watching the final of the World Championship Snooker, an event I have never seen on Australian TV. It may be shown on Foxtel, but I’ve never had access to Foxtel so… Having once played snooker quite extensively – in Uni when I should have been attending the classes I failed and was ejected from at the end of the year – I appreciate the game and its challenges. Watching Ronnie O’Sullivan demolish Judd Trump in the best of 35 frames (12-5 currently) is just amazing. The shots these guys pull off and the follow through is just mind boggling at times. Its been great to have the opportunity to see it.
Day List: 0 Trip List: 63 Mammal List: 3
DAY 8 Monday 2.5.22
A little Ringed Plover had been found over the weekend at Merrion Gates, a location between Booterstown and Irishtown. Simply put – an access point onto the main ‘beach’ area of Dublin Bay that happens to be beside a well known railway crossing, about 5 kms from ‘home’. It was, what they call here, a Bank Holiday – a Public Holiday weekend in Australian speak - so the roads were really quiet, everyone being away, I guess. It was also a really misty morning, dead still and visibility reduced, initially, to a couple of hundred meters. This gradually lifted through the morning.
I’d seen LRP in Ireland before, but the photos suggested it was a confiding bird and in good plumage, so figured I’d give it a twitch and try to get some nice photos. Apart from that I had no plans to go anywhere else.
However, I managed to retain my excellent failure rate for twitching other people’s birds.
It was a bitch of a place to park – at least for me, unused to the Dublin/Irish way of apparently abandoning one’s car just about anywhere and, presumably, trusting in the Gods not to have it towed or ticketed.
I found a residential side street about a km away and ignoring the Pay & Display signs (figuring no one would really bother on a Public Holiday morning) walked to the location. The tide was a hundred miles out – as it does in Dublin Bay – but, again, the photos had suggested the bird was on a shingle strip – only at the ‘edge of the beach’ and typical LRP habitat.
Surprising to me no one else was there. I thought LRP was a good enough twitch to at least attract local birders, but the area was deserted. I wandered around checking the shingle strip and surrounding sandy mud area but found not one wader of any description. I saw a few birds including a family of 5 European Greenfinches which again led to me to believe they may be making a comeback and, of course, another Northern Wheatear, but no LRP. After an hour or so, I figured it was a lost cause and headed home to pack for the next day’s adventure.
With time on my hands I chased down some slugs in the back garden..... I was as sure as I could be of ID, but happy to be corrected if anyone has better knowledge?
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Black Slug Arion ater agg     I also found a couple of small snail shells  Exciting stuff! |
Day List: 36 Trip List: 36 (1) Mammal List: 0
DAY 9 Tuesday 3.5.22
I had to return the hire car by midday (or pay another days hire), but our flight didn’t leave till 16.30 so it was a long day of waiting. I left Dale Rd at 10.45 having woken Mum to say ‘goodbye’. It was a 45 minute drive to the airport and I was 40 minutes into it when I thought of my passports. Had I put them in my carry-on? I couldn’t remember…. I exited off the M50, found a side road, pulled in and …… found my passports in my bag.
Feeling pretty relieved I carried on, filled the car with fuel (half tank only: e30, ~$Aus50.00: e1.81/litre, ~$Aus3.00/l), then dropped it off at Sixt without any drama. The shuttle bus dropped me at Terminal 1 just before 12. Mr H wasn’t due on the bus from Belfast till 13.30 so I got a coffee and read until he arrived. Its been 3 years but seems like 3 weeks. We had plenty of time so had another coffee together, then did the bag-drop at Ryanair – chaos, as Ryanair always seems to be – and worked our way through security – busy as all shit, as Dublin airport always seems to be – found our gate at the far end of the terminal and hung out till our flight boarded. Took off on time for the 2 hour 40 minute flight to Palma, Majorca.
We landed at 20 past 7, or, in local time, 20 past 8, walked the miles to collect our bags, showing our Covid Vaccination Certificates on the way. Then out to pick up our hired car. Mr H had ordered a ‘larger’ vehicle because his friend, John, would be joining us in a few days. It was a van-type thing, a VW Caddy.
We headed out, me driving, him navigating, and hit the road south. A few false starts here and there, but we did make it to our destination on the south end of the island – Colonia de Sant Jordi.
Parking in towns/villages in Spain is always a nightmare. We drove around for a while and finally settled on what we thought was a ‘safe’ spot. Most of the streets have coloured markings denoting parking, but they’re not always clear. Everyone parks so close to everyone else its scary. We walked back to our Air BnB and found our way inside and upstairs to a very modern, clean, small, 2 bedroom apartment.
After dumping our bags we decided that the car park was not the best and went out for a brief walk in the dark down to the seafront, about 200 meters away, before moving the car to a closer and, we believed, more legal spot. While we were trying to reverse park the thing, the owner of a local café came out and moved his car to facilitate our efforts. I think he moved it so we wouldn’t hit it cause we were making a complete balls of parking. I, personally, would like to leave the car in the same spot till it was time to leave this area…….
Back home and to bed around midnight.
Day List: 0 Majorca Trip List: 0 Majorca Mammal List: 0
DAY 10 Wednesday 4.5.22
We woke a bit late – to rain. Not much rain, just a thin sprinkling. Followed by wind, a northerly which increased in strength through the day. Cloudy, cool and conditions a bit challenging for birding.
With no food in the house we walked around the corner to a bakery and bought a couple of croissants and bread loaf. The croissants eaten we headed out to walk down to the harbour area.
Common Swifts overhead and Collared Doves calling, and our first tick of the trip – for Mr H, Audouin’s Gull. Perched up and soaring around along with a few more Yellow-legged Gulls.
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| Audouin's Gull |
Out on the bay, Common Shelducks around a rocky island, Western Marsh Harrier overhead, European Shags in the water and a single Ruddy Turnstone on a boat ramp. The Mediterranean always surprises me as to how quiet it actually is bird-wise, along the shore.
We walked back home again, picked up our shopping bags and walked across the street to the supermarket. We stocked up on general stuff, mainly for breakfast and sort of snack things, intending most likely to eat out in the middle of the day – Spanish style.
Then we unparked the car and drove about 15 minutes to an area of salt pans, Salobrar de Campos.
We parked up easily and walked the road, mainly, all the way to the beach. On the right we had the open salt pans with Black-winged Stilts, Greater Flamingos, Pied Avocet and Kentish Plovers, on the left a scrubby slope with scattered low bushes and a few trees here and there with Sardinian and Cetti’s Warblers, European Greenfinches, Theklas Larks, Spotted Flycatchers, Common Stonechat and Common Linnets. There were a number of European Turtle Doves calling and flying around which was nice and we went off track at one stage to try to track down a singing Nightingale (one of my target birds). We did track it down, but behind an unscaleable fence, deep in the bush and we left it singing – there’ll be more, he said, optimistically.
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| Theklas lark |
Other birds of interest – Booted Eagle, 1, fly over, another Western Marsh Harrier and a Red Kite, a few Serin, not seen well, a couple of Stone Curlew and a single Hoopoe – all fly aways.
At the end the road came to the beach and we sat and scoped the horizon. (Note: I hadn’t brought my scope, saving baggage weight. Mr H had his) Very distantly a few large pale-bellied Shearwaters and a handful of smaller darker birds were identified as Cory’s Scopoli's and Balearic Shearwaters respectively.
Walking back to the car was not as productive as the wind had increased and the morning was getting on to early afternoon anyway. We drove back home and, after a saunter around town settled for a meal at the restaurant at our front door.
We had soup starter – a large bowl we shared from the middle of the table with bread and olives – then Mr H had the chicken and I had the fish. We emptied a bottle of red and I finished with a piece of tart. All for e24 ~$Aus35 which was a very pleasant way to spend a couple of hours.
By the time we left the table, neither of us being drinkers, we were well ready for a siesta.
When we woke up 2 hours later we went for another wander to the other side of town but didn’t find anywhere exciting or see anything else apart from a single butterfly – Painted Lady and a Beetle sp.
Day List: 36 Majorca Trip List: 36 (1) Majorca Mammal List: 1
DAY 11 Thursday 5.5.22
Up and at ‘em early. Another poor quality morning weather-wise. Wind continuing to blow, cool, almost cold, spitting rain at times. We returned to the salt pans but at a different location entering near a hotel.
A lot of the same birds as yesterday, but more small waders – Little Stints, Curlew Sandpipers, Common Redshanks, 1 Spotted Redshank, 1 Common Greenshank, Common Sandpiper, 1 Sanderling. Other additions – Western Yellow (Iberiae) Wagtail, Little Egret, Corn Bunting, Sand Martin ect. The mud was heavy and clinging and it was a bit of a relief to get back close to the car and get the extra weight off our feet. By then the rain had cleared and the light improved somewhat.
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| A not very good Spotted Redshank |
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Greater Flamingo - pretty boring birds really |
In the field before the actual salt pan track I found a live snail – it turned out to be an endemic Balearic snail - Snake Snail Allognathus balearicus which was pretty cool.
We headed to Far del Cap Salines, about 20 minutes drive. On the way we stopped off a couple of times along the road to check the fields. The landscape appeared to be abandoned farms with overgrown fields of weeds and shrubs. Good birding conditions, although we didn’t actually see a lot of birds. I did get my first tick of the trip – a rather unsatisfying view of a high flying Greater Short-toed Lark doing its display thing and just getting higher and higher. We also our first crow of the trip – Northern Raven – and our first Common Kestrels perched up on poles along the road.
Arriving at the headland we ran into a tour group of UK birders, mostly in the next age group above ours. Offshore at least 60 Cory’s corrected to Scopoli's Shearwaters and ~15 Balearic Shearwaters could be seen quite well even without a scope. We didn’t pay much attention to them honestly because we had a trip booked to the island of Cabrera where we expected to see these birds close up. Unfortunately later in the afternoon the trip was cancelled due, they claimed to the windy weather. Hopefully we can re-book next week before we leave, as it’s a trip I really wanted to do.
As we wandered the low headland we saw several small birds actually fly in off the sea and immediately dash for cover in the thick, low scrub. A Willow Warbler and a Melodious Warbler (my first since France in the 1970s) were definitely seen well enough to ID and we suspect the Whinchat, Common Whitethroat and Northern Wheatears may have arrived the same way.
We also had one Clouded Yellow among the many Painted Ladys and another Beetle sp.
