200 Brent Geese Sundrive Cycle Track, March 14th

200 geese still feeding in cycle track, Sundrive Rd, Crumlin Sunday March 14, 2010

Started my Sunday morning looking for Brent Geese around Crumlin. No geese at Pearse Park (there were matches being played) no geese at Clonmacnoise roundabout but 200 in the cycle track in Sundrive Park.

Read the following tags:

UHWW

PPRY

PKWR

HARY

SAWR

CXWR

33YY

T (very worn away) and other tag dropped off, but silver ring apparent.

In fact I noticed that 4 of the birds had tags plus silver rings on their right leg, not sure what this signifies.

The geese with silver rings were PPRY, HARY, CXWR and 33YY. **

**edit – seems that the geese with silver rings on their right leg were ringed in Iceland, all others without silver rings have been ringed in Dublin or North Canada. Thanks Graham.

This might be the last entry for the Brent Geese for this winter, I’m off to Berlin on Weds til next Sunday and they might be gone by the time I get back. Seems they’re already starting to get ready for their departure back to North Canada as its being reported they’re already starting to leave Bull Island and appear at their take off pad on Strangford Loch in N.Ireland.

Decided after reading the tags I’d head over to Swords Estuary, maybe even go on up to Rogerstown but a wrong turn and I ended up changing my mind and driving into Phoenix Park.

It was a kind of weird stop.

I was quick to get off the main path, I don’t like birdwatching in the middle of really public places, busy with walkers, runners, dog walkers, cyclists, chatting, barking, being noisy etc. I get irritated and prefer to be in the quiet. Note to self, stay away from parks on a weekend.

So I took random paths into heavily wooded areas, way off the beaten path, this should have been a good thing except, once, and then again, and then again I’d find myself walking past various men on their own, all just standing around looking shifty, in the middle of the woods. It was midday, sun shining and the amount of condom wrappers on the ground confirmed what I pretty much already knew. I wasn’t comfortable so I had to move on back up with the public. Really annoying and kinda scary. I thought that was a night time thing not a broad daylight thing? They would have had as little interest in me as I had in them, but it was too secluded and quiet for me to risk staying around.

More public area of Phoenix Park.

I love the tree the sun's shining on, at the back on the left. Hasn't come out all that well in this photo, but it was really shining and standing out from all the others.

Did see a Male Bullfinch which was cool, blue tits, coal tits, great tits, hooded crows, rooks, mistle thrushes, blackbirds, chaffinches, magpies and I heard a Goldcrest in a tree, stood there a while and sure enough one flitted out jumping quickly between branches.

Goldcrest, Phoenix Park

Goldcrest, Phoenix Park, might need to click on pic to see it better. I was just getting in closer when a jogger ran right under the tree and the Goldcrest flew away.

I walked around Phoenix park quite a bit, it was full of families, no doubt all out for Mother’s Day. Got kind of sad that I wasn’t at home, missed my mum and smiled when I saw a field outside of Farmleigh with donkeys in it. My mum for whatever reason has always called donkeys, dunkeys. No-one really knows why, she just does.

So mum, just for you…

Not a donkey, it's a dunkey.

I was kind of sick of Phoenix Park so I was going to go home but found myself going the opposite direction to Bull Island.

The tide was way out, so much so that there was no sea visible at all. This wasn’t a suprise because I had already looked at the tide times in the morning – even though I still don’t know which one is accurate – neither of them gave a high tide for the afternoon, so at least they both agreed on that.

Even though the tide was way out there was still quite a bit of activity on the mud.

Low tide, Bull island

Without the telescope you wouldn’t see that much but with the telescope I saw Redshanks, Curlews, Lapwings, Shelducks, Gulls, Black Tailed Godwits (I was happy I could deffo id these as Godwits to start with and then Black not Bar tailed GW’s), Hooded Crows, Oyster Catchers,

Female and Male Teals, Bull Island

The Hybrid Carrion Crow which hangs out at Bull Island

End the day as I started, looking at a Brent Goose, Bull Island

Weakish sunset over Howth

I have to admit that with the loan of the scope waderzz have taken on a new lease of life in my birding. I can actually see them and when the suns’s shining on them and they’re all relaxed and scratching and preening and washing, they’re fun to watch.

