IRELAND 2024
Day 1 Saturday 20.1.24
Here we go again! Off to Ireland once again.
The day started at 3.30.
I’d gone to bed around 9, having had a vodka to help me sleep. It had been a hot, sweaty night – similar to most nights recently – and whether it was concern at missing the alarm at 4, or just a restless night, I hadn’t slept well, and gave up at 3.30. I made a coffee and had a smoke on the balcony, naked, watching the lightning play across the sky to the west. It was a bit cooler in the open air, but not much.
I’d booked the Uber for 4.30 and he arrived early so we headed off to the airport before the assigned time - avoiding the toll tunnels as I requested - got the lights all the way and I was at the Virgin check-in desk before 5. (I had been unable to check-in on-line because the first leg was with Virgin and domestic.) The rep produced my boarding pass for the initial flight to Melbourne – and booked my check-in bag all the way through to Dublin – but was unable to give me boarding passes for the Etihad legs. Not a normal occurrence in my experience, but I had a 6 hour wait in Melbourne so I had time to check-in there and get the documentation.
All went as planned to Victoria and I found my way to the international terminal, a short walk, right beside the domestic, identified the Etihad check-in desk, which was not open, and settled in for a coffee in an on-site Mackers. I had been advised the Etihad desk would open 3 hours before the flight so I had a couple of hours to kill.
I wasn’t hugely enthusiastic about the trip. No real plans to do anything; it was mainly to see my 97-soon-to-be-98 year old mother for her birthday – and to escape the expected humidity of February. She hadn’t sounded great on the phone a few nights previous and she wasn’t getting any younger – but the pace maker kept kicking along regardless. I figured I’d get some birding in at local, favourite locations and, later in the trip head up to see Mr H in Belfast, but other than that I had nothing in mind.
I had arranged to stay at 50 Dale Rd, our family’s address since whenever. It might be the last time it would be available to me. Once it was sold – as I expected it would be when the pace maker’s battery ran out – I would have little reason to come back to Dublin – and probably nowhere to stay anyway. So, after all these years of backwards and forwards travel this was a finality I had to come to terms with, something I hadn’t really thought too much about, but accepted as the reality of the moment. When that happened I would be visiting Ireland as a tourist, rather than a resident, coming to the country, not as a returning son, but as a visitor. I was still working to get my head around that.
I headed for the Etihad counter around 12.30, anticipating an opening around 1. It was already open with a short queue. Checked in no problem, although she couldn’t give me a window seat for the first leg. She assured me my bag would go through to Dublin, although the recently installed Air Tag showed the bag still in T2, the domestic terminal.
Through customs and security as easy as and bought my duty free tobacco allowance – 5 packs = 250gms – that Ireland allows visitors to import tax-free. I enquired, out of curiosity, if I could purchase more but apparently they can only sell the amount allowed by your country of destination - and they take your flight number and passport details so some little dweeb somewhere can monitor the amount of duty free stuff everyone buys. Conspiracy theory? Absolutely! Big Brother is watching YOU all the way.
And don’t you forget it!
Another two and a half hours to kill so settled in with yet another coffee at St Ali’s, advertising itself as ‘coffee made in Melbourne’. It was very nice, but could have been hotter – and bigger! ‘Large’ as a size seems to have shrunk with time, but the price remains the same, or higher.
The onward flight to Abu Dhabi left on time and actually arrived an hour earlier than scheduled. The seat configuration was 3-3-3 and I had an aisle seat in the middle ‘3’. As it happened I ended up with all 3 seats to myself. The entertainment offered nothing new that I wanted to watch so I settled in for a ‘Bourne Binge’ and re-watched the first three movies in the set, one after the other. It’s hard to beat mayhem and violence, top quality car chases and amazing hand-to-hand fighting – never get tired of Jason Bourne.
After that exhaustion I took two ‘sleep aid’ tablets, lay down along the three seats and slept for almost 5 hours. It’s amazing how comfortable one can get with a few cushions and blankets and still stay ‘strapped in’.
Abu Dhabi airport was not as I remembered it. I’m pretty sure I’ve been through Abu Dhabi before but the airport looks brand new and very up market. Usual miles of marble look flooring and big duty free area. At least we walked off the plane – I think we used to be bussed to the terminal – and the security process was relatively painless. I had 4 hours to wait so found a chair until the gate was updated then, once again, waited there. There’s a lot of ‘waiting’ on this trip.
Day 2 Sunday 21.1.24
The final 8 hour leg went OK, although a screaming infant in the row behind me was lucky to still have the opportunity of another birthday when I finally escaped the noise at 6.30am in Dublin town. The baggage took ages to come off the plane, but I was in no hurry and had a smoke before heading for the car hire.