By this time we were pretty knackered so opted to head home and have a rest before once again partaking of the mid day meal at the same restaurant for the same price, except this time we both started with an octopus salad and Mr H had the fish and I had the grilled chicken.
Then a couple of hours of rest before we headed out again.
This time we returned to the road we were on at the salt pans yesterday. We found the rough ground to the left and the water on our right gave us a good selection of birds. The wind seemed to have increased in strength and it was tough birding, but the sun was shining and we did see a couple of ‘new’ butterflies. Large White and Small Copper – the latter I don’t think I’ve seen since I was a young lad.
We also had a couple of Red-legged Partridges sprinting along, a perched up Woodchat Shrike and a perched up Moorish Gecko, which I had been hoping for.
We gave up after an hour or so, the wind was just too much and headed home for the evening.
Day List: 61 Majorca Trip List: 63 (2) Mammal List: 1 Butterfly List: 4 Reptile List: 1 (1)
DAY 12 Friday 6.5.22
We got up at about 7, had eggs for breakfast, packed up and left by about 8. It was time to move on to new fields.
We headed out of town and a few ks up the road saw a distant European Pine Marten lopping across the road. Pretty cool – a lifer for me, although it was pretty distant. However, at the last minute we decided we would re-visit Far del Cap Salines, the headland we had been at the day before, and turned off down the quiet side road.
A few ks in and a second Pine Marten was on the road! I drove up and stopped and it lopped off the road right in front of us, climbed the wall beside the road and walked along, 10 meters away, stopping to look at us! Awesome!! Mr H tried to get my camera to me as it was on my side of the road, but it disappeared before I could get it in shot. Absolutely brilliant!! Always wanted to see a Pine Marten and this was an awesome view.
The day only got better.
We parked up 100 meters short of the headland and Mr H called several Common Nightingales singing – even I could hear them. Cutting a longish story short, with a bit of ‘encouragement’ we ended up seeing one singing full bore. The songs are obvious, but the birds are very discreet and difficult to pick up when singing.
Brilliant! Happy as. This had been one of my main target birds. The fact that we heard approx 20 singing during the day didn’t mean much as they are just so hard to actually see. I did tape one of them, but I’ll wait till I get a better tape before uploading it.
We hung around the rocks at the point for a short while, but the wind had dropped and there were few shearwaters off the coast and little happening on the incoming migrant front so we headed off again towards our new destination an hour or so to the north.
On the way we stopped off at Portocolom and walked the headland through the low juniper and thick, spiky bushes. We got lucky and found a pair of Balearic Warblers! We saw another two individuals, but this first pair behaved well and sat up briefly, just enough time for me to get the camera on them for a successful outcome!
(There were a lot of Clouded Yellows around too, although I have seen them and featured them before on my blog)
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Balearic Warbler |
Brilliant, Bird lifer no 2 and another target achieved! There wasn’t much else at the headland, apart from a couple of Blue Rock Thrushes and we were pretty knackered by the time we got back to the car around 11.30 so headed into the village for a coffee or two.
We did have a new butterfly for the trip – Wall Brown. I also took pictures of Painted Lady as there were just so many of them.
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Wall Brown Lasiommata megera |
That need satisfied and a bit of a sit down restoring strength we unparked the car and headed further north to Manacore where we stopped for a leisurely midday dinner of steak and salad. Then it was on to our new AirBnB near Albufera Marshes.
Mr H had done very well! We had a house in a walled garden to ourselves. Semi-rural with chickens in the yard, trees, water features, even a small spa pool. Three bedrooms, a large terrace, a large sitting area, a big kitchen – excellent! There was even a small pond type thing with, as we identified later, Iberian Water or Perez’s Frogs calling. We had Serins and a European Blackcap within sight of the easy chairs on the terrace and after dark heard European Stone Curlews and a European Nightjar calling. By then we were the worst for wear after a few glasses of Vino Collapso so didn’t follow up, but we’re here for another 8 days or so, so no rush…..
We did go for a much longer than anticipated walk to the edge of the marshes and saw a heap of birds from a viewing platform. Mr H got another lifer – Marbled Teal – and we also had Black Tern, Whiskered Tern, Common Pochard, Common and Wood Sandpiper, breeding Black-headed Gulls, Little Ringed Plover, Gadwall and a number of other common species and a couple of Red Admiral butterflies showed up too. We had intended to walk to the supermarket, but decided eventually to stagger home and drive instead.
During our walk a bird flew across our view and I called it as a lark – it was semi-distant and we’d seen lots of Thekla’s Larks do exactly the same kind of thing. Mr H binned it and called it as a Golden Oriole, by which time it had disappeared into a distant pine tree. This too was one of my main targets and I was a little miffed. However, I couldn’t fault the day and at least it proves they are around as they don’t breed on the island, just pass through on migration. I wasn’t going to tick it on the view I had, considering I thought it was something else anyway….
We spent the evening, as mentioned above, drinking 20cents-a-gallon plonk and reminiscing.
Day List: 61 Majorca Trip List: 85 (4) Mammal List: 2 (1) Butterfly List: 6
DAY 13 Saturday 7.5.22
We knew something was up when we hit the main road from the house at 8.00. There were traffic cones at intervals along the centre line as we drove in towards Can Picafort. It turned out to be the Ironman Majorca event. There were thousands, literally, of cyclists participating and visiting. Apparently its one of the major Triathlon events worldwide. We didn’t know.
We followed the directions on our sat nav (Mr H’s phone) and then had to follow directions from the police as roads were closed and traffic diverted. At one point we sat at a roundabout for about 30 minutes waiting for a break in the race as one car at a time we were allowed cross the course. It took us about 2 hours to get to our destination and there were still hundreds of cyclists cycling up the hill climb to the Far de Formentes headland. It was pretty painful, but we had no choice.
Finally we managed to get a park at the end of the open road. The lighthouse area 5 kms further along was closed due to road works in that car park itself so we set off on foot. It was a long walk dodging amateur cyclists who persisted in ignoring the ‘No bikes beyond this point’ notices, but at least there was no traffic on the narrow road.
Along the way the birds were thin on the ground but we did add Pied Flycatcher to the trip list and got great views of Firecrest using a little ‘encouragement’. A couple of Blue Rock Thrushes and loads of Great Tits were virtually the only other birds we saw. We stopped a kilometre or so short of the lighthouse itself and sat for a while hoping for our target to pass by – Eleonora’s Falcon. But we were disappointed. At one point a pair of Peregrine Falcons mobbed a Booted Eagle immediately over our heads but otherwise we spent the time trying to differentiate between Commonand, a few, Pallid Swifts which hung around in small numbers.
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| Pied Flycatcher |
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Firecrest  |
We walked back to the car without further event and then descended in a fast moving ‘caravan’ of cars dodging around cyclists and a few pedestrians.
Back on the ‘flat’ ground we wanted to eat so Mr H navigated us to a small village a few ks away. Small being the operative word when it came to the streets. Jesus Christ, they were barely wider than the car and manoeuvring past parked cars and people’s front doors was nerve wracking and I was super-glad when we found a car park on the village outskirts, abandoned the car and walked back in to find a café for lunch. I mean I love the whole Spanish village/town thing with the old buildings and doorways, windows and balconies, but the driving is horrendous and the parking a nightmare.
We found a nice place, not too expensive, away from the main square and settled in to a ham and cheese Spanish omelette for me and a pizza for Mr H.
Finished eating – and feeling a lot better – we headed for home. It took us another hour, dodging around police barricades, closed roads and eager looking amateur cyclists.
While we sat and rested at home I chased down the Perez’s Frogs in the garden ponds. I tried to catch them but they were too quick – I needed Linc and Pat here to get their hands on them! We discovered they come in a variety of forms – some are green, some are brown, some are brown with a single green stripe down their back. They’re called either Perez’s Frogs, Iberian Green Frogs or Iberian Water Frogs, Rana perezi.
I also took photos of the Air BnB to bore and amaze you…….
After a sit for a while Mr H got restless so we drove down to the viewing platform at Albuferra marsh and spent some time looking at the Marbled Teal and other assorted birds – pretty much what we’d seen last night. Mr H spotted a Purple Heron dropping into a reed bed, but I missed it.
Marbled Teal displaying?
Then back home again for a shower and snack and we waited for dusk.
We went out looking for the Nightjar we had heard the previous night and on spec for Scops Owl. Neither eventuated so we crashed early, vino plonko free.
Day List: 53 Majorca Trip List: 93 (4) Mammal List: 2 (1) Butterfly List: 7
DAY 14 Sunday 8.5.22
Up at 6, breakfast and we parked up outside the Albufera Marsh's locked gates by 7.30. We were able to walk in, even though the park wasn’t officially open. We spent the beginning of the morning walking the tracks, visiting the various hides, checking off a number of birds including multiple Sardinian and Cetti’s Warblers, Zitting Cisticolas and Common Nightingales. I finally got an opportunity to get one of the latter on camera.
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| Common Nightingale |
There were plenty of Cattle and Little Egrets, Glossy Ibis, Little Ringed and Kentish Plovers, Gadwall, Northern Mallard and a few Marbled Teal, Black-capped Night Herons, Pied Avocet (some with chicks), Black-winged Stilts and a flock of about 20 Wood Sandpipers.
Other notable birds – singing Great Reed Warbler and Eurasian Reed Warbler, Eurasian Stone Curlews and, finally, distantly and a bit disappointingly, 2 Eleonora’s Falcons. They were obviously different from Peregrines and/or Hobbys but being distant I, for one, felt it an anti-climax.
Around 10.00 we were both feeling the heat and weary from the last few days birding, I guess, so agreed to leave the park and get some coffee.
Once we’d done that we headed back in and tried another track. We were specifically looking for Little Bittern. (We’d also temporarily (?) dipped on Red-knobbed Coot, Collared Pratincole, Squacco Heron and Moustached Warbler to name a few – most of which we’ve seen, but kind of ‘expected’ to see again?)
We didn’t find the Bittern, but had 2 fly-by close views of Purple Heron and a nearby soaring Golden Eagle and, finally again, a close fly-by Eleonara’s Falcon which left me a lot more satisfied. It really was a good view even if only short. (I don’t mean to sound ungrateful, but I’m so used to seeing most birds in Australia at relatively close range I struggle to get excited when a bird is 500-700 meters away, even if it’s a rare Falcon. The fly-by was within 100 meters and the bird’s details so much clearer and, yes, satisfying!)
A drop in at the local supermarket for supplies was necessary before we headed home.