Yep fun and waders in the same sentence. Must have been the blue sky havin an affect on my mind.

Brent Geese, easy like Sunday morning

When I’ve been getting my bike out of the shed the last few mornings I’ve seen over 100 Brent Geese flying over my head (about 8.30am) towards Ballyfermot – so this morning I drove up to Le Fanu Park, Ballyfermot for 9am to try read tags.

I must have just missed them or they didn’t bother turning up cos there were only 8 untagged Brent Geese when I got there. I stayed for about 45mins but no more turned up.

9am Sunday morning, 8 Brent Geese, Le Fanu Park, Ballyfermot

Last time I was here there were 88 geese, today just 8. Dublin mountains in the background, still snow covered.

I spent 45 minutes watching these 8. They were very relaxed eating away in the morning sun.

Eventually I left them to it. I wanted to drive back to Pearse park where I was last Saturday to try get more tags read there.

When I got there though there was a GAA game on and no geese at all.

I drove to Clonmacnoise roundabout and was happy to see about 200 feeding there.

10.15 am, 200 Brent Geese, Clonmacnoise Roundabout, Crumlin

Got the scope out of the car and read tags:

BKRY

HIGY

CXWR

U6RY

44RY (Baldoyle ringed bird!)

L4RY

Drove over to Sundrive (Eamon Ceannt park) because some of the birds lifted from Clonmacnoise and seemed to land over in Sundrive. When I got there – sure enough there were about 500 Brent Geese feeding in the middle of the cycle track.

11am. 500 Brent Geese, Cycle Track, Eamon Ceannt park, Crumlin

No cycle club means Brent Geese are able to use the track themselves.

Tags Read:

BKRY

44RY (flew over from Clonmacnoise)

ADWW

HARY

UHWW

HIGY

I then had to head back home – but that was a lovely way to spend the morning – peace and quiet out in the sunshine.

600 Brent Geese Pearse Park – Crumlin, 1 Black Redstart – DunLaoghaire

Eamon Ceannt Park, Sunday morning

Drove down to Eamon Ceannt park first thing, but no Geese on pitches or in cycle track. Drove to Dolphin Park (GAA field on Crumlin Rd) but there was a match on there.

Black Headed Gull with full summer plumage already, Crumlin

Mistle thrush, Crumlin

Redwing, Crumlin. There was a flock of around 60 Redwings feeding in the park.

Starling, Crumlin

150 Brent Geese, Clonmacnoise Roundabout, Crumlin

Yes there they were in all their brenting glory.

There were only 2 tags out of the 150.

PBYY, Clonmacnoise Roundabout, Crumlin

CFWR (Dublin ringing!) Clonmacnoise Roundabout, Crumlin

Brent Geese on your doorstep, Crumlin

After looking at these I drove home for some lunch….

On the way up Windmill Rd I looked into Pearse Park on the off chance and saw them partying it up.

The entrance to Pearse Park, Windmill Road, Crumlin

Counted about 600 Brent Geese, Pearse Park, Crumlin, Dublin 12

Dog lolled into the middle of them and up they lifted off

Maybe they'll circle and land back down

No they didn't. Waited ages but they didn't come back.

LUCKILY I finally read some tags:

7HRY AND 7XRY were together (associates)

PPRY

PKWR (Dublin ringing)

HARY

T3WR (Dublin ringing)

I didn’t see any others because they flew off.

I went home to get some lunch…home being about 3 minutes away.

The shame.

In my defence I never drive along Windmill Road and thought that Pearse Park was only a few footie fields – now I know different so hopefully this park will prove a successful reading spot.

(Here’s the link to where Pearse Park is in Crumlin - link )

After lunch I had to drive down to a friend in Dalkey, on the way I thought I’d try to see the lovely visiting Black Redstart.

Dun Laoghaire this afternoon

In flew some Brent Geese - I could have given them a lift from Crumlin.

The old swimming pools at Dun Laoghaire. Black Redstart was at the other side near rocks at East Pier

Meadow Pipit. Not a Rock Pipit. Even though it's a pipit and is standing on a rock and not in a meadow. They can be found on coasts in wintertime, usually in busy little feeding flocks.

Grey Wagtail

Pied Wagail. If you look at this long enough you think your eyes are going funny. They're not, it's the wagtail's plumage.

