"Are there woodpeckers in Cavan"?

Great spotted woodpecker - photo by Dick Coombes

"Are there Woodpeckers in Cavan?"

 A presentation by Dick Coombes, (Birdwatch Ireland's CBS Coordinator) will take place in The River Front Hotel, Main Street, Virginia on Tuesday 9 April at 8pm.

Dick will talk to us about the recent colonisation of Ireland by the great-spotted woodpecker. In recent years they have been discovered breeding in Wicklow and Down. Could they now be breeding in Cavan? Dick's study of these birds has been featured on the popular "Living the Wildlife"TV series. Come along to the talk and find out about the most recent updates on the spread of the great-spotted woodpecker! 

All welcome and admission is free!

 Cavan Branch Members AGM will take place prior to the talk at 7pm.

BirdTrack

What is BirdTrack?

BirdTrack is an exciting project, through a partnership between the BTO, the RSPB, Birdwatch Ireland, the Scottish Ornithologists' Club and the Welsh

Ornithological Society, that looks at migration movements and distributions of birds throughout Britain and Ireland. BirdTrack provides facilities for observers to store and manage their own personal records as well as using these to support species conservation at local, regional, national and
international scales.

Exciting Spring Arrival !

In readiness for the forthcoming flood of spring arrivals, we have an exciting new arrival of our own to announce: we've just launched a fantastic new BirdTrack Home Page! www.birdtrack.net It's packed with interactive features to make BirdTrack more relevant to birdwatchers on a day-to-day basis and encourage even more people to get involved. There's never been a better time to add your records.The records submitted by BirdTrackers like you now form the core elements of the page.Explore the map to find out what has been seen locally or to visualise the relative frequency of records of any species across Britain and Ireland.Discover the latest reporting rates (the percentage of complete lists that contain each species) using the interactive graphing tool. See which members of the BirdTrack community have been most active via the ‘Top BirdTrackers’ tables… and log in to see how your own stats compare!

All the options to add and interact with your own records are now available directly from the Home page. Simply login using the button at the top left of the page to activate these options. You can stay logged in by making sure cookies are enabled on your device and ticking the ‘remember my login details’. The first time you log in to the new page, you'll be asked for permission to display your name alongside your records. Please use your forename and surname as your display name (i.e. 'Nick Moran', not 'Nick','NickM' or 'BrecksBirder'). We'll only display your name with your permission.

Happy BirdTracking.

Brian Caffrey

Dundalk outing Sunday 3 March

Photo by Clare Donoghue

Our group met up at Dundalk Docks at 12 noon where we were joined by Joe and some Monaghan Branch members. Here we enjoyed close-up views of teal, oystercatchers,black-tailed godwit, little egret and a number of gull species. Greenshank and lapwing were also present.

Photo Steve Driver

Our next stop was Soldier’s point. We arrived shortly before high tide and watched the birds feeding before heading to roost. We were treated to views of large flocks of black-tailed godwit, bar-tailed godwit, golden plover, some dunlin and brent geese. A highlight was close-up views of a grey seal.

Photo Joe Shannon

Goldeneye Photo Brian Mc Keever

After a quick lunch break, we spent some time at Lurgangreen watching the birds flying in to roost at high tide.

Photo Clare Donoghue

The sun had just come out and it was a real pleasure to spend some time at this lovely location.  Large flocks of geese and waders were present. A hunting peregrine raised the birds on a number of occasions and we were treated to great views of the flocks in the air.

Thanks to Clare,Steve,Joe and Brian for sharing the above photos.