We didn’t do much for the rest of the day by more or less by mutual agreement. We cooked dinner then at 19.45 drove to Palma airport to pick up John, a friend of Mr H’s, who would be with us for the rest of the trip.
Day List: 61 Majorca Trip List: 102 (5) Mammal List: 2 (1) Butterfly List: 8
DAY 15 Monday 9.5.22
We got up relatively early and headed for the Boquer Valley, parked up and set off up the rough, stony track.
It was quite cool, overcast and a cold north easterly blowing but for the next three hours we stumbled on seeing very little. Highlight were 3 Common Crossbills (Balearic subspecies) in a fig tree. Further up the valley a pair of Peregrine Falcons hunted the upper ridges, but apart from a number of Sardinian Warblers and a few singing Blue Rock Thrushes we didn’t see much.
Back near the exit of the valley, however, we had 3 Eleanora’s Falcons circling overhead, providing mainly silhouetted views. Further back a Wryneckcalled and we may have seen t fly off across the fields but ID uncertain.
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| Eleanora's Falcon |
We headed down into the town for coffee and Audouin’s Gulls along the beach.
The Albufereta Marsh was our next location and we stopped first at a platform lookout, before moving on to the hide and main marsh area. A standing Purple Heron provided good views and a single Mute Swan was the first of the trip, other than that it was the usual Black-winged Stilt/Pied Avocet/Kentish Plover set up. After that we stopped off for lunch, then headed home for a short rest.
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| Purple Heron |
Finally we walked down to the viewing platform near the waterworks at Albuferra to see mostly the usual stuff, before imbibing in olives, bread and plonko collapse.
Day List: 68 Majorca Trip List: 108 (5) Mammal List: 2 (1) Butterfly List: 8
DAY 16 Tuesday 10.5.22
We were up early – with a bit of encouragement – and managed to get on the road by 6.45. It was a good hour’s drive to our destination – one of the longer expeditions of this trip. The road up the mountains was a test of whatever rally driving skills I could display, given I was driving a manual, left hand drive, on the ‘wrong’ side of the road in a vehicle not necessarily designed for rally type driving.
We did get there in one piece, much to everyone else’s relief I think – and headed in along the main walking track. We were close to the highest peak in the island and the lake was dead flat and still.
It was pretty quiet for the most part, plenty of Common Chaffinches, but not a lot else. After a half an hour or so, Mr H and I both noticed a movement in a tree and binned a Moltoni’s Warbler, one of our targets for the day. No chance of photos as it was a clear but brief view before the bird flew across the track and disappeared into the trees. That was it for this target.
Further on we scrambled up the hillside above a long abandoned quarry in search of Common Rock Thrush reputed to be in the vicinity. We saw no sign, despite some hard climbing and scanning. We did find another quarry on the way down – a single Tawny Pipit showed well.
During the morning, too, we had 1 Black Vulture and at least 3 Griffon Vultures circling high above the valley and later, 1 Golden Eagle doing the same. Other than that it was a lot of effort for not much else.
I did manage to tape a Common Nightingale:
Near the end of the walk we saw a single European Pond Turtle Emys orbicularis on the bank.
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| European Pond Turtle Emys orbicularis |
We headed down the mountain and turned off at Lluc (pronounced Yeuch) to have lunch in Pollensa, then decided on the basis of reports in E-bird to try for Red-footed Falcons we had been told were in the vicinity of Santa Margalida, a few minutes from ‘home’. We drove the farm tracks for about two hours but didn’t find the relevant location. A quick call at the supermarket before we went home to update our supplies finished the main day’s adventures.
We did visit the lookout platform at Albuferra again and found a Slender-billed Gull on the closest pond - apparently a rare migrant to Majorca. As we left the garden a Hoopoe was feeding on the roadside.
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| Hoopoe |
We hung out at home for the evening and at 20.45, just before dusk headed off to a nearby area called Campanet. We had done some research on Eurasian Scops Owl on E-bird and had found a recent record. We arrived on site at a dusty junction in the middle of nowhere and within a few minutes heard a distant call. We followed it up up a rough road past several houses until with a bit of ‘encouragement’ had the response we hoped for and an individual perched up on an electricity pole within easy viewing range. Unfortunately the photos weren’t great, but it was just brilliant to see the bird. We also heard a Common Nightjar and one call of a probable Barn Owl.
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| Eurasian Scops Owl |
We headed home happy and celebrated with a glass or two of Ponche.
Day List: 65 Majorca Trip List: 116 (7) Mammal List: 2 (1) Butterfly List: 8
DAY 17 Wednesday 11.5.22
We got up early enough, but were away later than I would have preferred, not entering the gate to Albufera Marsh until 8.15. It was quiet enough to start, but by 10 the place was hopping and the heat oppressive.
We visited the same hides and saw much the same stuff as on the previous visit. We did, finally, find a single Red-knobbed Coot that got me over that bogey bird, having searched for it in Spain on two previous occasions. It’s a re-introduced bird here (1991), but I was happy to tick it.
Red-knobbed or Crested Coot
We also had good stuff like a Common Nightingale out in the open singing its heart out:
And a Great Reed Warbler obliged and climbed to the top of the reeds:
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| Great Reed Warbler |
We did have a distant perched up Peregrine Falcon that had us going for a while and a distant fly-by Eleanora’s Falcon.
By 11.00 it was time to get out, the crowds included non-birders on pushbikes and even a couple on electric scooters, so get out we did and headed down the tourist strip for coffee and a rest. Then we started to drive home, but decided on the way to go to Santa Margalida and have lunch there before conducting another fruitless Red-footed Falcon search of the surrounding fields.
We filled up with fuel from a quarter tank – 2.05 euro/litre = $Aus3.09/litre at today’s exchange rate. Total = 82euro = $Aus123.00.
After a lazy evening we drove to two local lookout platforms just before dusk but saw nothing else exciting or different. The European Nightjar was calling as we did the daily log.
Day List: 60 Majorca Trip List: 118 (8) Mammal List: 2 (1) Butterfly List: 8
DAY 18 Thursday 12.5.22
We got away relatively early for the 35 minute drive to Mortix, a location described to us by other birders which held some promises. At 7, we parked up and headed in, past the vineyards and on up the valley. There were some steep sections, but after one and a half hours we reached the end, well short of the coast.
The track was quite birdy - mostly familiar and repeated stuff - but being a bit earlier than normal, quite a lot of activity.
The most significant, but a little disappointing, was a single Golden Oriole singing in a grove of olive trees. We didn’t really have much chance to ‘see’ it in the trees as it departed down a side valley before we got any way close.
One the return walk we had very distant, high, Black and Eurasian Griffon Vultures, a single medium distance, very dark Eleanora’s Falcon, a probable (distant) Booted Eagle and 2, more distant, potential Bonelli’s Eagles that we agreed not to ‘call’. A Cirl Bunting put on a nice show, but I couldn’t get a calling Eurasian Wryneck within view, despite some ‘encouragement’.
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| Cirl Bunting |
We drove down to a nearby village and parked easily on the outskirts, stopping at the first café for the usual morning brew.
Then we drove to the first lookout point on the Formentor peninsula. As usual it was crowded with bikes, buses, tourists and locals. We were lucky in getting an easy park and sat for a while hoping for raptor flybys. Nothing much occurred apart from some, again very distant, Vultures and a few Pallid Swifts.
Time for lunch back at the coffee café, then a quick drop in to the trees near Albufereta Marsh without any excitement, and home for a lazy late afternoon.
Mr H and John walked into town and the supermarket. I spent the rest of the evening reading and drinking coffee.
Day List: 56 Majorca Trip List: 120 (9) Mammal List: 2 (1) Butterfly List: 9
DAY 19 Friday 13.5.22
John decided he would spend the day locally so Mr H and I set off early for the Arta area, west of Can Picafort.
It turned out to be a bit of a nothing-much-to-report day as we didn’t see anything specific or particularly exciting. We tried three different areas around the Betlem/Arta area and the best viewing we had were of 3 Black Vultures circling fairly low over the road.
We did find a dead North African Hedgehog Atelerix algirus as road kill, but left it as was found.
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| North African Hedgehog Atelerix algirus |
We had lunch in Arta at a close-to-local-style café and then headed back to home.
We didn’t do much for the rest of the afternoon/evening.
Day List: 57 Majorca Trip List: 120 (9) Mammal List: 2 (1) Butterfly List: 9
DAY 21 Sunday 15.5.22
Mr H and I went into Albufera Marsh on a mission to try for Little Bittern. We walked in at 7 and walked out at 9.15 still Little-Bittern-challenged. Just the usual stuff without visiting many of the hides. We did positively identify a Small White – my first of the trip, but have probably dismissed a lot as Large …..
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| Small White Pieris rapae |
I also took photos of a butterfly we have incorrectly being calling Wall Brown. We HAVE seen Wall Browns but the very similar butterflies at, probably a range of sites and definitely Albufera have been, in fact, Speckled Woods. In our experience Speckled Woods (in Ireland anyway) have a base brown/grey colour. The butterflies in Majorca have been a bright orange colour – very similar to that of the Wall Brown, but the wing pattern on examination is identical to (Irish) Speckled Woods. An interesting variation we had not expected.
We also had a nice Great Crested Grebe on one of the ponds.
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| Great Crested Grebe |
By 10.00 we had packed up, cleaned up and locked up and we headed out to dump the rubbish. Then it was an hour’s drive towards Palma for the flight home.
We stopped off for coffee near Capo Blanco, then walked around Capo Blanco for a while. We found an empty tortoiseshell that I retrieved to take home and had a few Tawny Pipits on the headland.
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| Tawny Pipit |
I also managed to get a close Hoopoe calling;
We moved on to Llucmajor, a nearby village, and had lunch. This time we shared a paella – loads of rice, a few big prawns, possibly langoustines, mussels ect… Wasn’t entirely to my taste but the other two ate their fill.
We left the car back with Hertz around 15.30 and processed ourselves through the airport for our flight to Belfast at 18.20.
The flight took off late but we landed at 20 30 in one piece and waited for our luggage to be off loaded. That took 40 minutes before our bags came out in the first wave. As a result we missed two buses to Belfast and had to wait another half an hour for the third at 21.50. I also discovered I had left my reading glasses in the seat pocket – something I have never done before. On enquiry I was advised to call after 10.00am the next day.