Turnstone

After an hour of looking I saw the Black Redstart, Dun Laoghaire

Black Redstart. Gorgeous.

The deep orange you see when it flies off

Black Redstart

Poolbeg Towers and end of another birding day.

Brent Geese poo for company

Brent Geese poo - if you see lots of this in a field, Brent Geese are using the field as a feeding site

I really wanted to read some Brent Geese tags around Crumlin or Ballyfermot today but instead I had to make do with their droppings for most of the day. Lovely.

First stop – GAA field on Crumlin Rd but the gates were shut and there’s no other way of getting in there anymore so I had to drive on.

Drove to Eamon Ceannt park. No BG’s in the cycle track but there was lots of Brent poo. I walked up the hill to the football pitches but no sign of the Brent Geese, just lots of BG messages to say they’d been there earlier.

I waited around for about 20 mins just incase they called back in for a feed but they didn’t.

Football pitches in Eamon Ceannt Park, Crumlin. No BG's but loads of droppings

The cycle track in Eamon Ceannt park, Crumlin - No BG's today but lots of their droppings.

There were no matches and there weren’t any cyclists so the possibility of the BG’s being there was high – except there weren’t any.

I drove to the Clonmacanoise roundabout where I saw them at last time, but again nothing doing.

I asked a man who was in his front yard if he’d seen any geese on the roundabout lately and he said ‘ Oh I remember you, you were here about a month ago weren’t you, you got on the roundabout with your telescope. We were all watching you from the window’.

‘And they flew off, yes that was me’.

‘Yes I think they were here this morning, they come and go’.

I walked onto the roundabout and again there were loads of BG droppings – but no BG’s.

Drove over to Le Fanu Park in Ballyfermot. Again, no BG but lots of their fresh droppings. Nice.

Hung around for another 20 mins and took photos of these Skylarks scurrying around in the newly sewn grass. I’m sure they’re Skylarks, I’ve only ever seen them near the sea or doing their cool sky rise and fall, I’ve never seen them in flocks in football fields but they sounded like Skylarks and they look like them. Couldn’t see the crest I know they have.

Skylark? About 7 of them running around the newly sewn grass Le Fanu park, Ballyfermot.

These were near my car and I was about to go home when thankfully I turned around and there they finally were.

Finally. Brent Geese in Le Fanu Park, Ballyfermot

88 of them. I counted their little heads. But ZERO tags.

None of them were tagged. They flew off about 3 mins after landing and they didn’t come back.

Before calling it a day I drove back around all the sites I drove around this morning but still no BG hanging out.

Still, good to get a count and a photo of them in Ballyfermot.

Link to Google map which shows Le Fanu park (top left) Eamon Ceannt Park (bottom right) with Clonmacanoise Roundabout just in front here.

1st Brent Geese ringing in Dublin!!

What a day!!!!    What an amazing day.

After months of organising the Irish Brent Geese gang managed their first and very successful ringing session in Dublin.

Yesterday (Thurs 11th Feb 2010) they managed to ring and record 194 Brent Geese and today another ringing and recording of 53 geese.

Here’s how the day went.

8.00am – Some people met at the Causeway Bull Island, I drove to Pat’s house in Howth and followed her down to Redarches in Baldoyle. This was the same inland feeding site she showed me a few weeks ago. It is fenced in, has limited public use and has been a definite daily feeding site for Brent Geese for months – perfect site for canon netting Brent Geese.

When we get to Redarches there are already plenty of people there setting up the the nets, canons and wiring.

The setup is: One massive net is attached to 4 heavily weighted metal poles. These 4 poles are put into 4 canons which are in turn buried into 4 pre-dug holes in the ground. At the end of each pole is an orange wire with a connector at the end. A long grey wire is then attached to each of the 4 canon’s orange wires and this grey wire is attached to a detonator box. When the fire button is pressed this fires the canon powder in the bottom of the canons which sends the poles out over the field, with nets attached and hopefully Brent Geese underneath.

Canons are prepared with gunpowder and electric wiring. Redarches, Baldoyle, Dublin 13

Nets are untangled and laid out

Nets are attached to the heavy projectiles which are placed in the canons which are fixed into the ground with orange wire left above the ground

The grey wire which will be attached to the canons and detonator

Alan connecting the grey detonator wire to the orange wires attached to the canons

Me guarding the orange wire and making sure no-one stood on the connections (Dick Coombes took this pic)

By 9.30am Net 1 and Net 2 are set up and ready to go.This is Net 1.