Funny thing. While I was waiting for my bag to appear I thought I’d check via the Air Tag thing and make sure it was in Dublin. I logged onto the Free Wifi and opened the ‘Find My’ app. It said the bag ‘is with you’. Huh?? No its not! I tapped the ‘Get Directions Nearby’ thing and after it sorted itself out it told me the bag was ‘5.2…5.1…5 meters away’ I looked up and there it was on the carousel coming towards me! Ha Ha Ha. Well I was impressed!
I had booked the car with a company called, funnily enough, Carhire! It turned out to be a subsidiary of Europcar – an organization I had sworn never to hire from again.
Back in 2019, I think it was, I had had one of their vehicles in Dublin and on my return they had inspected it with a fine tooth-comb. I had never had a rental inspected by someone crawling around the car on their hands and knees before – or since. They ‘found’ a small scratch on the front left rim and a small lump of rubber missing from the same wheel and stuck me with it. I knew I had not hit anything and had not caused the damage, but failed to persuade them otherwise. As a result I had sworn never to use them again. Unfortunately I now found myself breaking that promise – unwittingly, but still.
I was taken out to the pick up yard where all the rentals live and drove away in a Hyundai Tucson SUV. Nice car but it had white seats. Yep, yep, can’t think of anything more stupid than white seats in a rental. However, I don’t plan on doing anything too exciting in the next two weeks so…
Arrived at 50 Dale Rd around 9. Blowing a gale and getting worse, spitting then lashing rain, dull, cold and altogether shite weather.
No one at home. I decided that I was meant to sleep in the dining room, downstairs, at the back of the house as that was the only spare bed in the house and the box of clothes I had left in Dublin was there. Fine, no problem. Right beside the kitchen so midnight, jet-lagged induced snacks would be easy.
I had a cup of coffee, showered, shaved and then went off to Aldi to pick up supplies. Once that was done I drove to Mount Tabor Care Centre in Sandymount to see my mother.
She was snoozing in the sunroom, where I think she spends most of her time. Conversation was difficult due to her poor hearing. Although slightly forgetful she is more or less in touch with most things that involve her. I wouldn’t try to discuss the Palestinian/Israeli situation or Putin’s invasion of Ukraine with her, but what she had for breakfast and what time lunch was at were reasonable subjects – if she could hear me.
I sat with her till she went for said lunch (12.30) and then went out myself for a brief walk in the windy rain and a coffee before sitting with her a little longer after lunch while we both nodded off and I decided I’d have a better chance of staying awake at home than sitting in a warm sunroom trying to think of something to say that would be of interest without a lengthy explanation which, because of her deafness, everyone else in the building would have had to share.
I promised her I’d be back the next morning. Its gonna be a long 5 weeks I think, however, that’s what I came for and I didn’t have a lot else to do.
I went home as the rain and wind increased in intensity. In the end I crawled into bed and stayed there till 8am the next morning.
Day 3 Monday 22.1.24
I slept on and off over the 16 hours, reading and watching Netflix at times. When I got up it was still blowing a gale, but the sky was clear and the rain seemed to have stopped.
I made a call and arranged for the stairlift to be removed. It had been installed in 2019 and, as Mum wasn’t coming home, was no longer required. I was ‘on the list’ – hopefully it’s not a long list.
Turned on the TV and watched the BBC news. It appears I was lucky to get into Dublin when I did. Storm Isha had hit yesterday from the southwest and currently there were 235,000 people without power in Ireland – and another 40,000 in Northern Ireland, roads blocked, flights cancelled etc.
I drove to Sandymount and visited Mum again. Rosemary, a family friend, turned up while I was there which provided some relief from Mum and I sitting looking at each other. Conversation was very difficult and I spoke to the care nurse before leaving, she promised to look into the hearing issue.
I spent the rest of the day indoors reading and watching downloaded Netflix videos on my iPad. The sun did shine now and again, but the wind continued and rain showers passed through. All in all a pretty crappy day and not worth going anywhere. Latest weather reports advised another, albeit smaller, storm was expected in the next 24 hours.
Karin came home and we finally caught up. She has been living in Dale Rd now for about 18 months and has kept the house immaculate since Mum has been gone. She made me feel welcome and brought me up to date with the current status regarding her position and arrangements.
Day 4 Tuesday 23.1.24
Another write-off of a day for birding. Windy as shit with driven rain – and patches of sunlight at times – but just a shit weather day overall.
I got up at 8.30. Sounds late but ‘dawn’ was at 8.20. A dull, overcast and, as already described, windy morning. I just stayed in, read etc.