We got on the third bus and got off in Belfast central at 22.30 where Mr H’s daughter, Susan, picked us up and we were at his place 15 minutes later. (Cost 5Pounds=$Aus8.85)
Final Majorca count (I think)
Day List: 51 Majorca Trip List: 124 (9) Mammal List: 3 (1) Butterfly List: 12 (1)
Reptile List: 3 (2) Amphibian List: 1 (1) Additions to my Spanish (Bird) List: 21
My Spanish list now stands at 215 My European list at 386
DAY 22 Monday 16.5.22
We woke to a complete contrast weather-wise. Overcast, raining and a cool wind. After breakfast Mr H and I headed out to the southern Lough Neagh area. We visited several locations around the lough some with hides and others just viewed from the road. The weather came and went, but eventually brightened up and the sun shone.
The woods and fields were pretty birdy with individuals singing and collecting food for young – again a contrast with Majorca where the open areas seemed almost birdless at times. We saw a few of my favourites including Long-tailed Tits, Common Reed Buntings, Eurasian Treecreeper and Eurasian Tree Sparrow. We also had a threesome of Common Redpoll – not as common as its name suggests – and a Common Snipe sat up on a fence pole and ‘chirruped’ away.
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Common Snipe   I taped a Sedge Warbler singing: and a brief performance by a Song Thrush |
The butterflies came out in some force once the weather cleared up and we had numbers of Orange Tips, Small Whites, 1 Red Admiral and at least 1 Green-veined White. Orange Tips are one of my Irish favourites and I couldn’t help featuring them again.
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Small White Pieris rapae |
We gave it away around lunchtime.
During the morning I rang the Easyjet help line regarding my glasses. They took my number and said they would call back ‘in an hour or two’. At this stage, 6 hours later I have again rung them and left a message as it appears they have gone home around 16.30 without any update.
My niece also contacted me and advised that the insurance for me to drive her car had come through at a 200 euro cost. Needless to say I was happy to pay that and cancel the 1,700 euro/$Aus2,500 hire car I had been due to pick up on my return to Dublin on Wednesday……
We hung around drinking a box of vino collapse we had brought home until 21.30 when the light started to fade then we set out on a Long-eared Owl hunt. It was a pretty perfect evening, dead calm, only slightly overcast, dry, cool. We walked to a nearby woodland where Mr H had had LEO in previous years.
Cutting a long story short we didn’t see or hear any LEOs. However, Mr H brought along his bat detector and using the instrument was able to identify Common Pipistrelle Pipistrellus pipistrellus, Soprano Pipistrelle Pipistrellus pygmaeus and Nathusius’ Pipistrelle Pipistrellus nathusii as they flew around our heads under the trees. We didn’t actually see the Nathusius’ so I was a bit reluctant to claim it as a lifer, but it is a bat and they are hard to see so…
It was a couple of hours expedition and we got back home at 23.30 and crashed.
Day List: 64 Irish Trip List: 85 Mammal List: 7 (2) Butterfly List: 6
DAY 23 Tuesday 17.5.22
We got up a bit later than normal to a grey, drizzly, overcast, misty morning. When we did get out we decided to head for the coast as there was a strong south-easterly blowing.
We ended up at St John’s Pt initially and sat and watched hundreds of Manx Shearwaters (my totem bird as my grandson Pat would say) pass north, some only 100 meters of the low rocks.
We also had groups of Black-legged Kittiwakes, Razorbills and Common Guillemots, Northern Gannets, 4 Red-throated Divers and, eventually, 1 Arctic Skua. It was a typical northern hemisphere seawatch – wind blowing, rain drizzling, cold and optic-challenging – the way a good seawatch should be, but not great for photography. Trying to keep the camera lens rain free and with the mist…..
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Black-legged Kittiwakes  |
We left and headed to get coffee, then visited a couple more areas just checking for potential migrants and general birding. We visited Strangfordwhere the ferry crosses the strait to the Ards Peninsula. In the bay, about 200 meters offshore an island supported a breeding colony of Black-headed Gulls and a few Arctic Terns. The conditions were just not great for photography – well, that’s my excuse…
We walked out along the beach, past a small Sand Martin colony in the 5 meter high cliff, to the rocks at the end. It was pretty quiet; we had 2 Arctic Skuas almost immediately but very little else. Along the foreshore we had a couple of Northern Wheatears, probably recent arrivals, and in the sand dunes Mr H showed me a Green-winged Orchid Orchis morio, a threatened and relatively rare plant in the UK and Ireland. I also found a common, but nicely marked, live, Grove or Brown-lipped Snail Cepaea nemoralis.
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Green-winged Orchid Orchis morio |
The rain worsened and having been out and about for 5 hours we decided to make it a day and headed home.
Day List: 51 Irish Trip List: 95 Mammal List: 7 (2) Butterfly List: 6
DAY 24 Wednesday 18.5.22
Time to leave Belfast and return to Dublin. We had breakfast, then Mr H dropped me off at the central bus station at 9. By 9.30 I was on the Aircoach to Dublin airport. (Cost 16euro = $Aus24.00).
An hour and 50 minutes later after a half dozing trip, we arrived at Terminal 2 and I disembarked. I immediately found the bus I wanted – another Aircoach heading south. I bought a return ticket as I wasn’t sure what my situation would be in 3 weeks time getting back to the airport. (Cost 19euro = $Aus28.50) and another hour later – traffic through Dublin was slow – left the bus to walk the 10 minutes to Mum’s place.
Didn’t do anything or go anywhere for the rest of the afternoon.
Day List: 0 Irish Trip List: 95 Mammal List: 7 (2) Butterfly List: 6
DAY 25 Thursday 19.5.22
Didn’t do much during the day – having no available transport. Walked down to Stillorgan shopping centre and had my hair cut in preparation for the Big Event on Saturday night.
Walked home.
Hung around all afternoon, started re-watching Ozark on Netflix. Probably should have at least walked somewhere as the weather was beautiful, but didn’t.
Lorraine arrived around dinner time and, after a while hanging out with Mum, we headed down to her place, at Blainroe, south of Wicklow town. We chatted till midnight then crashed.
Day List: 0 Irish Trip List: 95 Mammal List: 7 (2) Butterfly List: 6
DAY 26 Friday 20.5.22
After breakfast we took the dog, Roo, an energetic terrier, for a walk on the semi-private beach near Lorraine’s, then back home. I headed back to Stillorgan, now in ‘possession’ of my niece’s car for the rest of my stay.
Having done shopping for the coming weekend, I booked return flights to Seville, Spain for 6th June!
Lorraine had convinced me to join her at her place on the southern coast of Spain for a few days – I hadn’t needed a lot of convincing, as I figure by then I’ll have done all I can do in Ireland and watching Mum sleep is a little boring, at best - all due respect.
I decided to fly on 6th and return with Lorraine on the 9th (she’s flying out on the 1st). It’s not a particularly cheap expedition, but I am keen to see her house and spend time with her. (Flights with Ryanair: 320euro = $Aus480, popular time of year. Car hire: 148euro=$Aus223).
And, after all, its only money – sorry kids!
Day List: 0 Irish Trip List: 95 Mammal List: 7 (2) Butterfly List: 6
DAY 27 Saturday 21.5.22
Did little, mainly hung around waiting to pick up Mr H at 15.30 from the Luas on his arrival from Belfast.pl
At 18.30 we got the no 11 bus to Clonskeagh and walked down the track beside the Dodder river to Donnybrook and the Old Wesley Rugby Football Club building where the 50th Reunion of our High School class started at 19.00.
It was a big night. Meeting guys we hadn’t seen since 1972 – and had had no contact with – trying to recognise individuals and remembering incidents and teachers and occasions and the 10 members of the group who have passed in the interim. We had a couple of drinks, a sit-down meal and then more drinks before Mr H and I bummed a lift to Stillorgan and walked home, arriving at 1am.
It was a big night, as I said, with so much information it was hard to get your head around it. There were 35 members of the original 67 (or 57, in reality) present. I was the only one to have come from Australia, but there was 1 guy from South Africa, 1 from Canada, 1 from New York and several from the UK, most had travelled widely, but lived in Dublin or other parts of Ireland. We were still processing the event the next day and will be for some time, I guess.
Day List: 0 Irish Trip List: 95 Mammal List: 7 (2) Butterfly List: 6
DAY 28 Sunday 22.5.22
We were up by 8 and Mr H and I headed out for breakfast. We couldn’t find anywhere open for a meal, but eventually found a coffee and pastry breakfast in Blackrock.
Back home we made sure Mum was set up for lunch, then we headed out to Kilcoole.
On site we walked down the beach seeing much the usual stuff, checked the Little Tern colony on the beach, now completely fenced off with birds sitting and feeding offshore all along the beach. A singing Common Whitethroat showed well if a little distantly.
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| Common Whitethroat |
Nothing much remarkable, but added Common Blue to the trip list with about 4 individuals.
We returned to the car and drove to Newcastle and the East Coast Nature Reserve again. We spent some time in the hides adding Common Kingfisher to the trip and my site list which was nice. We also had Great Spotted Woodpecker and singing Eurasian Reed Warblers (had had them at Kilcoole too, but no sightings.) A couple of Sika Deer snuck through the reed bed and showed quite well.
I took some photos of a White-tailed Bumblebee that I think was a queen.
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| White-tailed Bumblebee Bombus lucorum |
Driving back from Newcastle an American Mink crossed the road in front of us.
Mr H had Eurasian Hobby on his mind, apparently – he wouldn’t stop talking about seeing one….and suggested we drive down another narrow road to 6 Mile Point, a simple access point to the beach which allowed us to walk again, down the back of the beach. We parked up and set off. About 15 minutes in and Mr H, scanning the sky declared a falcon. It was a bit distant but we sat and watched it for about 30 minutes and it was definitely a Eurasian Hobby. We’d both seen it before, but it was an Irish tick for Mr H. We also had a Common Kestrel for comparison and a Common Buzzard showed up as well. A second pair of Sika Deer showed in the reed here as well.
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| Eurasian Hobby - pretty poor, but what can you do? |
I got some shots of a Red-tailed Bumblebee.
We eventually headed back and tried to find access to its soaring area but there was nothing obvious – all private farmland with farm houses ect. So we headed home for the evening.
Day List: 55 Irish Trip List: 100 Mammal List: 9 (2) Butterfly List: 7
DAY 29 Monday 23.5.22
We left Dale Rd at 7 and reached the north end of Cahore wetland, east of Gorey at 8.00.