The hopeful catchment area (other side of the path).

Double checking the wiring from the canons are live and connecting well to the detonator. You can see the path to the left - that's where the nets are.

The most important box of the day. The box for the hot cross bun.

Oh no don't press fire yet - there's no Brent Geese in the field!!

Oh he's just eating one of Pat's hot dogs

Once the nets are set up and connections are checked it’s just a matter of waiting for the geese.

9.30am now and it’s hoped the geese might arrive 11.30am ish – so car trips for coffee, sangers and toilets.

Then back to the carpark to wait….

10am - Waiting....

11am...Waiting

12 noon... Waiting

1pm.....Waiting

2pm...Waiting

2.30pm...Still Waiting

In between these waiting pics, there were some landings of Brent Geese but they’d feed for a while and fly off, usually scared off by something random.

And also – we actually waited most of the day in our cars not sitting outside – this was so the geese didn’t sense any unnecessary disturbances.

We did a lot of watching the plastic Brent Geese decoys.

The theory behind the decoys being that they would attract passing Brent Geese with the message of ‘Hey, come join us in this field, it’s completely safe to feed cos Look, we’re feeding and we’re fine. Just don’t judge us cos we’re plastic.’

The Plastic Geese. We spent a lot of the day sitting in those cars in the distance so the geese would feel safe to land

At about 2.40pm some Geese land right next to the decoys.

The decoys attract the real deal to land next to them.

Hundreds and hundreds followed. Finally - Baldoyle, Brent Geese party central.

With this amount of geese everyone was very tense in their cars having watched hundreds of geese continually landing. It was quite a herd and Pat and Cian started their ‘Twinkle’.

‘Twinkling’ is basically calmly and slowly walking around the field in a way that moves the birds in a certain direction (ie towards nets) – tis sheepdog herding human stylee.

2.45pm – Cian and Pat are doing a great job

2.50pm – About 1300 geese are inches away from the nets

2.54pm – 1300 Brent Geese lift and fly off – we don’t know why.

2.55pm – We still don’t know why.

Did they really ALL just fly off?

Seriously, did they really ALL just fly off? Yes they did Alan, I'm sorry.

Bollix

4pm and more geese land in the field.

Cian and Pat Twinkle again

4.20pm - Pat and Cian twinkling again

4.45pm - the geese are twinkled into the catchment area

The FIRE button is pressed and out shoot the poles and nets catching about 50 geese.

The nets and canons are set in a way that no harm can ever come to the geese. Alan said that in all the years he’s been netting he’s never had any bird casualties.

Brent Geese under the netting, Redarches, Baldoyle, Dublin

Retrieving the geese from nets in a way which causes no harm to the geese.

The Brent Geese are carefully put into bags and watched over whilst the ringing area is quickly set up

Meanwhile others collect the nets back up

Kendrew and Richie setting up test area. Two tables are set up, this one will take samples from the geese to check their bloods etc

Pat and Cian sort out Rings

Philip about to get his goose tagged

Kendrew tags

Alan tags, Mia records

One of my birds UDWR is tagged and sexed - a Female

UDWR is weighed, she's 1220g

Records taken. The geese at our table didn't have samples taken from them so we'll never know the ages of our geese.

At one point the Gardai turned up. Probably someone reported either the canon bangs or the netting of the geese. They were happy enough though once they were told it was an official catch with permission from the NPWS and that BWI and RSPB were involved.

Gardai arrive John says 'it wasn't me!'

You're nicked.

So there you go!

What a day.

I was so happy to have experienced the netting and recording of the geese. I could see that it involved a lot of organisation and a huge amount of experience – mostly to protect the welfare of the birds.

Cian putting the call in about the 2nd successful day ringing Brent Geese in Dublin

I gave 3 Geese in for ringing.

So if tags UDWR, VBWR or XBWR are ever read – they’re mine! Well not mine but you know, I held them before and whilst they got tagged, weighed, measured etc.

XBWR however is extra special and is called Cara.

Me holding XBWR, might also answer to Cara (probably won't though).

XBWR was a female pale bellied Brent Goose which I took from one of the bags and brought over to Cian to be tagged.

