Monday 29 June 2015

On the trail of the white tail

Recognise this location? read on for more.
About a month ago this video was sent onto the facebook page by Kerryclimbing.ie.

https://www.facebook.com/KerryClimbing/videos/vb.110552822352912/851786784896175/?type=2&theater
Eagles Nest.

It features an adult (7 year old as indicated by its red wing tags), male White-tailed eagle feeding on what appears to be a young deer along the Long range in Killarney National park, the bird is then spooked and flies to a nearby rocky outcrop to assess his surroundings dwarfing the accompanying raven in the process!

After seeing this video I was interested in locating this site for the oppertunity to spot the feeding eagle and positivlty identify its lunch!
It took me another week to find the time to acually venture out into the park and by this time I really didn't expect to come across and feeding eagles as there would surely be no meat left for the birds to strip.

In the build up to my mini expedition I went about reviewing aerial images of the area the above clip was filmed at, which just so happened to be Eagles nest mountain, the location where the last pair of Golden eagles nested in the park a century ago. Back then it has been reported that a blunderbuss would be fired while passing by boat to flush any eagles for the delight of any visitors. Times have changed as the cameraman in the featured film keeps his distance from the eagle while he had his fill of food.

Back to the trek, after singling down the likley location that the eagle had fed on by means of locating the rocky outcrop I gathered my gear and got a lift out there. Admittedly I went into the bogland far sooner than I should have and this added alot of time onto the walk, the soft grround underfoot often rose up to knee height so I had to choose my footholds carefully and I eventually managed to reach higher (and dryier) ground. I was near the old weir bridge which was far too downriver to where I reckoned the location was but in any event I took out the binoculars and scanned the dead grass banks and bare rock for any sign of the parks avian giant.

Moving down from the high patch I stumbled upon a small isolated woodland with very evident schorch marks. The wood was some distance from where the massive fire burned its way into the park a few months ago so it may or may not have been deliberitaly been started in this secluded section of the park, regardless the damage appeared to be minimal, thankfully.
Dire damage in the park.

Back to the task, I opted to wade through the various deer paths crisscrossing the Long ranges banks rather than my origional strategy of trudgine through the mounds of dead vegetation along the waters edge.
Meandering my way along the river I opted to avoid a section of the river near the mountain as I could see a rocky area that resembled the area the film was taken at. But I was wrong and I had to wade back the way I came and out onto the area of land flanked on three sides by the river.
Ascending aother patch of high ground, the terrain seemed failiiar but in an inverted senxe as I was up on top of where the eagle had landed!
A road less travelled!

I moved down to rivers side once more and weaved my way through the tussuks of grass towering above the kneehigh water overflowing from a much higher Long range than a week previous when the eagle fed on its shoreline. Following a thorough search of the area where the prey item would have been I came to the conclusion that it had either been swallowed up by the deeper river or had been taken away by a scavenger be it terrestrial of aerial.
Returning to the rocky outcrop I searched for any evidence left behind by the eagle and wasent disappointed ass I uncovered a white downy feather tipped by a brown colouration tangled in a clump of heather growning from the outcrop, sucess!
The eagles downy feather.

This find was worth getting well drenched for and while I didn't find the carcass I know the eagle was well fed after discovering it, and thats what really matters!
















The Eagles view and Eagles nest!

Tuesday 16 June 2015

Plight of a Pilot



Over a week ago I came across a video on Facebook of a half submerged, half floating carcass of an as yet unidentifiable toothed whale.
I correctly identified this animal for the unsure person as a Long-finned Pilot whale going by its bulbous head, muscular demeanor, well rounded dorsal fin and of course it's long pectoral fins or flippers. The animal was rather well rotten in the video and it also appeared to be the same carcass reported floating near the Lemon rock to the North of Lambs head days earlier before managing to manoeuvre itself into a well protected natural harbour at Lambs head. 
It was dead over two weeks and resembled melted cheese in some spots, it was also largely yellow as its black skin had peeled away since its death somewhere at sea, probably miles offshore in the deeper waters in which this sociable species is commonly sighted.
The whales white oil/blubber underwater looking like drying paint.