Neither of us had birded the location before. It was a wetland area, approx 500 meters wide (?) extending south behind a line of medium sand dunes, backed by farmland, including a 21 piece wind farm.
We chose to walk down a narrow bund between two channels. There were heaps of Eurasian Reed Warblers singing and flitting between the reeds – I think Mr H counted in excess of 25, a very high number for Ireland.
Eurasian Reed Warbler: XC726416
Within a couple of hundred meters a male Garganey flushed and we had excellent flight views as it passed us and partly obscured view when it landed. This was my first Garganey in Ireland and only my second experience of the bird.
A bit further on and Mr H called Bearded Tit. With a bit of encouragement we had 4 birds flitting between reeds within 5 meters of us. Unfortunately I didn’t get any acceptable photos of the males, but a few of the female were OK. Bearded Tits are difficult in Ireland, only being seen in a few locations along the eastern coast.
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| female Bearded Tit |
Before the bund became too overgrown to walk further we had a Western Marsh Harrier in flight – only my second Irish observation, again a tough bird in Ireland.
We also found a (probable) Common or Wandering Pond Snail....
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| Common or Wandering Pond Snail Ampullaceana balthica (I think) |
We retreated back to the car and headed south to the southern end of the marshland. As we parked up a calling Common Cuckoo could be seen perched up on a dead tree – first for the trip.
We walked in and located a previously reported, long-staying Cettis Warbler. This, again, is an extremely rare bird in Ireland, although they are becoming quite common in the UK. We only had a couple of fleeting glimpses of the bird, but having seen dozens in Majorca, this wasn’t an issue. Another first for Ireland, for both of us this time.
As we walked back out a small butterfly took our attention. It was a Small Heath, which Mr H assured me was a common enough species. I don’t think I have seen it before – and if I have it would have been in the ‘60s so, as good as a lifer!
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| Small Heath Coenonympha pamphilus |
Having hit all our targets and then some, we headed south, down the road a bit, to Kilmuckridge where we found a creative café with an interesting menu and had coffee.
Then we turned north, basically homeward bound, and turned off to Cahore Pt to have a look offshore – we didn’t see much as the sea was calm, the sun was shining and the wind had dropped off completely. A couple of distant Northern Gannets and 3 passing Sandwich Terns was all. Linc, my 8 year old grandson rang me, which was pretty cool and we chatted for a few minutes via Whats App.
Back in the car we chose to take the ‘coast’ road rather than the main highway and wound our way through narrow bends and over humpy bridges as far as Arklow before turning inland to Avoca. At the Meeting of the Waters we saw a couple of Grey Wagtails, but failed to find any White-throated Dippers.
On again and we decided to have lunch. About 20 ks short of our expected lunch stop the 'petrol low' warning started flashing in the car and we proceeded gingerly, coasting down any hills we could and trying to keep the acceleration to a minimum. It was a stressful time as it started to rain quite heavily, there was a slow bastard in front of us and the warning increased in speed until I was sure we weren’t going to make it.
But we did and I happily pumped 57 euros worth of Unleaded at 1.89/litre into the tank. ($Aus85.00, $Aus2.84/litre). I reckon there was no more than a tea spoonful left....
We had lunch at a nearby café – The Hen and Hog – and then headed for Newcastle again. It was close to Mr H’s destination, his brother’s house, where he was staying the night, prior to heading back to Belfast the next day. We sheltered from another shower there, but saw nothing special, however a pair of Common Reed Buntings performed well and I couldn't resist, they're such a smart bird.
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| Common Reed Bunting Video of same.... |
We drove to his brother’s place, I had a cup of coffee with his brother and wife, then headed home myself.
Day List: 58 Irish Trip List: 107 (2) Mammal List: 9 (2) Butterfly List: 9 (1)
DAY 30 Tuesday 24.5.22
No birding today. I got up late, had breakfast and took the Luas into Stephen’s Green. I wandered around the tourist gift shops trying to find things for the boys back home, visited Trinity and went for my usual pilgrimage to Captain America’s for a cheeseburger and memories. I always feel a little melancholic when I remember those two years I worked there. How they formed and influenced so much of my later life. For better or worse? Who knows……………….. but they were good years!
I did see a Grey Squirrel when I was walking up to the Luas – the third or fourth on this trip, actually – but other than that, and a Grey Heron flying low over Stephen’s Green, nothing to report today.
Day List: 0 Irish Trip List: 107 (2) Mammal List: 9 (2) Butterfly List: 9 (1)
DAY 31 Wednesday 25.5.22
I decided to go to Wexford. I knew a strong (20-25 knot) westerly was blowing and ‘felt the call of Carnsore Pt’.
Left home at 6.20 and arrived on site at 8.10.
Carnsore Pt is the bottom right hand corner of Ireland. I have always had a soft spot – and a big belief – in Carnsore. I still don’t believe it’s watched enough. Surely at this position there must be good stuff passing regularly? There have been some good birds seen over the past 40 odd years, but I still think its full potential has not been discovered. Just my thoughts – for what they’re worth.
It’s a low headland with a rocky shore hutting out into the junction of the Irish sea and the Atlantic ocean. The seating position is no more than 10 meters above sea level, if that. There is a grassy hollow that provides protection from almost any wind except a direct southerly, which I think is rare. You’re basically sitting on your ass on the grassy slope hunkered down just below ground level with the edge of the ocean about 75 meters away. The birds, in my experience, don’t pass particularly close, but certainly within easy scope view and with the howling westerly wind I had this morning, they were slow going around the headland into the teeth of the gale. Incidentally there is a wind farm on the headland and the whoosh, whoosh, whoosh of the blades in the background is a bit weird at first.
There were plenty of birds passing, heading west, with the odd individual hurled back by the wind for a second go. Auks – Razorbills and Common Guillemots - dominated the scene with small groups in the main, beetling along towards the Saltee Islands where they breed, a few sitting on the ocean drifting with the apparently fast current, also heading west. Manx Shearwaters, to my pleasure, were in good numbers. I didn’t do any counts as they are, more or less, local birds, not on passage at this time of year, but a conservative estimate would be approx 300/hr. Northern Fulmars, another favourite of mine, zooming in and out of the waves, always looking to me like they’re watching you out of the corner of their eye. Northern Gannets making little of the wind thanks to their size and strength and finally a selection of Terns in small numbers – Little, Common, Arctic and Sandwich.
I didn’t see any Skuas – all probably up north breeding now – or Storm Petrels or Puffins, both of which I thought were possibles – and have had before at this location. Never the less it was a satisfying hour and a half as a busy seawatch always is to me – especially when there are Manxies involved!
At the ‘carpark’ – I use that term loosely, but where you leave your car at the end of the sand dune track 100 meters from the Watchpoint - someone had left what appeared to be a Dolphin skull on a rock. I was very tempted, but resisted and left it in situ.
Heading back to Lady’s Island Lake village I got the necessary coffee and a Mars bar and sat and ate it while watching Roseate Terns on a nearby island colony, Black-tailed Godwits feeding in the grass, a Lesser Black-backed Gull standing watch and a pair of Western Jackdaws demolishing what was left of a probable female Bullfinch.
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Black-tailed Godwits  |
I headed generally in the direction of Tacumshin and, by following my nose, having left maps and iPad at home….found my way to both viewpoints over the marsh. Well, both viewpoints I am familiar with, I’m sure there are others.
There wasn’t a lot to see and the wind didn’t help. Lots of Mute Swans, Northern Mallard and distant Black-tailed Godwits. A few Grey Herons, Little Egrets, a small flock of Dunlin, 2 Northern Shovelers and a single Gadwall and that was about it really. A Common Buzzard put in a slow appearance and put everything up.
I tried for Bearded Tits in the nearby reed bed, but failed to produce, a Sedge Warbler feeding young in a nest and a male Reed Bunting showed some interest but the wind precluded any other activity. As I started to drive away a cock Common Pheasant stuck his head up to see what was what.
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| Common Pheasant |
So at 13.00 I headed home. On both the morning and afternoon drives while hurtling along the M1 at 120-130 kms/hr I did see a Red Kite overhead, but didn’t try stopping the mobile lawnmower once I had it up and going. I was home by about 14.45. Not a great day bird-wise, but it soothes my soul to visit these sites.
Day List: 55 Irish Trip List: 109 (2) Mammal List: 9 (2) Butterfly List: 9 (1)
DAY 32 Thursday 26.5.22
A non-birding day. Pretty miserable weather to start with, showers of misty rain interspersed with bright, sunny periods, but a cold westerly kept it honestly Irish.
I wheeled Mum round to the doctor, about 15 minutes away, for her second Covid booster and a check on what turned out to be a small ulcer on her leg. On the way home, as luck would have it, we had the heaviest shower of the day. Not really my idea of fun, pushing a wheelchair in the rain – and I’m sure it wasn’t a particularly pleasant experience for Herself either. But we persevered without complaint, just sucking it up.
I went to the chemist to fill a script for stuff for her leg, then packed the car and headed (alone) down to Lorraine’s place.
She wanted to build a fence and had enlisted my help. Me? Champion Fence Builder with no experience? Well, be it on her head.
Anyway, we had some lunch then started digging holes for posts.
By 17.30 we had dug and ‘planted’ 6 posts and cemented them in with 10 minute cement. Yep, it went off in 10 minutes – you had to be quick!
We retired to dinner and had a walk down to the beach afterwards as it was a beautiful evening and it was light until about 21.30. Two Grey Seals stuck their heads up to see what the noise on the beach was – it was Roo, Lorraine’s dog, barking at the tennis ball for some mysterious reason.
So far so good…. fence-wise.
Day List: 0 Irish Trip List: 109 (2) Mammal List: 9 (2) Butterfly List: 9 (1)
DAY 33 Friday 27.5.22
I got up at 5.30, made a coffee then headed out to Newcastle ECNR again. I had hopes of Grasshopper Warbler and to see the Common Kingfisher again, but didn’t have any luck. It was pretty quiet – maybe I was too early? But I did have a cock Common Pheasant strut his stuff, despite most of his tail missing, along the path in front of me.
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| Common Pheasant (male) Video of same: |
Other than that a reasonable view of a female Great Spotted Woodpecker and a Common Chiffchaff were only notable.
I stopped off at the local hardware shop to get some fence wire and then returned to Lorraine’s for breakfast.
That over, we started erecting the fence.
