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October 08
(these reports are displayed as most recent first)
October 6th - 31st
Autumn is well under way now with its colors and dark evenings, even heavy Frosts of late.
The Lake levels are rising by the day and it's well over its winter levels with all the heavy rains, Strong winds had a major factor on whether anyone would want to go out fishing but, Chris had his cousin, Phillip over for a week and they did fish most days into the evening.
They had good sport on the Canal at Brannigan's Harbor although the fish were small, also at Tommy's on 3 occasions where Phillip managed some really good Roach along with good Hybrids, Chris came in second most of the time (well he was the host) they even fished in the headlights of the Car around numbers 6/7 swim by the Gravel Pit and had fish.
Now the river is very high and pushing hard all the way to the Lough, No reports from anywhere at this time of the year although there are boats seen out on the Lough during my run-about, checking on the wildlife.
There is a build up of Golden Plovers, Lapwings, Tufted Ducks and Redwing along with Fieldfare in the hedgerows. No Whooper Swans or Bewick's Swans at this time but we did hear they are around in the North, sadly all the Swallows, Martins and Swifts are gone back home to warmer climes now.
1st- 5th of October
Well, the Autumn has arrived and while the Midlands has had its share of the rain I and Chris went of for a trip down to the South East corner, Wexford.
The weather down there was better all together. We hitched up the caravan and trundled down to St Margaret's Caravan Site with enough electronic gear to start our own shop! Using that as our base we headed off to all of the local birding venues to keep an eye out for any of the passage Migrants that come past the Irish coast each Spring and Autumn.
Our main point of birding was the famous Tacumshin Lake. On our very first visit there we were greeted with several highly excited birders who reported having seen a Spoonbill, however it had reportedly left 10 minutes earlier. Somewhat dissapointed by this we set up the gear and looked across the lake, which still held some 2,000 ducks, geese and swans. Just as we were preparing to move on to another spot a large white bird flew over us and landed and to our delight was the Spoonbill.
So with eyes stuck to the scopes and with much clicking of cameras we proceeded to take about 400 photos of said bird. When we finally moved around to the other side of the lake and were lucky enough to have a somewhat less than intelligent birder wade straight through the middle of the lake scattering everything. The upside was that the Spoonbill flew directly over our position allowing us to take better pictures. The Spoonbill is a rare visitor to Ireland and made an excellent start to our trip. This result was celebrated with a large Haddock and Chips and a numerous amount of tinnies.
The Second trip surpassed even that by turning up a Turtle Dove sat in the middle of the road to Tacumshin Lake. This supposedly timid bird posed quite happily for photos and remained on the same stretch of road for the duration of the holiday. Serveral Pink Footed Geese were present, as well as Buff Breasted Sandpipers and Palmated Sandpipers.
The Fishing side of things was somewhat less successful, we did brave the cold northerly winds to have a go for anything that fancied a bait but the only real interest came from Crabs and even they were ellusive. The only result was a Cuckoo Ray that came from Carne Beach just down from the Caravan Park, caught on Bacon Fat, it was safely released back into the sea.
Other Wildlife included a huge number of Rats out forraging on the roads, several Hare and the odd Seal.
Over the seven days spent down in wexford we saw a total of 81 species of bird. a complete birdlist can be found below:
Wren, Robin, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Long Tailed Tit, Coal Tit, Chaffinch, Greenfinch, Goldfinch, Chiffchaff, Goldcrest, Linnet, Meadow Pipit, Rock Pipit, Wheatear, Grey Wagtail, Pied Wagtail, Sparrow, Dunnock, Stonechat, Redstart (dead), Starling, Blackbird, Mistle Thrush, Song Thrush, Magpie, Rook, Crow, Hooded Crow, Jackdaw, Wood Pigeon, Feral Pigeon, Collared Dove, Turtle Dove, Swallow, House Martin, Pheasant, Kestrel, Hen Harrier, Curlew, Grey Plover, Golden Plover, Ringed Plover, Turnstone, Redshank, Greenshank, Dunlin, Lapwing, Snipe, Knot, Oyster Catcher, Sanderling, Bar Tailed Godwit, Black Tailed Godwit, Heron, Little Egret, Spoonbill, Buff Breasted Sandpiper, Semi Palm Sandpiper, Moorhen, Coot, Little Grebe, Mallard, Widgeon, Tufted Duck, Teal, Shoveler, Gadwall, Pintail, Brent Goose, Greylag Goose, Pink Footed Goose, Mute Swan, Cormorant, Gannet, Sandwich Tern, Guillemot , Lesser Blackbacked Gull, Greater Blackbacked Gull, Common Gull, Black Headed Gull.
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