Stump of the Castle and Wicklow Head

Arrived at Sarah’s in Wicklow at 9.15am, only took me 29 mins from Drimnagh.

Headed off for a walk in woods down at Stump of the Castle, an area near Rathdrum. The woods are well managed by WNP, I think it’s a Special Area of Conservation. Lots of felling of Beech trees had been going on, a sure focus on removing non native species to allow Irish natives to grow.

Now you see the trees...

Now you don't, Stump of the Castle woods, Wicklow. That's Sarah probably 'hearing' one of the many Goldcrests she spent all day 'hearing'.

A little pond in the woods with Frog's spawn, tadpoles not even nearly ready to hatch. Yes it's the middle of March.

We saw loads and loads and loads of Coal Tits, Great Tits, Blue Tits and Long Tailed Tits.

If you look closely you can see the punk hairdo of the Coal tit.

Long Tailed Tit Silhouette.

River Avonmore, Stump of the Castle, Wicklow.

In these trees down near the river we got several glimpses of a Tree creeper which was lovely.

Plenty of photos of nest boxes though. WNP really going to town on providing potential nesting sites themselves. Great to see.

Mystery nesting box right above the river. No nails underneath to suggest compartments. So deffo not a Barn Owl nest box, though I don't think they'd be right above the river anyway.

The nest box right ovet the river. Who lives in a house like this? A Goosander hopefully.

Sarah started looking up certain birds on her new iphone app to try and work out which bird might nest there but we didn’t come up with any answers. She was trying to think of the duck beginning with G that just jumps out into the water, but couldn’t remember. (The app was the Birdguides Birds of Ireland app, excellent app).

Edit**** Sarah was right, the nest box above does belong to a bird beginning with G – the Goosander. I found a link on the WNP website about their Goosander nest box scheme – for the link Click Here

Nestbox P31

Nest boxes near and far.

Nestbox R17. Side entrance on other side.

Nestbox R8

Nestbox P19

Given that the nesting season is upon us these nest boxes should be homes to all kinds of chicks over the next month or two.

Didn’t spot any Barn Owl nest boxes, that doesn’t mean they weren’t in the woods, just we didn’t see any.

We left to go to Redcross to try and see Redkites. I saw one, Sarah saw two – they were Way off in the distance so no good views really, but it was cool to see them.

We decided that we’d drive on towards Wicklow Head. On the way we stopped at a house that had a flock of around 70 Linnets hanging out with a Starling on a telephone wire. Sarah used her app again to ID the birds as Linnets. Did I say it was good app? The Linnet section has 4 drawings of male Linnets and 2 of Female, also had great photos of Male and juvenile …but guess what? No photos of a Female Linnet. I don’t know what it is but my appreciation of drawings of birds is zilch, I really seem to need a photo, so this lack of photos of female birds really bugs me.

Linnets on the wire. You can see the outline of the Starling to the right on the left hand wire .

We also stopped at an old abandoned house and barn. Spotted 3 Swallow nests and several nest boxes around the farm

Swallow nests - I think - Housemartins nests are similar but more enclosed?

Old barn, abandoned and For Sale - Quinn Auctioneers

3 nestboxes in the barn

One of them with evidence of being used

When we got to Wicklow Head the sun had well and truly gone behind the clouds and admittedly I was thinking ‘Grey Sky, grey sea, grey blobs’ but we weren’t really there for looking at waders, we were going to see what was hanging around the cliff edge.

Kittiwakes at Wicklow Head

Fulmars on the ledge to the left. We stayed this far away and I just zoomed my lens in on them.

Fulmars, look like gulls but they're related to the Albatross and part of the Petrel, Shearwater family.

Fulmars, white under wings, grey uppers.

Fulmars, their bill is made up to 9 horny plates.

Copied from Wikipedia: Fulmars produce a stomach oil made up of wax esters. This is used against predators as well as an energy rich food source for chicks and for the adults during their long flights. It will matt the plumage of avian predators, and can lead to their death. They also have a salt gland that is situated above the nasal passage and helps desalinate their bodies, due to the high amount of ocean water that they imbibe. It excretes a high saline solution from their nose.

Luckily we left without being hit by any of this stomach oil …..

Kittiwake in flight. The only Gull to be only seen over the Sea. So, the only official seagull.

Kittiwake, pure white, pure grey, pure black markings at end of each wing.

The time and the light suggested it was time to go home, it was about 6pm. 9 hours birding and it flew by without us even noticing. Sometimes the light disappearing is the only thing which reminds us of the time.

Sun setting over Wicklow and the day

Big Thanks to Sarah for being kind enough to take me around her haunts and showing me some really good Wicklow birding spots.