Made of chestnut ‘stakes’ and wired together she had bought two x 10 meter rolls. My suggestion had been to wire it to the poles we had planted yesterday and between us we agreed to utilise two trees. The gate would wait till we’d finished the fence.
It wasn’t particularly difficult, just challenging to get it tight between the supports and we made decisions along the way in the best ‘completely-inexperienced-but-I-think-that-will-work manner’. Maybe we're not so different after all....
At 13.30 she had to go to attend a client so I spent the next hour and a half finishing the gate.
All in all it worked out pretty well, all things considered, and we were both extremely proud of our accomplishment. I would be happy if it stayed up for another 2 weeks – at least until I’m on the plane back to Australia….
We sort of relaxed for a while as were both pretty knackered, then I headed back to Dale Rd and the Sleeping Beauty, followed by Lorraine, as she had to pick up her repaired car.
Day List: 21 Irish Trip List: 109 (2) Mammal List: 9 (2) Butterfly List: 9 (1)
DAY 34 Saturday 28.5.22
Another non-birding day. Basically hung out at home all morning doing very little. Took Mum for a drive in the afternoon after transferring her from the wheelchair to the car. She didn’t get out of the car anywhere even when we stopped for an ice cream on the Dun Laoghaire waterfront. The weather was lovely - warm, sunny and relatively windless. Loads of people out in shorts and T-shirts. I stuck with jeans.
Day List: 0 Irish Trip List: 109 (2) Mammal List: 9 (2) Butterfly List: 9 (1)
DAY 35 Sunday 29.5.22
Yet another non-birder. Weather was lovely, but hung out at home, did food shopping and that was about it. Lorraine arrived at 15.30 to stay the night. We did go out for a ‘walk’ in the evening – a 'walk' that involved a drive to Mt Merrion Deerpark (my 2km Covid Lockdown birding area in 2020), a meeting with Lorraine’s friend Diana and a pint in a local pub. The Guinness went down like a dream.
Day List: 0 Irish Trip List: 109 (2) Mammal List: 9 (2) Butterfly List: 9 (1)
DAY 36 Monday 30.5.22
Up at 5.30 and I drove Lorraine to the airport for 7.30, dropping her dog off at a carer’s place on the way. Her flight to Spain didn’t leave till 10.20, but there had been chaos yesterday at the airport when there were not enough security guards to man the queues and 1,000 people missed their flights……
I drove home again and, after a couple of internal delays, headed out at 10. My intention was to drive up the mountains and visit a few places with a couple of targets in mind – Common Crossbill being the main one. Surprisingly I’ve never recorded it in Ireland. It seemed strange, given the amount of ground we covered back in the day (70’s mainly), but I don’t appear to have ever seen the bird in Ireland.
I headed first to Lough Bray - just because I like to see it’s dark surface looming below the glacier carved cliff.
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| Lough Bray |
I went on then to Coronation Plantation, a site I have never visited before, but at which Crossbills had been seen recently. Parked up and walked in along the public trail, part of the Wicklow Mountains National Park. There was a perfect Dipper stream alongside the track that joined a bigger river further down, but I failed to find a bird. That was unusual given how common the species is in the mountain streams.
I did see a few Coal Tits and a few other bits and pieces and finally reached a scattered grove of older pines and my primary target, Common Crossbill. I saw about 6 in total but only one male and one female well.
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| Common Crossbill (male) Not the best, but you can only work with what there is! |
I also had a single European Siskin, but there were probably more around. A bonus species was a Red Squirrel that I saw well, but briefly, and disappeared before I could get the camera on it.
It started to rain shortly afterwards so I sheltered and watched the river for a while, hoping for a Dipper, but non eventuated.
Back at the car I headed on down Glenmacnass, beside the waterfall, to Laragh and Glendalough, but didn’t stop at the upper lake. It was 4 euros to park and there was minimal chance of seeing anything new there and I’ve been there dozens of times before. I checked the river beside the ancient cemetery and Round Tower for Dipper again – it has been a reliable spot in the past – but again dipped on the Dipper. Very frustrating.
It was now 13.00 so I stopped at Lynham’s in Laragh for potato and leek soup of the day with ‘Irish soda bread’, and coffee, lunch, that was very nice. Then on to Glenmalure, just to see what it looked like, it had been a long time.
It was a lot of driving on narrow, winding, wobbly roads (thanks to the underlying, unstable peat base), but it was a pleasure to see the ancient peat bogs and rugged hills, the rain showers clouding the higher peaks as they moved through, the ever running little streams spilling down the hillsides, the woolly, white sheep sitting contentedly grazing right beside the road, their fluffy 3 or 4 month old lambs trotting off the road, flicking their tails. The road was largely deserted which made it even more pleasurable.
As I was getting close to Wicklow I decided to check out the woodland that had had regular reports of Long-eared Owl. I thought I had the right location on my iPad, but failed to find the spot I’d visited 2 years before when I had checked the place out with a night visit intended - only to be locked down in the Covid nightmare.
I did see another surprise – a second Red Squirrel scurried up the road ahead of me in a heavily treed section before bouncing into the undergrowth and up a tree.
Two Red Squirrels in one day is, in my experience, pretty hot!
Now within reach of the coast I worked my way through Wicklow town in the traffic and frustration to Wicklow Head and set out at 15.30 along the ‘cliff top walk’. It was not very high, mostly sloping grass to the rocks below, at least until the end, around the lighthouse, which I found inaccessible anyway. From the track, however, I had distant views of Back-legged Kittiwakes and Common Guillemots on and around the cliffs. It appeared there was quite a large nesting colony of both, judging by the activity. There were also European Shags and Great Cormorants knocking around and 1 Black Guillemot sitting on the ocean suggesting a mate on a nest on the cliff somewhere. There were a few Northern Fulmars cruising around, a couple came close to my section of the headland.
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| Northern Fulmar - left slightly out of focus - its an atmospheric thing... |
My sister had told me about a small beach on the headland where Grey Seals regularly pulled out onto the shingle and sand. I didn’t see any animals but there were signs on every access point-advising people to stay away between August and April, so I guessed the seals were not pupping at the moment and hence were not on the beaches.
I did see a Red Kite overhead being mobbed by a Hooded Crow.
It was a stiff walk and the 88 steps back to the car park nearly did for me, but I’d go again, given the chance. It would appear to be an excellent headland for migrants at the right time of year; I assume it is monitored by someone. And seawatching in the right conditions (always looking for seawatching points….)
I headed home, arriving at 17.30 in a heavier downpour.
Day List: 40 Irish Trip List: 113 (3) Mammal List: 10 (2) Butterfly List: 9 (1)
DAY 37 Tuesday 31.5.22
A bit of a nothing day. I had to do some stuff in Dun Laoghaire for Mum so went to the West Pier at 7.30. Walked out and back – obviously – but saw very little, apart from one Grey Seal apparently snoozing in a sheltered part of the harbour.
After I had completed my ‘business’ I drove along the coast to Booterstown Marsh and scoped the flooded reserve. I didn’t stay long as there was very little to see there too. About 20 Black-tailed Godwits, a couple of Grey Herons, Common Shelduck and Common Moorhens.
That was about it.
I took my mother for another drive in the afternoon - Bullock Harbour, Dalkey, Coliemore Harbour to Vico Rd, then on to Greystones and home. At Vico Rd I saw a falcon from the car and on emerging asked a nearby dude with bins if he was a birder? ‘Sort of’ he said, but confirmed my suspicions – it had been a Peregrine Falcon, apparently they breed on Killiney hill. Another addition to the Irish part of my trip list.
Day List: 1 Irish Trip List: 114 (3) Mammal List: 10 (2) Butterfly List: 9 (1)
DAY 38 Wednesday 1.6.22
Headed down to Kilcoole and Newcastle again, getting to the former at 8. Why? Cause at this time of year there isn’t really much happening anywhere and I know and enjoy both these locations – and there are usually good birds.
It was a lovely morning – bright, clear, sunny. Once again the north easterly breeze was a bit ‘fresh’, but other than that, very pleasant. I wandered down the Kilcoole stretch, spending about 2 hours on the return trip.
Nothing outstanding, but good basic birding. A distant Red Kite might be new for site for me and a Northern Lapwing provided an opportunity as it flew around calling – possibly concerned re an errant chick.
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| Northern Lapwing |
A Common Blue perched up nicely.
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| Common Blue Polyommatus icarus |
I met another birder on the return walk – Noel Keogh, whom I seem to bump into somewhere every time I come home! We chatted for a while, then continued our separate journeys.
Down to Newcastle and a coffee from the service station, then parked up and walked in to the ECNR. Again, nothing spectacular, but nice to sit for a while in each hide and watch the comings and goings as birds fed nestlings of various species. I saw the Common Kingfisher again, but, again, it didn’t hang around long enough for the camera. Another distant Red Kite wavered around towards the hills. I added Peacock to the trip butterfly list and saw a couple of Orange-tips. A female Great Spotted Woodpecker visited the feeder and I had a Common Snipe perched up briefly in front of the main hide.
At 13.00 I headed home.
Aisling, my niece, was returning from London and scheduled to arrive at 23.15. I had planned to pick her up. At 21.30 she messaged me to say her flight was delayed. She finally boarded at 23.00 and I was there to collect her at 00.40… we got home at 01.15 to find Mum still up.
We all crashed pretty quickly afterwards.
Day List: 53 Irish Trip List: 114 (3) Mammal List: 10 (2) Butterfly List: 10 (1)
DAY 39 Thursday 2.6.22
Due to the late night I didn’t rush to get up. Aisling was taking the car and driving to Waterford to visit her paternal grandmother so I was transport-less for the day anyway.
I headed into Dublin’s Fair City on the Luas again and sought some more ‘stuff’ for the grandkids, finishing with a cheeseburger and chips at Captain America’s, again – more nostalgia.
The rest of the day was spent continuing to re-watch Ozark.
Day List: 0 Irish Trip List: 114 (3) Mammal List: 10 (2) Butterfly List: 10 (1)
DAY 40 Friday 3.6.22
I didn’t rush out – it was a damp, cool, overcast morning following a night of reasonable rain.
When I did go I didn’t go far. Niall K had mentioned his local park to me in conversation at Kilcoole so I headed there to start with. Kilbogget Parkwas a normal suburban park with a creek running through it and two billabong style ponds – i.e. wider parts of the river. Most of the park’s area was taken up with sports fields and I didn’t bother going there. The bit that was left was pretty small, although the list of birds Niall had accumulated (on E-bird) was quite astonishing. I didn’t see much and headed for Cabinteely Park.