After seeing the video and subsequent still shots of this bull Pilot whales teeth I decided to take a trip back to Derrynane to possibly obtain a tooth to figure out how old this whale was.
That Saturday was a dreary affair inundated with thick misty rain that could soak you considerably in very little time.
It took no time at all to find the whales carcass as it was at the side of the pier but set Hong was up, quite literally... The tide.
The whales bloated body floated in the narrow cove over some ten foot of water, and I didn't fancy a swim in the whale oil filled waters so all I could do was watch from above of this animals bizarre yet amazingly streamlined body bob in the calm provided in the rocky cove. It was my second ever encounter with a Pilot but both individuals were dead.
I was asked how did it die but there's no way of telling when a whale is in the state that bull was. Interestingly the rock face opposite the carcass appeared as if it had been painted recently by a white substance which rolled downwards as if it were excess bits of paint all while being underwater!
Note the fence post that was probably used to take the whales teeth.

I returned the following day on the second low tide, the whale was once again in place but this time it was land bound. It's carcass looked like a twenty foot rag doll just tossed onto the rocks in an untimely manner. After dining a pair of wellies I made my way down the grassy trail to the whales shingle beach. Being careful not to touch anything and picking my footholds carefully to avoid slipping on the whales oil I passed both the unknown paint like substance plastered on the rock face to my right which was not clearly a combination of oil,flesh and blubber a refreshing combination! While doing so I passed a fence post with a noticeable wet patch near its point, then it was upon me. Despite being right next to a fairground well rotten carcass I didn't get effected by its faint smell or displeasing look. Angling my head so as to gaze into its mouth without touching the rocks right by it, it was clear that the teeth were gone most likely because the nearby fence post was used by some one to prop the whales mouth open during the previous low tide earlier that morning, alas the teeth were gone but the carpals or finger bones on one of the Pilot whales flippers were strewn across the narrow strand like white shells.
Part of one of the Pilot's pectoral fins skeletal structure.

Climbing up from the strand and looking down on the carcass it's amazing how many species are out there beyond the horizon but tragic that such encounters are often the only way you might experience such a mammal for yourself in the flesh!
A somewhat graphic view of the bulls head.

Tuesday 9 June 2015

Swift Spotting


Earlier today I took it upon myself to scout my town for Swift colonies, this summer bird has captivated me ever since my early days. My very first bird field guide stated that this small blade-like winged bird could sleep while flying and would only land while at their nest, such facts fascinated me at an early age but it was years before I sighted these blackened sky slicers for myself.

Reading about the birds of Killarney National park in a publication of the same name I was dismayed by the apparent low breeding pairs in the park back in the 1980's standing at around four pairs residing at Killarney house at that time.

It was a cloudy school day and I was out in the schools pitch half heartdly participating in some sport or activity I didn't care for when I heard a series of unusual schreeches approaching from overhead at speed from the cathedral, moments later my eyes caught sight of the small streamlined birds enroute, they were too big for a swallow or martin and flapped their sharply edged wings with less frequency than the latter and former species, by using my powers of deduction and factoring in the fact that these screeching birds were coloured black there was no doubt that I was watching my first swifts wizz by! in all (if I recall correctly) there was about thirteen which thankfully is a vast improvement in about twenty years by some margin.

Back to today I went for a spin on the bike around various spots around Killarney to see if Swifts were present. Starting on the hill lingering above Fitzgeralds stadium and then down to St Columbanus's where I took all of the images displayed in this post. Six birds were definitely present but there was likley to be more as I was watching the one side of this widespread old stone building. There was a nest site or nest in development by a gutter and two birds whixxed past me by a couple of centimeteres at one stage! Its hard to describe the speed these birds travel and swevel at so just try to imagine a giabt, hyperactive swallow. Needless to say its a tricky job trying to follow and photograph swifts, who for the most part fly at high altitudes but I was fortunate today at my first attempt at capturing these birds on the wing.

After counting (as best I could) the swifts around St Columbanus's I cycled into town wgere I could hear swifts in numbers over head being masked by the cencrete environment. The highest numbers I encountered were near the town centre where 8 or more birds were circling high up near the direction of the sun which made counting harder.

Based on todays first skim over look at some the swifts of Killarney they seem to be faring well with some 26 birds across four distinct areas but there may well be more locations I've overlooked.
I have some ideas that will be of benifit to this African migrant in the town but it may be awhile until they might become a reality, regardless the numbers encountered today were well above what I had imagined in areas I wouldn't have considered but this was a preliminary scouting excercise that will likley be of benefit for any developments in the near future.