Easter Monday on the Cooley Peninsula, Co. Louth

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Did you know that all the roads in Drimnagh have been named after mountain ranges in Ireland?

Fitting then that instead of spending the day on Cooley Road, Drimnagh I was headed for the Cooley Peninsula, Co. Louth. The weather was really gusty and grey and it felt like it was going to pour torrential rain any second. Luckily it didn’t but it was cold and nearly gale force conditions for most of the day.

Before hitting the Cooley peninsula I stopped off in Dundalk port. The Spirit Store was all locked up and no-one was around except a few dog walkers and random people sitting in their cars and me irritated by my telescope falling over in the wind.

10am Dundalk Port, 5th April 2010. Gale force conditions. And GREY.

In the distance you can see 3 Mute Swan couples setting up nests.

There were about 12 Teals at the port. These 2 black blobs are a female and male teal.

Towards the bridge there was a Little Egret and some more Teal. 3 points for the Little Egret (it is there!)

After a while of ‘not much happening’ I left the port and took the N52 up to the main roundabout for the M1 to Belfast/Dublin. I was tempted by the Ravensdale signs but followed the signs for Carlingford instead, I felt like sea not mountains.

Following the R173 to Carlingford I took a random right turn down Marsh Road. This road had (funnily enough) some marshes at the end, but they’re right in front of some houses and given the weather conditions I didn’t feel like setting up the telescope there, plus I couldn’t really see anything immediately with my binoculars so I headed back to the main road. Maybe worth a stop another time when the weather’s a bit calmer.

On the way back to the main road I heard this lovely Robin,

Gorgeous little Robin singing its little heart out. I think this image would make a cool stencil.

Turning right back on the R173 after a few minutes you come across a sign directing you to Bellurgan Point.

Do as you're told and take this road dowm to Bellurgan point.

Tide WELL out at Bellurgan Point. You can always trust the Redshanks though.

Redshanks - they'll always keep you company when the tides out.

Also, my constant companions, my BFFL's - the Brent Geese.

When I arrived about about 200+ Terns of some sort, I didn’t see what they were before they flew out of view – it was cool just to catch a glimpse of them though. There were also Shelducks and a big flock of small birds which flew off.

With the Blue Anchor pub behind you, if you walk towards the right you come to Tearmann Wildfowl Sanctuary.

Wildlife Sanctuary, Bellurgan point.

What meets you at the end. Grey sky, not even grey sea but grey mud and grey blobs, but with the mountains as the backdrop you wouldn't really want to be anywhere else.

Flock of waders lift and take off.

Wader shapes.

The waders were Black tailed Godwits, most sporting their breeding plumage.

Along with the gale force winds making it nearly impossible to focus on anything, these two men kept walking up and down and up and down and up and down along the mudflats, this kept spooking the birds and making them lift up.

I'm not great at waders and wasn't going to get any better looking at this lot constantly lifting, so I headed off.

As I drove back to the main road I was pretty shocked to see this sign stuck up on a farmer’s gate post. With all the horrific illegal poisoning of the Red Kites, White tailed Eagles and Golden Eagles happening in Ireland it was bizarre and worrying to see this:

Should read 'illegal poison laid'?

Back on the R173 and I took the turn for Gyles Quay

Gyles Quay, original quay built of wood in 1780 by Ross Gyles. Rebuilt in stone in 1824.

View to the right from gyles' quay. Apparently this was a haven for smugglers.

View from the end of the pier. Had the farmer's poison reached the sea and killed this Black Guillemot?

Black Guillemot, alive and well. So far.

Breffni and friends put in these holes which the Guillemots are successfully using.

In the sea I also saw 2 Crested Grebes and some Seals. A Black headed Gull, not a Med as I originally thought, some Oystercatchers, Ringed Plovers, Brent Geese and trusty old Redshank.

Oystercatchers, Gyles Quay

Redshank. 2 points.

3 Ringed Plover. No Turnstone. 1 point for each.

Brent Geese, Gyles Quay, Co Louth.

I left Gyles Quay and re-joined the R173 for my favourite stop of the day. Just before you turn left for Carlingford there’s a right turn, I can’t remember what the signpost reads but it heads towards the coast road which heads towards Ballagan. This coast road was a great spot for possible seabirds.

I say possible because I didn’t really get a chance to focus all that much on the sea as it was so fkn choppy. You’d see a head of something between the waves, then it would dive down for a while, come back up to be hidden by the waves again. On a calm day this would be a great spot.

Black head out at sea bobbing up then diving down.

I figured it was a Red throated diver - there were 3 of them. This looks closer than it was!

More Brent Geese

Brent Geese.

There were great spots all along this road. I think this was part of the day when the clouds moved away leaving a blue sky for a brief respite so it was a chance to just sit around and watch.

The coast road along Ballagan. Is that the start of a blue sky??

Spot the Pied Wagtail - easy when you know where it is. My photography's ace isn't it? The details of the bird's plumage and features.

Spotted this little bird. I wondered if it might be a Reed Bunting.