She weighs 1240g, has a wingspan of 325mm and measures 87.5mm from the back of her head to tip of her bill.

When Cian tagged the goose I was holding, he tagged her with white and red tags, the right one was ‘X’ and the left one was ‘B’ – this made me smile because years ago my girlfriend lived in one of the few squats left in Berlin and the squat was called XB – plus my gf is white and has red hair – this amused my little mind anyway. So if White Red XB turns up again in Iceland or North Canada, say hello to her – and send her back to Dublin!

Thanks to everyone involved in the catch – it was an amazing experience and I had such a good day.

Brent Geese No Show

Well Bollixybollox.

I think my days of reading Brent Geese tags in Crumlin are over before they ever really began.

Saturday morning, 9.30am and I’m in front of the GAA pitches on Crumlin Rd. Scope, camera and binocs at the ready, dressed up in warm layers ready for hours of standing around reading Brent Geese tags.

First thing I see is the main gates are open. Swear words. People in the park = no geese.

1500 Brent Geese – not there (distant birds were BH gulls).

There were people in the park, about 70 people, loads of cars, cones, nets, Hurley sticks, balls, shouting kids, shouting coaches, shouting parents.

Stupid Kids and people - what's so wrong with watching tv and getting fat?

I talked to the manager guy and he said that the kid’s GAA training would be starting 9.30am every Saturday and Sunday from now until mid November. This was bad news for geese spotting at weekends. More swear words.

Well, that’s just weekends I thought. The main gates will be closed on weekdays so the geese will be back then, maybe I could hop over the wall one weekday, or hop over the wall really early on a weekend and read some tags before the geese fly away when they open the main gates for GAA training. Going back to my car I thought I’d just check the laneway and the wall.

The wall we'd put the ladder against to get into the field - minus the barbed wire.

More of the same swear words. Someone’s gone and put up some serious amount of barbed wire over the last few weeks. I mustn’t have been the only one using that wall for access. So me and my scope are stuffed. Nigel might know another way in but I won’t hold my breath.

I drove away feeling like I felt when they destroyed the Home Tree in Avatar.

Decided I’d drive round the corner to Eamon Ceannt park where I’d previously counted about 300 Brent Geese in the middle of the cycle track.

No Brent Geese, just Chris Hoy wannabes.

But there were no geese there either just cyclists about to use the cycle track.

I went back to my car on Sundrive and as I was turning around I thought I saw a flutter of wings to my right up Clonmacnoise Rd. Must have been pigeons though because the BG’s wouldn’t land in such a built up area would they?

Yes they would.

Brent Geese on Clonmancoise roundabout in the middle of about 100 houses.

I counted about 230 of them and read one tag out of the lot (WCRX).

The roundabout is a big piece of grass in the middle of Clonmacnoise Road. It’s right next to Eamon Ceannt park so that would explain why they landed there.

I got out the scope and camera, notebook etc and watched them for all of 3 minutes before they flew off (dog walker disturbed them) leaving me looking like a weirdo standing in the middle of a roundabout with a telescope. With no geese there I willed the geese to hurry up and return so I could stop looking stupid in front of all the imaginary eyes peering at me through the net curtains… also reading one tag wasn’t great.

After 10 mins they still hadn’t returned, so I sloped off and drove around trying to find where they’d disappeared to. I checked all the nearby bits of green I knew but didn’t see anything.

Next stop -  Le Fanu Park in Ballyfermot.

Le Fanu Park, home to Brent Geese

I drove up to Le Fanu park because in the week a woman had emailed Graham to say that she had spotted a few hundred geese feeding there. I told Graham I’d go and see if I could check out the geese and read some tags.

But same as Crumlin, there were no geese to be seen.

An empty field.

No geese but lots of evidence that the fields were definitely being used by the geese

A guy who was walking his dogs told me that there were geese feeding on these fields all the time so I wondered if I should stay for a while in the hope that they might turn up.

I knew that they flew to Crumlin about 8.30am and I assumed that was to do with morning high/low tide times – and wasn’t there another tide time in the afternoon? So maybe there’d be an imminent arrival of the geese and I should wait for them?