Went to see Herself at 13.00. No change, much the same, conversation very difficult. It was frustrating because she was aware and quite bright, but her really poor hearing made it impossible to talk about almost anything. They had checked her ears and prescribed drops to hopefully dissolve the wax, but there was only minimal improvement so far. I stayed an hour or so then fought the traffic home.
Day 5 Wednesday 24.1.24
I didn’t sleep particularly well, going to bed at 18.30, waking at 2.30 and more or less staying awake till I got up at 8.30. But I had had enough and didn’t feel particularly tired.
The morning was dull and overcast but the wind had dropped and it wasn’t raining. Still I delayed going out so didn’t actually leave till 10.30. It took me a while to get to Dun Laoghaire as a major roadworks project stuffed up the traffic, but I headed out along one of my favourite, oft visited birding locations – West Pier at Dun Laoghaire harbour. Lots of birding memories there.
My left hip had been aching since the flight on Sunday. I thought it was because I had been lying across 3 seats for approx 5 hours and the pressure of the seat edge had affected either the muscle or the joint. Hence walking any distance was quite painful, but I decided I would need to walk it off – or spend the next few weeks in bed at home.
It was a calm, almost windless morning and the sea reflected those conditions. The tide had just turned from a high so there was plenty of water. It turned out to be a good morning. I had 2 Mediterranean Gulls among the many European Herring, Great Black-backed and Black-headed Gulls, a handful of Ruddy Turnstones (but no Purple Sandpipers), Black Guillemot, Common Guillemot and Razorbill, 3 Common Scoters and 1 Red-breasted Merganser male, 6 Red-throated Divers (a couple quite close, always nice to see) and 2 Great Crested Grebes - in winter plumage of course.
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| Red-throated Diver |
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| Great Crested Grebe |
Along the wall, Rock and Meadow Pipit and Pied Wagtails. A large flock of approx 50 Great Cormorants were in the harbour and about 10 European Shags fished around about. 2 Grey Herons perched up behind the wall and most surprisingly to me – a European Robin showed about 150 meters out from the base. Not sure if it’s the first Robin I have had on the West Pier? There were the usual (3) Grey Seals Halichoerus grypus hanging out around the fishing boat wharf. I was happy with the list and got through the walk by resting my hip a couple of times.
Drove home again, then went to see The Living Dead for an hour or so. Offered to take her out in the wheelie-chair but she wasn’t interested and I left when she dozed off.
Birds: 26 Mammals: 1
Day 6 Thursday 25.1.24
Another dull, overcast morning. Again I delayed my departure but finally arrived at another favourite birding location – Kilcoole, Co Wicklow.
Walked the beach to the end of the thorn bushes, but didn’t go as far as the Narrows. The tide was high and there were no waders in that area. A decent southerly wind pushed up the coast and there were no passerines at all along the way. There were, however, the usual large flocks of Eurasian Wigeon(~400), Eurasian Teal (~300), Northern Lapwing (~250), Eurasian Golden Plover (~150), Black-tailed Godwit (~200) and Eurasian Curlew (~200), all of which took off sporadically, flew around and landed again. I had 14 Whooper Swans at reasonable distance – usually they are feeding in distant fields and they did eventually fly off in that direction - but presented quite nicely before leaving.
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| Whooper Swan |
Bird of the morning was a perched up Peregrine Falcon out on the marsh itself – unfortunately too far for the camera, but a nice view in the ‘scope. I also had a single Red Kite in flight towards the back of the wetland. Other species included Common Redshank, Common Greenshank, Common Snipe, Common Pheasant, Little Egret, Grey Lag Goose (2), Common Shelduck (4), Dunlin (~20) and Common Ringed Plover. Off the coast it was pretty quiet but I did see a single Black-legged Kittiwake, a couple of Common Gulls and 1 Northern Gannet.
It started to spit rain in the wind and I turned back, the drove down to Newcastle. There had been a report of two Short-eared Owls at the reserve the previous day, but I found the reserve extremely quiet – and no owls. The rainy windy weather was not conducive to owls hunting so I wasn’t surprised. I was surprised at the lack of small birds. Usually there are finches and tits everywhere – I saw 1 single Eurasian Blue Tit. That was it, but there was no food in the feeders which I thought unusual especially at this time of year and the place had a bit of a ‘run down’ kinda look to it. Maybe the recent days of storms have taken their toll and prevented the usual upkeep?
There were numbers of Eurasian Teal and Wigeon and a few Mallard, but other than that – f-all.