It was a Stonechat. Orange chest, white wingbar (breeding plumage) and lack of white moustachial stripe are the most obvious signs its a Stonechat not a Reed Bunting.

Female Stonechat.

Grey clouds heading over from the Mourne Mountains, Co. Down

With the grey clouds heading my way and the time hitting 5pm, I hadn’t even gotten as far as Carlingford.

I drove over that way and there actually wasn’t all that much happening over there. I stopped at several points along the way but the light was getting really bad and the weather was on a downturn, so I got something to eat in Carlngford and headed back to my own Cooley in Drimnagh.

The real time, actual day, was a great days birding. Ignore the grey photos of rocks and seaweeds – this was a great spot in bad weather so on a better day Cooley Peninsula is a must for a interesting day’s birding.

Birding around Carlingford, Co Louth

Carlingford, Co Louth. Gorgeous spot and amazing place for birding.

The following blog entry is a snapshot of just some of last weekends birding organised by Breffni Martin (Louth Branch) and Eric Dempsey.

8pm Friday evening and we’re sat in a room in the Four Seasons hotel, Carlingford listening to Eric’s talk on the geese, ducks and swans we might see the next day.

9am Saturday morning and we’re on a bus for an hour to go to Oxford Island Nature Reserve in Craigavon, Co. Armagh., Northern Ireland.

Oxford Island Nature Reserve, Craigavon, Co Amagh

Oxford Island Info Centre

Kinnego Bay, Lough Neagh.One of the largest lakes in Europe.

before we got to look at the lakes, Derek, sorry, Eric led us down some paths to some wooded areas in the reserve and started acting weirder than usual. He stood there, looked up at the trees and did some very loud Pishing in front of everyone. No shame.

Pishing attracts the birds. You make a pishing sound and other birds in the area think you might be a bird of prey and come to sit on branches to check out what the noise is.

It really worked and Chaffinches and Great tits, Coal tits, Blue-tits and Robins all landed on the nearby branches. For the rest of the trip some were convinced Eric was Francis of Assisi re-incarnated. We also got a good look at a Reed Bunting which I hadn’t seen before.

Eric pishes to attract the birds whilst Wendy sees how far up she can look without falling backwards

We walked on with Holiness among us to the first of two hides on the reserve.

Both of the hides were the best ones I’ve been in so far. The info inside the hides was brilliant and they had good reference posters up – so if you spotted something and weren’t too sure which bird you’d just seen you were sorted.

One of the 2 hides looking over Kinnego Bay. We saw Gadwall, Coots, Moor Hens, Pochards, Ruddy Ducks, Tufted Ducks. And a Buzzard and a Sparrowhawk. And a Kestrel.

When we first arrived at the nature reserve we had blue skies and the sun was shining. When we started to look at the waders the grey clouds flew in and the light disappeared. I’m sure it was a definite scenery change.

Grey spots on a grey water with a grey sky. It's wader time.

Great Crested Grebe

We left the Hide and went back into the wooded area.

More pishing from Eric and Vincent tries Wendy's game

Birdwatchers Anonymous

Oh it's a long way to Tipperary...

Rhona sets up her scope and won't move until she's seen Whooper Swans or Bewicks

No Bewicks or Whoopers but we did see Lapwings and Greater Black Backed Gull in the distance

On the way back to the Info Centre we stopped off for more woodland birds. Eric reminded us that it’s only the male bird that you will ever hear singing – that goes for ALL songbirds. Isn’t that amazing.

And – that when you see birds on the grass looking like they’re on their step machine at the gym – they’re actually pretending to be rain on the grass to fool the worms into thinking that it’s raining (worms come up for the moisture) and then they eat em.

Something on the floor of interest.

Only the truly gifted get to see what it is.

On the way back to the Info Centre Vincent spotted a lovely Song Thrush singing in the tree.

Vincent.

Simon King better step up his game

Outside the Info Centre there were several smallish trees which were alive with birds at the feeders.

Whilst the amateurs wrestle with their camera settings...

Vincent's gets his shot in the bag.

A Great Tit and it's punk rump

Look at how far the claws reach

Once we had finished our lunch and grouped together again, we got back on the bus to drive over to the Balancing Lakes not too far away. On the way out of the Reserve we saw some Whooper Swans. We were on the main road but Peter our driver pulled in and we all stepped off to have a sconse at the Whoopers.

On the way out of Oxford Island we saw Mute Swans (front left) and Whooper Swans (back)

Another tip from Eric: To tell the difference between a Bewick and a Whooper think Blotchy yellow mark on beak is Bewick and a Wedgy yellow mark on the beak is a Whooper. Blotchy Bewick and Wedgy Whooper.

Whooper Swans, straight necks and Yellow wedges to bills

Tripods, Scopes, binoculars and cameras put away we got back on the bus.

Philip's Sat Nav came in pretty handy over the weekend.

We got to the Balancing Lakes after going down the same back roads about three times.