I had spent quite a bit of time birding Cabinteely Park two years ago when lockdowns prevented me going very far. Another suburban park, the ‘birding’ part a fair bit bigger than Kilbogget, there was a pond and hedgerows, deciduous forest and open grassland. Once again I was impressed by the local council’s attitude to cutting grass – leaving large swathes and edges uncut full of Buttercups, Cow Parsley, Nettles and Dock and other, to me, unidentifiable flower type plants/weeds. Perfect for sustaining insect life. It seemed a progressive approach to me.
Again I didn’t see anything remarkable – best bird was probably a male Eurasian Blackcap – but it was interesting to walk the tracks of two years ago and see nothing had changed. I probably saw the same Blackbirds, Song Thrushes ect that I saw then – and remembered what it was like in 2020, waiting for phone calls and wondering if I would ever get home.
That was about it for the morning. Headed home, changed and went food shopping for Herself.
At 20.30 I headed out. My destination was Black Hill, inland from Wicklow town. My target – Long-eared Owl and Woodcock. I was on site at 21.00 and walked in along tracks in the, mainly, pine forest. I hung out on one of the tracks that gave me a bit of a view of the forest and waited for sunset at 21.45. Woodcock normally ‘rode’ at sunset. Unfortunately there was a stiff north easterly blowing which, basically, wiped out most chances of seeing anything. And I didn’t. I tried some encouragement at spots back along the track, but got no responses.
Starting to head home at 22.30 I side-tracked to a second location. Both these sites had had Long-eared Owls calling – the first in May and this second spot in April. Barnaslingan Wood was only 15 minutes from home and I parked up and, again, walked a shorter distance into the forest. Again – no response.
I wasn’t overly surprised. I believe one has to hit the owls when they are establishing territory. Once that is done and they have chicks they are 1. Too busy to answer the call and 2. Just not interested anymore. If the adults were calling in April and May, by now they would have had chicks, so…I headed home owl-less. Maybe next year.
Day List: 19 Irish Trip List: 114 (3) Mammal List: 10 (2) Butterfly List: 10 (1)
DAY 41 Saturday 4.6.22
I wanted to do something apart from sitting at home all day, so after breakfast I headed up the mountains to Coronation Plantation again. I liked this spot the other day and thought it was worth another visit, although I didn’t expect any great things, I was hoping to at least trip tick Dipper and maybe see the Red Squirrel again.
I drove up via Lough Bray and across the misty moorland to the site. Parked up and walked in. It was still blowing a bit of a gale from the northeast so I put my chances of seeing anything at a low expectation.
I walked further up the hill through the mature scattered pines, than I had last time, stopping on occasion and sitting quietly, watching for stuff. I was lucky in that I did have a female Common Crossbill perch up, somewhat against the sky, but within reasonable binning distance. I also heard a Eurasian Siskin singing and saw a few other bits and pieces but no Squirrel. Still Dipper-less I walked/scrambled alongside the narrow river for about a kilometre but left still bereft. I was, again, surprised, because it was a perfect Dipper river, in my opinion and they should have been up there in the mountains breeding now.
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| The perfect Dipper river? |
I didn’t see any Squirrels, but I did see 3 Red Deer hinds. I’m pretty sure they were Red anyway. Reading up on it back home it appears the Wicklow Red Deer have interbred with Sika deer, so are not considered ‘pure’ anymore.
Heading home I dropped down via Lough Tay – one of the locations for filming the Viking series - and now Viking Valhalla offshoot. It’s a very scenic area – and very popular with visitors, now starting to crowd the roads and pull-offs. I got out while the going was good.
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| Lough Tay - and part of the film set |
Day List: 18 Irish Trip List: 114 (3) Mammal List: 11 (2) Butterfly List: 10 (1)
DAY 42 Sunday 5.6.22
A wet, dull, overcast day. I didn't go anywhere. Just packed, checked in for the next day's flight and watched Ozark.
Day List: 0 Irish Trip List: 114 (3) Mammal List: 11 (2) Butterfly List: 10 (1)
DAY 43 Monday 6.6.22
I was due to fly at 10.20.
I had to be at the airport 3.5 hours ahead (2.5 hours for non-dropped bags, an extra hour to drop a bag)
I had to get the Aircoach to the airport - at 6.04.
It was a 10 minute walk to the bus stop.
So I had set the alarm for 4.45.
The alarm went off, I got up, got dressed, packed my tech stuff and dragged my bags down stairs. I made a coffee and ate my oats.
I glanced at my watch.
It was a quarter to six!!
WTF?????
Where had the time gone??
Panic.
Got my boots on, grabbed my bags, dived out the door, force marched to the bus stop, got there in about 7 minutes. Checked my watch, 5.55. OK, should be fine. But what happened?
I checked my phone.
It was 5.20.
WTF???
I realised the crown on my watch must have released during the night and by a sheer quirk, set itself at 5.45....
I now had 40 minutes to wait for the bus and recover....at least I wasn't going to be late.....
An earlier bus came along at 5.40 so I got that. At the airport it took me about 5 minutes to bag drop - amazingly quick.
it took another 55 minutes to get through security. They just don't have enough capacity to manage crowds in Dublin airport. They need more scanners if they are going to schedule a heap of flights at the same time.
So.... 3 hours now to wait to board. All went well from there on, until I got to Seville...
I got through customs with my bag no problem, then went to collect the rental car.
Checking my booking I realised I had to get a shuttle bus to the car depot. Do you think I could find the shuttle bus stop?? Really difficult when you don't speak the language.
Eventually, cutting a longer story short, by luck I found the right place - turn left, walk 200 meters, cross the road, turn right, cross that road and find the relevant notice - and got a bus 10 minutes later.
It took forever to get the car. OK Mobility had some kind of system error and the people in front of me....anyway, I got the car and set off using Maps Me as a guide (brilliant system) and just under two hours later found Lorraine and her place in El Palmar, near Contil de Frontera, north (or really east) of Cadiz.
We caught up and then walked down to the beach to watch the sunset with beers and Lorraine's girlfriend Nic.
Day List: 0 Spanish Trip List: 0 Mammal List: 0 Butterfly List: 0
DAY 44 Tuesday 7.6.22
I set my alarm for 5. When I woke up I realised it was still pitch back, so rolled over and woke again at 6.30 for the sunrise at 7. (It was a late sunrise, but sunset doesn't happen till 21.30.)
I set off at 7 and walked down the road behind the beach for about 30 minutes until I reached a snap dune, heathy reserve place. I continued down the coast for a couple Ks, almost to Contil but didn't see a lot. Loads of Crested/Theklas Larks, Corn Buntings, House Sparrows, Common Starlings, Western Jackdaws, a few Common Stonechats, Zitting Cisticolas, 1 Common Kestrel and at a patch of brackish water, a single Black-winged Stilt and a handful of Kentish Plovers. Bird of the morning was a fly by Northern or Bald Ibis, quite a rare species, but I had seen it before on a previous trip.
Back I walked in the now increasing heat and stopped at a local beach front cafe for a couple of cafe con leche grande and a croissant.
Back at Lorraine's we discussed our plans for the day then headed off in the hire car to pick up Nic and her cat who needed a vet. Then Lorraine and I parked up in Contil and she did a bit of business she needed to complete followed by another coffee stop then off to a beach cafe for a long lunch.
We needed a rest after that so back at her place we did that until it cooled down a bit, then I helped her drill some holes to support the water pipe from the well to the roof tank....
Around 21.00 I left and drove to a site I had marked as a possible Red-necked Nightjar location (thanks to E-bird). I parked up and walked in the well used, worn track followed by a couple of guys on mountain bikes, dog walkers and even a family with a baby. A guy on a scooter stopped to ask me if I had seen a black dog? Nope.
This is not going to end well, I thought. How could any Nightjar survive this kind of disturbance? However, I persevered, found a brilliant looking habitat - sandy heath, scattered Stone Pines, low, thorny bushes interspersed with open places. It looked perfect, but I wasn't optimistic. I sat and waited for the sun to go down.
Then I played for the Nightjar.
Within 30 second a giant sized Red-necked Nightjar hove into view and gave itself up! Wow! Compared to the European Nightjar I saw just a couple of weeks ago in Majorca it was huge!
It disappeared pretty quickly, but re-appeared a few minutes later to circle me about 30 meters away, then it was gone. I didn't see it again.
I reckon it had chicks or a female on eggs and was simply curious, not defending territory hence the rather brief visit and the lack of urgency in its behaviour.
Happy as I drove home.
Day List: 0 Spanish Trip List: 0 (1) Mammal List: 0 Butterfly List: 1
(Currently my external hard drive has failed to connect to my laptop so I have been unable to update my bird lists)
DAY 45 Wednesday 8.6.22
Following on from last night's success I headed out at 7 to try for my second major target of this short, mostly non-birding adventure - Rufous Scrub Robin. Again via E-bird I had a location where the bird had been seen in the last few weeks. It was a side road near Chiclana de la Frontera, about 25 minutes drive.
I followed the directions and arrived..... at an unsealed, dusty, pot holed farming road running through agriculture with scattered houses/farms. There was a disused quarry type place which seemed to be the exact location, as per the E-bird marking.
I spent more than an hour wandering around the immediate neighbourhood, but only saw common stuff, nothing remarkable and certainly no RSRs.
A bit disappointing, but by 9.00 it was getting hot, exposed and I decided to give it away and head home. On the way I stopped off at a location where a Western Bonelli's Warbler had been recorded in early May, but didn't try too hard. It was a public car park and very busy.
I spent most of the rest of the day helping Lorraine around her place, trying to get her internet working and, at one stage, walking down to the beach and having a fairly quick splash in the very cold Atlantic.
In the evening Lorraine, Nic and I went to a seaside/roadside bar just down the road, for a few drinks and tapas, which was all very nice and we staggered home pretty much the worst for wear at the end of the night. It was one way to celebrate the one year anniversary.
DAY 46 Thursday 9.6.22
Didn't rush to get up as I had no birding plans for the day. Really didn't do much, but tidy up and clean - although I didn't do a lot of either, in all honesty.
Went to a local cafe to try to check in for my Australian flight on Saturday, but the time difference threw me and I ended up on the beach with Lorraine & Nic again and another longer wetting in the ocean. The beach was not dissimilar to Southport - a long sandy beach, basically, but backed by sand dunes and no high rise. The area is a Spanish surfing spot, but the waves when I was there were pretty worthless.