I got a coffee on my way out at the servo in Newcastle and headed for the Home and the Living Dead. Didn’t spend a lot of time there as she fell asleep pretty quickly. I am SUCH an exciting guy…….not!
Birds: 49 Mammals: 1
Day 7 Friday 26.1.24
A brighter, sunny morning developed. Still a bit of a cool breeze, but much more pleasant. I headed down to Kilbogget Park, about 15 minutes away in search of Common Kingfisher and Water Rail, both seen last year. Neither eventuated, but I picked up a few new trip ticks, including a pair of Long-tailed Tits, which, with a bit of encouragement, I managed to photograph.
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| Long-tailed Tit |
Bird of the morning was an over wintering Eurasian Blackcap that flew in, sat for a few and flew off. I did add Common Chaffinch, European Greenfinch and European Goldfinch to my trip list. At one point a very dark Grey Heron flew in and landed in the creek. Against the sunlight my mind went to Purple Heron, but on checking it was definitely a Grey – albeit very dark and ‘dirty’ looking. Shortly afterwards another local birder showed up and asked if I had seen it? I said ‘yes’ but it was definitely a Grey Heron and what else could it be? “Exactly”, he said and pottered off after it.
I left after an hour and a half and headed up to Foxrock where I grabbed a coffee and then drove on to Cabinteely Park. Just another suburban park where I had spent quite a bit of time in 2020 during the pandemic restrictions. I didn’t expect to see much or anything exciting, but did add a couple more common trip ticks to my list – and saw a couple of Grey Squirrels Sciurus carolinensis which I always enjoy. Back home and then out again to visit the Living Dead before coming home, once again, to a long evening of very-little-to-do.
Birds: 63 Mammals: 3
Day 8 Saturday 27.1.24
I was expecting the morning to be calm and pleasant so had planned to go to Kilcoole again. Not because I super wanted to go to Kilcoole again so soon, but I was a bit limited in some ways as to options and I wanted to take advantage of the Met Ireland forecast. The previous night had been the first night since I arrived when the wind was not moaning down the chimney so I had positive expectations.
I was on site at 10.15 – and was almost blown over by the strong southerly blowing directly into my face. So much for a calm morning. It also remained heavily overcast and generally bleak, although it didn’t actually rain.
However, onward and upward.
Walked the beach as usual and found mostly, as expected, the same birds and similar numbers as Thursday.
There were no Whooper Swans in sight and it was while I was scanning the distant fields for their white body shapes that I came across a sight I had never seen before.
A pair of Red Foxes Vulpes vulpes copulating in broad daylight in the middle of a field. They were, in fact, in a ‘copulatory tie’ (thanks Dr Google) – stuck to each other end to end. Apparently this happens because the end of the male’s penis swells and they have to wait until the swelling goes down. I had seen dogs in this position, but never wild animals. One would think it must be painful, but I guess they forget or there’d be no foxes at all. They sort of staggered around for a few minutes before disappearing into a hollow and discreetly waiting out of sight.
It was just after I had left them to their own devices, so to speak, when, in the background, I had a very brief view of a probable Hen Harrier. It was at extreme range and one of those situations where you catch a glimpse of something and instinctively go (in this case) ‘Harrier’ and your first instincts are usually accurate. I only saw a large-winged brown bird with a white rump floating low over the reed bed.
It was, in fact, one of my target birds for this and previous trips, as I hadn’t seen a Hen Harrier in yonks. They weren’t that common and I could not remember when I last saw one. However, this was a pretty shit view and despite spending another 30 minutes or so scanning the reed bed on and off it didn’t show again.
I headed back to the car and drove down to Newcastle again, in hopes of the Short-eared Owls?, picking up a coffee on the way. At the first hide there was much the same – Eurasian Teal and Wigeon – with the added bonus of half a dozen Northern Shoveler. This time I did go to the second hide – just in case – but nothing showed.
I was heading out towards the gate when another birder ran in and said he’d just seen The Hen Harrier fly in over the trees. I followed him back to the hide but to no avail, the bird had obviously gone to ground or flown on south. The reed beds were extensive along that part of the coast and I now thought it was possibly the same bird I had seen an hour or so earlier back north up the coast at Kilcoole. Sounds a bit stringy but they are that uncommon and apparently one had been seen on and off lately at Newcastle. The birder also told me where the Owls had been seen – down along the airfield close to the beach - but I decided not to look for them as the wind would most likely have kept them grounded.
I headed home then went to see the Living Dead meeting two of my aunts there visiting as well.
Birds: 65 Mammals: 4
Day 9 Sunday 28.1.24
Another dull, windy, overcast day. I didn’t bother going anywhere; just spent the morning at home, had lunch with Karin and then went to see Herself in the afternoon.