The balancing lakes are just two lakes purpose built to help control the drainage water from the Craigavon area. There’s a running/walking track around the lakes too which seemed to be in full use. There were plenty of ducks on the lake but Philip and Brendan were after Smew or a Fushsomething duck and Philip was particularly after a Pink Footed goose .

'Hello, we've come up from Dublin to see some interesting birds, have you seen any?'...'Well I'm a toff so let me put my hand on my hip and point you to a Goldeneye no less, good luck Dubs'

I think Anne just slapped the horse in the face, must've had good reason, maybe she's not a Dub?

Feck the Goldeneye. What about the pink footed goose?! A smew?! The fuschinger duck?!?!

That Horse said there was a Goldeneye on the Balancing Lake

I very much doubt it

We saw quite a few Goldeneyes, male and female. This male soon flew off.

For a lot of us, it was our first time to see Cormorants in a tree.There were about 12 of them in them there trees.

Even in the trees they did the drying out wings thing

Sunset for the birders at the Balancing Lakes, Craigavon

Sunset – the last orders bell for birders trying to fit in some last views.

Back to the bus and back to the hotel for our dinner and drinks.

<Fade out….Roll credits>

<Commercial Break>

<Roll title sequence, Start of Sunday>

Four Seasons carpark 11am and we’re back on the bus heading for Annagassan, Co Louth.

Annagassan was freezo. Not raining, not windy but god it was cold.

We drove to Annagassan to see the Snow Bunting which has been seen there lately.

Annagassan, Co Louth. This is perfect desolate ground for Snow Buntings

So where is it?

There! Oh no that's a crisp packet.

Before you scroll down any further see if you can see the Snow Bunting in the photo below. It’s quite clear to see once you know where it is. Amazing camouflage though.

Can you see it?

See it now?

If you can't see it now I think Tróicare have some appeal you could probably tap into.

Snow Bunting

It was obviously very cool seeing this little scarce passage migrant bird. It was all on it’s own (usually they’ll be with 2 or 3 others) and it was incredibly tame. There were about 25 of us poking our lenses in it’s face and it wasn’t phased by our presence in the slightest, if it was phased, we wouldn’t have been so rude.

I think Eric said it would be flying off again in a couple of weeks. The Louth girls promised to give it a good send off so that it would come back next year. Lots of bunting to get the bunting back. Geddit.

After Annagasan we drove down to Lurgen Green. Poor Philip was still after his Pink Footed Geese and hopes were high for  Lurgen Green, but we couldn’t see any. What was worse was that we did actually drive by some geese in fields but the road was too fast to stop the bus, so who knows what they were.

I think Breffni said there were 10,000 Golden Plover there plus Dunlin and other 'smalls'. We were moving on before I got to take pic of any of them.

We got back on the bus and down to Gile’s Quay before you could sneeze. If it was cold in Annagassan it was frostbite central at Gile’s quay and there wasn’t too much dallying done there.

Highlight down at Gile’s quay were the Red Breasted Merganser which were under the water way more than on it. We also saw a group of about 10 Common Scoter really far out.

Giles Quay, Co. Louth. Emer looking at the 4 Red Breasted Mergansers which were out there (which I forgot to take photos of). It was good to see them through the scope though.

This was the last group stop and it was back to the hotel for lunch and then lots of people headed home.

Lightweights. Except Philip, who I think was going to go back to the fields to get his Pink Footed Goose!

After lunch Breffni kindly took me on a little tour along the coast road from the hotel. The huge advantage of this was that Breffni knew all the spots to jump out of the car and put up scopes. So when I go back I know the hotspots.

It was a decent mini birding trip. We saw Wigeon, Greenshanks, Redshanks. Well I saw the Wigeon and Redshanks, the Greenshanks.

Wigeon - you can kind of see the lovely colour on the male wigeon's head.

Wigeon, you can see the female (right) better in this pic. Not much better though. Crap pics I know.

When we were by the side of the road we saw a Peregrine swooping in. Brefnni was very excited by this because he hadn’t seen one in the area for a few years and was happy to see it back again.

He was even happier to see evidence that the Peregrine had just made a killing.

Evidence of Peregrine killing - white feathers on the rocks. Breffni thought it looked like a Lapwing

We also saw a Buzzard. Breffni seemed less impressed to see the Buzzard. When I asked him why, he explained how the survival of Buzzards is quite easy – they feed off already dead carrion whereas Peregrines have to go hunting for their prey and so were more susceptible to decline.

The Buzzard

In some marshes across the road we saw a Little Egret and it’s bright yellow feet (Breffni agrees with Eric’s theory that their feet are probably bright yellow so they don’t stab their feet instead of the fish they want to eat), we saw several snipe and about 4 or 5 little Grebes.

So that’s all the pics I got. Well I got more but I’d be here all night if I posted all of them.

It was a great weekend and I learned a lot. Eric never makes you feel like you’re asking a stupid question and that makes a huge difference to how relaxed you feel asking and how much you end up learning.

There is talk that they (Eric and Breffni) will run another of these weekends at the start of June, this time heading up into the Cooley Peninsula.