We closed up and left at 16.00 for the return drive to Seville, arriving at the OK Mobility depot at 17.30. They declared the car 'OK" and the shuttle bus took us to the airport. I had to wait a while to 'drop my bag', then went through security and hung out till our flight at 21.35. I checked in to the Emirates flight successfully and, thankfully, got a window seat for the Dubai/Brisbane stretch.
The Ryanair flight back to Dublin was the usual shit-fest - they treat their customers like cattle, an oft used term, but so true where Ryanair are concerned. One of my beefs is that they encourage travellers to carry on their luggage - imposing higher prices for checked in bags. They have a mid-way price for 2 cabin bags and 'priority boarding' as a lure. This means they make more money, but it also means people try to carry-on ALL their luggage.
The first problem is people pack toiletries and medicines in their carry-on, so that security is continually having to check bags and their contents which exacerbates the delays and increases the queues in that area.
the second problem is that in the queue you get substantially sized bloody wheelie type bags being dragged up the stairs and down the narrow aisles and then travellers, who are not strong enough, trying to pack their bags into already crowded, overloaded overhead luggage racks.
Not only is this hazardous, in my opinion, but downright time consuming and difficult for the air stewards - who are mostly female - who are also trying to facilitate this ridiculousness. Bags go up and come down and get moved around until a space is found - or they are shoved haphazardly under seats. Its a farce.
However, we made it OK and pretty much on time, which Ryanair prides itself on, landing at about 23.30. We had to wait for the Aircoach at 23.55 - which ended up full - and walked down to Dale Rd at 00.45 - to find Mum still awake.....
DAY 47 Friday 10.6.22
Lorraine had taken the dog (who had stayed with Mum since Aisling dropped her off on Wednesday) and had driven home to Wicklow the previous night.
I got up late, had some breakfast, took my time packing, and washing and sorting the clothes that I was leaving behind, and really did very little for the rest of the day.
I went to bed relatively early.
DAY 48 Saturday 11.6.22
I was up at 7, breakfasted and had my sheets washed and hung out by 8.30. Lorraine showed up at 10 to 9 and we left within 15 minutes. Mum reckoned it was the last time she'd see me, but I doubted that.
I said goodbye to Lorraine at the drop-off at 9.30 and headed inside. The advice had been to be there 3 and a half hours before flight time, plus an hour if you needed to drop a bag or check in - hence my early arrival.
Frustratingly I THEN found the bloody check-in counters for Emirates didn't open until 10.40... Jesus Mary & Joseph...
Coffee time. And when I returned to the check-in counters at 10.30 - there was a queue a mile long already. It took an hour for my turn to come. At which time I was asked had I completed the DPD (Digital Passenger Declaration) for the Australian customs?
No!!!! Wasn't aware I needed one.
OK, she said, you can fill one out on your phone and keep it available to show on arrival and gave me the website (Hone Affairs)
I spent another 75 minutes getting through security. Not an issue for me, although they insisted on scanning my bags twice and checking the contents, but just the masses of people. For a small country Dublin airport is just crazy busy. I guess its really the only airport (in Ireland) to service Europe and the rest of the world - internal flights are minimal in Ireland. Shannon does a few and there's always Belfast, but the latter has minimal international flights and it's another hour and a half away, so.... Dublin is always chaos. And the Irish do like to travel! And drink before travelling. The bars are always open and busy, regardless of the time of day. God.
Anyway. I got a coffee, found my gate, created a new account and completed the DPD on my phone and eventually boarded the Dublin-Dubai leg which left about 30 minutes late.
This worried me because I had a limited time in Dubai to get off the plane, go through a security check (why?) and find the gate to change to the second leg of the journey. However, the pilots did a job and made up some of the time, so we still had an hour in hand on arrival at Dubai - at 1.30am.
I did the process in good time, even had time to grab a smoke in the very well appointed smoking lounges in Dubai airport, before presenting myself for check-in at the relevant departure lounge. I was expecting to be asked for the previously mentioned DPD, but no one did.
The second, 13 hour, 45 minute leg to Brisbane was much more comfortable in one of the new A380s - and with no one sitting beside me, I had the luxury of stretching out on 3 seats and actually getting some sleep. In fact the plane was half empty and it reminded me of the return flight in 2020 when Covid restrictions were in and we were all wondering what it was going to come to - and the plane had been almost completely empty then.
Landed in Brisbane at 22.30 local time. retrieved my bag and exited customs to call an Uber and arrive home at midnight.
And no one in Brisbane asked for the freaking DPD either.
18.4.22
Moggill
Mr D picked me up 6.15 and we were on site by 6.45.
It was quite a birdy morning. Although the walk in was relatively quiet with the only real bird of interest being a perched up Crested Hawk or Pacific Baza the walk ‘out’ turned up up some really good stuff.
A new bird for site was a Restless Flycatcher – a little unusual in the heavily treed environment, more used to seeing these in open rough ground. Sat up on a dead tree above the canopy providing excellent views. A couple of Rose Robins also present with a fully coloured male close to the side track with the river crossing.
But bird of the morning definitely, was an hepatic form Oriental Cuckoo. Very unexpected and out of the blue. Reasonable views through the trees, perched up but not long enough for photos, unfortunately, but typical of the species. We tried some ‘encouragement’ and it appeared to respond initially, but then lost any apparent interest and disappeared.
On the cuckoo-line we also had at least 3 Shining Bronze Cuckoos and 2 Fan-tailed. Other birds of interest included a White-headed Sitella and, on the road outside the reserve, a White-eared Monarch along with about 6 other species for the morning’s list. Mr D also saw an Antechinus sp on a tree stump which I missed. A morning list of 39 species way above my averages for this time of year at this site.
Butterflies - a handful of Brown Ringlets at one bush and a Yellow Albatross on the roadside.
Breakfasted at the noisy Olive Tree café in Chapel Hill.
12.4.22
Oxley
On site at 7.15 with Linc. I wasn’t sure if we should be there as the note on the half open gate said ‘Do not enter – worksite’ but there were cars in the car park so I drove in, parked up and we set off. There were workmen in the red shed and toilet area, but as we weren’t accessing those areas it seemed irrelevant. In the event it turned out the cars in the car park belonged to the volunteer army working on the weeds ect along the track, there were no other birders, walkers or photographers on the track so…… The track itself was fine, as I reported a few weeks ago – in fact it was in better condition due to the smoothing effect of the heavy floods. No dangers, no hazards, nothing to present any issues, typical nanny state and over the top workplace health and safety gone mad.
There wasn’t much bird-wise although we did record 10 more species than I had on my last visit – still only 38 species. I admit I probably missed a few by call, but it was still pretty dead. No Quail, but a pair of Double-barred Finches, a Striped Honeyeater and several Striated Pardalotes were ‘notable’? It was very quiet! The bush along the track appears to have recovered well with the grass thick and healthy. The dead cow was still in place, but the smell much reduced. I didn’t point it out to Linc as he probably would have wanted me to collect the skull for his collection….
The main lakes were quiet, but the hyacinth hasn’t returned to the lake it completely enveloped prior to the floods – yet, fingers crossed.
As usual (!) Linc found a snake. He walked off track a couple of meters and disturbed what I believe was a Yellow-faced Whip Snake. I only saw part of it briefly, but his description and that sighting more or less confirmed ID for me.
Butterflies were thin, but a few Large Grass Yellows and a single Purple Crow (fresh) were recorded.
11.4.22
Sandy Camp & Wynnum Boardwalk
I had Linc staying with me again so we headed down to Sandy Camp wetlands for a walk. It was, as always, pretty birdy and there were the usual complement of photographers – non birders as far as I could tell.
Plenty of waterbirds and honeyeaters, in particular Little Friarbirds. The Eastern Ospreys were re-building their nest on the pylon and Linc spotted a flock of approx 40 high flying Topknot Pigeons which was a new bird for the site on my list. A couple of Leaden Flycatchers sat up well for good views, but the highlight of the morning for him was a 48 strong line of Processionary Caterpillars of the Bag-shelter Moth Ochrogaster lunifer – the longest trail I have seen.
We headed down to the Wynnum Mangrove Boardwalk afterwards. It was pretty quiet overall, but we did see a Mangrove Kingfisher at its nest hole – another first for me (the nest hole that is) and a couple of Mangrove Gerygones. Near the end of the walk we saw several Orange-clawed Fiddler Crabs and a small Mud Crab.
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| Male Orange-clawed Fiddler Crab Uca coarctata |
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| Female Orange-clawed Fiddler Crab Uca coarctata |
Butterflies – I added Swamp Tiger (2) and White-banded Plane to my site list.
We repaired to McD’s for coffee and a Happy Meal.
10.4.22
Minnippi
Met Mr P in the car park at 6.30 and we walked the usual track – but did not include the Airfield Track suspecting it would still be either flooded or at least very wet.
Not too bad a morning, 40 bird species including a couple of the typical ‘winter’ species we start to see at this time of year – both Whistler sp and Yellow-faced Honeyeater.
Otherwise pretty quiet. Highlight being a flock of approx 70-80 Topknot Pigeons flying high overhead.
Afterwards Mr P headed off for family commitments and I headed home.
4.4.22
Minnippi
Linc and I were on site at 7.15. A dull, cloudy cool morning which gradually brightened up.
It was very quiet. We recorded 33 bird species and found a couple of new bugs. Butterflies were few and far between – only 3 species. 1 Common Crow, ~4 Evening Browns on M1 track and 2 Scarlet Jezebels.
We didn’t walk the Airfield Track as it was, potentially, too wet and it was so quiet elsewhere it didn’t seem worth the effort.
The event of the morning was Linc finding a Carpet Python under the edge of the public boardwalk beside the main lake! Probably about 1.6-2 meters in length it was mostly hidden from view but stayed long enough for a couple of phone photos.
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| Linc & Carpet Python |
The new bugs were a Garden Jumping Spider Opisthoncus parcedentatus and a Yellow Skirt Leaf Beetle Paropsisterna cloelia There were also a couple of Eucalyptus Leaf Beetles.
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| Garden Jumping Spider Opisthoncus parcedentatus |
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| Yellow Skirt Leaf Beetle Paropsisterna cloelia We also had a probable Assassin Bug, I've referred to the museum for specific ID  |
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