I rang the man who’d deffo know (eric) and he kindly explained that the geese flying inland had nothing to do with tides. The geese roost at sea overnight and then fly inland to feed as soon as they’ve woken and wiped the sleep from their eyes. The fact that they weren’t there now was mostly to do with human activity on the fields at weekends. ‘So there’s no point waiting here then?’ ‘No’ he said and he went back to taking photos of his fancypants scarce passage migrant Black Redstart down at Dun Laoghaire East Pier.

I had to go and buy a new blind for the bathroom and drive to Dundalk to watch Maeve Higgins so knowing that the geese wouldn’t be arriving I figured I should probably head home.

I did snap these though, so still a nice day.

Mistle thrush in Sundrive Park, Crumlin, Dublin 12

Green Finches, Sundrive Park, Crumlin

Redwings, in little park near Lower Kimmage Rd

Definite supercilium and red patch under wing

Redwing, from the front. There were about 8 Redwings and a couple of Fieldfares.

Linnet, in a tree near waste ground, Ballyfermot Dublin 10. Linnets feed from the ground under vegetation which is why they like wasteland (lots of guaranteed vegetation in the form of weeds).

Check out the finch beak on this female Linnet, Ballyfermot.

You can just make out the male Linnet with its pink breast starting to show for breeding season.

End of Sat 30th Jan 2010. Full Moon, Blackrock, Co.Louth

Northside Brent Geese

Drove over to Pat in Howth this morning – made it from Drimnagh to Howth Summit in 29 mins. What a difference in scenery in half an hour. Definitely want to go up there again. We went up to Greenhollows Quarries and I felt like I was in Wicklow, loads of heathland and moorland. Imagine that being on your doorstep.

Pat had been keeping a scope which is being lent to me by Kendrew (his old telescope) and Cian (his old tripod) so that I can better read the Brent Geese tags in Crumlin. All organised by Graham (Head of Brent Mafia) – huge gratitude towards all of them.

So I have my first scope. It’s got a fixed 30x lens and I think it was used in the World War II or something to spot enemy bombers. It’s brilliant and we put it to use straightaway.

Pat took me to some of the North Dublin grassland sites the Brent Geese are using and we read some tags in a park in Sutton (Tags CLRB, CSRB, CJYY, FKRY, 2KRY, 3KRY, SCYY) and also in Redarches in Baldoyle (Tags BLRY, NTRY, UBRY).

Reading the tags through the scope was 22x better than reading them through my binoculars (geddit?!). Now I just have to get my head around the reading of the tags from right to left when the geese are face on.

My Scope and Brent Geese in the distance. Redarches, Baldoyle, Dublin 13

What it's all about - these protected Brent Geese coming inland to feed (Redarches, Baldoyle).

The enemy bombers - Pale Bellied Brent Geese. Redarches, Baldoyle.

Some of the Brent Geese at the park in Sutton - Suncross? They were very tame.

Blacktailed Godwits? or Bartailed? They're not going on my list anyway, I'm hopeless with waders. That's a cropped image already so the sharpness isn't there.

Actually if you enlarge the Godwit on the left you can see it's a black tail not a barred tail - I'm still not 100% though.

A dog ran into the middle of them all and up they lifted

With my new WWII scope I was able to avoid the enemy poo bombed from above. Not one single hit.

Sangwiches and a picnic bar from a garage (which the Brent Geese also frequent) lasted us until 4pm, then I set off home.

Even though it was getting dark and I should have just kept driving home, some magnetic force pulled me in and made me park on the Causeway to Bull Island so I could try out the new scope on the waders.

I probably shouldn’t have because it re-inforced all my grey blobs on a grey sea under a grey sky feelings about waders. Plus it was cold.

PLUS! I made notes of one wader bird I saw, sketches n everything, watched it for a while and now I’ve got home and looked through my two guide books I can’t see the bird in either of them. All these seasonal plumage changes, differences with juveniles – them waders are tough. I wish someone would bring out a decent photographic Irish/UK guide book soon…What’s that you say? Eric Dempsey’s compiling one now? I hope it’s a good one and my wader bird wot I saw today is in it.

Before it got as dark as the pics below I did manage to see Redshank, Oystercatchers, BH Gulls, Teal, Shelducks, Lapwings and a Herring Gull..and I thought I saw the Hybrid Carrion Crow but wasn’t sure in the dark if it was a Rook or a Crow so I didn’t add it to my list.