On the earlier subject of Foxes. In the front garden at Dale Rd there has been a clear track across the grass for years. Even when the garden was better tended and the grass cut the trails were obvious.
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| Fox trails in the garden |
These tracks were made – and still maintained, as it were - by Foxes passing across the garden every night and through a hole in the hedge to next door’s garden. Why they had picked our garden to cross I don’t know but I have in the past seen them using the track. It just goes to show how common the animals are in the suburbs and how relaxed they are around humans.
Birds: 65 Mammals: 4
Day 10 Monday 29.1.24
It rained all day – as predicted. I didn’t go anywhere apart from food shopping at Aldi and visiting The Living Dead. In the garden I put out some seed and peanuts and a pair of European Robins, a Dunnock, 2 Eurasian Blue Tits and (first for the trip) a Eurasian Wren visited.
Birds: 66 Mammals: 4
Day 11 Tuesday 30.1.24
I woke to find the wifi had been turned off. I had known this was coming but thought I had until the end of the month, however, it was gone. I had some breakfast then headed down to Booterstown to meet Mr H off the Dart. He was coming down to Dublin via the train for the day.
When I went out to the car I found the windscreen frozen. I had to get a jug of cold water to remove the heavy frost before heading off. Halfway down and I turned a corner and for some reason the car went mad. The radio jumped to FULL volume, I couldn’t hear myself shout – and I couldn’t turn it down or off. For some reason I didn’t understand it just went crazy. I pulled in and turned off the engine and waited. Turned it on again and it was still at max volume. I managed to change the station to a hiss and carried on. At the same time the air-con cum heater cum whatever also went off, jumped to Fahrenheit and changed temperatures arbitrarily. It was like someone else had control of the car and was very disconcerting. I HATE this car.
I got down to Booterstown early and parked at the station car park. I turned everything off and spent a few minutes checking the birds in Booterstown Marsh. Hundreds of Dunlin, Common Redshank and Eurasian Teal were about all I could manage – my mind still on that freaking car.
I got back in a few minutes later and things seemed to have gone back to normal. The radio was controllable again and I managed to get the air-con thing more or less back to normal – although I had struggled to get it operating effectively all week and still didn’t understand how it worked. It seemed to have a mind of its own.
Mr H arrived and we headed off to the West Pier at Dun Laoghaire. Parked up and walked out. There wasn’t a hell of a lot going on. Much the same birds I had had last week with a very distant Great Northern Diver in flight as a trip tick.
Back at the car we headed for the East Pier, parked up and walked to Black Redstart corner. I had featured this location in previous years and as long as I could remember it had been a reliable location for Black Redstart in winter, back, in fact, to the 1970s. This year I had seen no reports of one there – and the answer was obvious. The local council had major works going on right in that corner, digging up the path and barricading the whole area off.
We walked a short way out the pier and picked up the other target bird – Purple Sandpipers, 8 of them. Grabbing a coffee from a parked up coffee van we headed on south to Newcastle in Co Wicklow.
We wanted to try for the reported Short-eared Owls and so parked up at the seafront and walked up the beach, north from the car, looking out over the small grassy airstrip used for joy flights by a private operator. The habitat was perfect, open fields, patches of long grass, patches of reedbeds – a Short-eared Owl winter paradise – but we didn’t see any. We did see 12 Whooper Swans in a distant field and a Common Stonechat as a trip tick. It actually was a magnificent day – more what I had expected than what I had encountered since I arrived. Clear, calm, sunny, small southerly breeze – a beautiful Irish winter’s morning. On the distant Wicklow Mountains, a couple showed the heavy frost still lying.
We checked out the duck south of the car park and then walked up the road to the ECR (East Coast Reserve) which I had visited twice in the last week. Nothing much had changed there, but the feeders were being re-supplied and small number s of the usual Finches and Tits were turning up.
By now it was close to 15.00 so we headed back north to Kilcoole and walked down the beach – my third visit in the last 10 days. This time we had 81 Grey Lag Geese and 6 Canada Geese while a flock of approx 150 Brent Geese flew out to sea. Most of the other birds were as seen before.
At 16.30 I dropped Mr H off at his brother’s place in Kilcoole and headed home.
Birds: 74 Mammals: 4
Day 12 Wednesday 31.1.24
Another non-birding, non-anything in fact, day. Strong winds all day and rain in the afternoon kept me inside reading and watching downloaded Netflix stuff. After the perfect day yesterday it was a complete contrast.
I went to visit Herself as usual and spent most of the hour watching her sleep.
Other than that……
Birds: 74 Mammals: 4
