Monday, May 19, 2008

Ouch!!

I guess everybody has been checking this blog recently hoping for some record shots of the crippling rares flooding Portland at the moment. I'm afraid that wont be happening as i'm currently living in a caravan on the edge of the Irish Sea, and i'm somewhat lacking in computer and rares.
Yes, having spent the last 2 months desperately waiting for the time to leave the island of dreams, i've finally started my job wardening the Little Tern colony at Kilcoole, just south of Dublin, and literally as I stepped onto the tarmac at Dublin Airport, an Eastern Olivaceous Warbler was plucked from the nets in the obs, and yesterday a Thrush Nightingale turns up. Oh well, shit happens.
Still, i've got plenty to keep me happy over here. Kilcoole is a wonderful site, a network of brackish lagoons and grazing marshes backing onto a strip of coastal scrub and a shingle beach, it looks like a superb spot for some goodies to turn up, I can't imagine what birds would turn up there if it was sited somewhere more promising, like right down in the south-east, oh, right, that would be Tacumshin.
The Little Terns are shaping up nicely for a good season with about 150 birds present, and the colony looking extremely hectic, with a constant stream of males bringing back sandeels for courtship feeding, we're expectign to find the first eggs any day now, and then the work really starts, with 24 hour watch on the site to deter predators during the night, and keep the public informed during the day.
Dont expect too many updates to the blog ,as my caravan isnt fitted out with wi-fi yet ,and I wont have too much time off to waltz into internet cafes, i'm only writing this as i'm waiting for the Government Offices in Bray to open so I can sort out all the tax stuff, oh the joys of working abroad!!!

1 comment:

Harry said...

Hi Joe,
Please feel free to find something good at Kilcoole: I need Red-foot for Ireland, for example...
In the event that you do get lucky, the number to phone news in to our birdline is 01-8307364.
I can give you my own mobile number as well, but would be slow to put it online: e-mail me at hhussey3@yahoo.com and I'll send it on.