A dark and cold Causeway, Bull Island. Dark blobs roosting.

Cool skyline of Dublin Port. But too dark. Hometime.

1300 Brent Geese, Crumlin Rd

Some of the 1300 Brent Geese Crumlin Rd GAA pitches, Sat 12 Dec 2009

I’m thinking now that this blog might slowly become a Brent Geese blog!

Met Pat at 10am. She had already managed a peek at the geese and was very excited at the numbers in the flock. It was nice to see someone else excited by these Brents in Crumlin. We bothered Nigel again for his ladder, clambered over the wall and landed t’other side without a scratch to ourselves, telescopes, binoculars or camera.

Pat set up her telescope and suggested I counted the birds. She couldn’t see my face but my expression said ‘Are you nuts?!?’ Not wanting to seem clueless in front of someone I didn’t know, I wondered silently how I was supposed to count hundreds of moving black dots with wings? I looked through my binoculars, started counting 10 of them and once I got an idea of what 10 geese looked like, the counting was quite easy. I counted about 1300 there and Pat agreed.

Pat reading the leg tags of the geese

Pat started spotting and writing down the Leg Tags. I wandered down the field hoping to get closer to da birds.

I got close enough to see ABRY, UHWW, 7ARY and PBYY with my binocs.

We were there for maybe an hour when a small aircraft scared them and there was a massive lift off from the field.

Take off! I didn't get shat on once hahahahahaha. Missed me.

Even when they sent their troops right over my head!

It was disappointing that they’d gone and i figured that was us finished for the day. I was just on the phone to Pat to see if I’d wander back over to her when I saw them coming back. ‘I can’t see them’ said Pat. You soon will I thought as I hung up.

They are like the apocalypse aren't they?

Check in for landing

So Pat can finish off reading the last of the tags

Texting to say she's read all she can see - lets go. Mobile phones - better than arm signals.

We both clambered back over the wall, much to the amusement of onlookers. Thanked Nigel and gave him back his ladder. Again, if it wasn’t for him we’d have got none of this morning’s work done. Pat got about 20 tags and I got 4. Not that many for a flock of 1300 and Pat reckoned there weren’t many jeuvenilles – which was a bad sign.

Just before we finished we decided we’d check out Sundrive Park again but when we got there I saw loads of cyclists using the bike track so that was a non event. Just as well really, we both had things to do and could easily have got lost in another couple of hours reading tags.

Whats the ad where once you’ve started you can’t stop?! This could easily become a pleasurable full time job!

800 Brent Geese – Crumlin Road GAA pitch

View of Brent Geese from AutoGlaze offices, Crumlin Rd, Thurs 11 Dec 2009

Thanks to Tommy from AutoGlaze for letting me take this photo from their upstairs offices. Tommy told me that the geese have been landing in the field every year for the last 12 years at least.

Even though I really wanted to get in the field I declined offers of getting me over the wall with the help of a forklift truck and went on my way.

I went back to find Nigel who kindly lent me a ladder to get over the wall.

Obviously the welfare of the birds always comes before any human curiosity – so I clambered over the wall as quietly as my 13 stone weight would let me and stood still for a while so that if they were peeking at me they wouldn’t be scared.

It seemed to work as they kept eating the grass as I raised my binoculars and also took some photos. Unfortunately the geese were too far away to see any tags let alone read any so I was slightly disappointed, but not too much because the sight of all the hundreds of geese feeding before me was amazing.

Some of the hundreds of Brent Geese in Synge St GAA field, Crumlin Rd

Enjoying a bit of peace and quiet away from the rest of the rabble

The Rabble

Without the help of Nigel and his ladder and Tommy letting me into the Autoglaze offices I wouldn’t have got any of these photos. May good karma come their way.

Brent Geese ‘No Show’ this morning

My Crumlin Brent Geese photo on the Tolka 'Sightings' page!

As I was reading the Tolka website I saw that they might be interested in the photo I took yesterday of the Brent in Sundrive, so I emailed them the pic and Lorraine Benson got back to me with a lovely email (and posted my pic on their website!)

She was very happy with the news of the sighting and my photos (wants to use them for a talk she’s doing on Brent Geese in January, how chuffed was I) and she forwarded my email to Graham McElwaine in Northern Ireland who’s doing research into the re-sightings of Brent Geese.

Graham emailed me, delirah with the sighting and photos of the tagged birds. He kindly sent me what he’s been working on, which is their sighting history .

If you click on this photo you will see tag 62YY on the right and tag 7LRY on the left

The goose with the two yellow tags, or 62YY as he’s known to his close friends and family, is a 6 yr old Male first tagged 5th May 2007 in Jörfi, Álftanes, SW Iceland, presumably on his way back to North Canada after his winter hols in Ireland.

Below are the dates he was spotted, the initials of who spotted him, the Ordnance Survey No of the site, The general Area, the common name for the site and the number in the flock.

Darvic 62YY Right Leg Letter/Colour: 6 Yellow Age Code 6

Metal 119748               Left Leg Letter/Colour: 2 Yellow Sex M

Date Ringed 05/05/07 Ringing Site Jörfi,Álftanes,SWIceland                         

12-May-07  GG                          Skerjafjörður           Álftanes/Stekkur

175 20-Nov-07  CPE         O240370     Dublin Bay             North Bull Island Unassociated

204 13-Dec-07 GF           O185362     Dublin Bay             Dublin Harbour/Fairview Park              30

258 07-Jan-08  CPE         O185362     Dublin Bay             Dublin Harbour/Fairview Park    106

402 09-Feb-08  LO           O185362     Dublin Bay             Dublin Harbour/Fairview Park    230

365 23-Feb-08  MHA         O185362     Dublin Bay             Dublin Harbour/Fairview Park    300

18 21-Sep-08  GM           J488686      Strangford Lough      Castle Espie North Unassociated

127 02-Nov-08  GM/PW/     B922338     Ballyness Bay         Falcarragh Harbour    236

139 10-Nov-09  CPE         O185362     Dublin Bay             Dublin Harbour/Fairview Park    105

208 06-Dec-09 SMC O138317     Dublin Bay             Dublin/Crumlin/Eamon Ceannt Park    250

Yes, I’m very proud that the SMC c’est moi and that it was the first sighting for this bird in Crumlin.

The goose with the Red and Yellow tag, known as 7LRY, was Female, 6 years old and was tagged on the way back from Ireland to North Canada in Neðri-Háls, Laxárvogur, SW Iceland in 2007.

Since she was tagged she’s been spotted at Bull Island, Wexford Slobs, Laxárvogur/Háls, Sutton, Shelbourne dog racing track (by Lorraine Benson) and my sighting of her in Crumlin was her first sighting this winter. Imagine what that bird has been up to since Lorraine saw her betting on the dogs in March 09 and I saw her eating grass in Crumlin 9 months later.

It’s all so fascinating that I’ve agreed to help Graham and Lorraine with sightings around Crumlin as much as I can.

Maybe to my cost, as this morning I took a bit of time off work and made my way to Sundrive Park again for the 8.30am clocking in of Brent Geese.  I waited in a very freezing Eamon Ceannt Park with binocs and camera at the ready -  for an hour – and alls I got was a No Show.

I asked a guy walking his dog if he saw geese there any morning and he said he didn’t notice (you’d notice 300 noisy geese 5m away from you) and he suggested I ask another lady walking towards us.

‘Oh, they’re in a field behind my house they are..hundreds of them all land in and feed off the field, ye can see them from my bedroom window. You won’t be able to get into that field, there’s no access except for the big gates at the front and they only open when there’s GAA training in the evenings and weekends. But yeah there’s hundreds of them. Which GAA field? Oh Synge St on the Crumlin Rd. But you won’t be able to get in. You can see them from my bedroom window though.’

With no offer to go up to her bedroom (not suprising really) I had to turn back home and cycle to work.How annoying.

But like a dog with a bone I cycled down Crumlin Rd and cycled up a little lane next to Synge St GAA field to see for myself if there was any access and was disappointed that there wasn’t.

But Nigel, the mechanic who has a garage along that lane had an idea for me.

‘You come here again tomorrow and I have a ladder. We’ll put the ladder upto the wall and you can see them like that. We’ve been seeing hundreds of them every morning landing in over the wall and taking off about 10.30am. Regular as clockwork they are. Like a black cloud and really noisy. You come here tomorrow morning with your camera and I’ll have the ladder ready.’