You may have heard about a new scheme to reintroduce the Red Kite into Ireland by releasing 30 young birds in County Wicklow. A bird of prey that has been extinct in Ireland for 200 years, it is hoped the captive release of these birds will help them gain a footing in what should be an ideal habitat for them. Once down to single figures in the UK they are now doing spectacularly well in Wales due to a reintroduction programme, which involved the cooperation of local farmers. Mainly carrion eaters often stealing food from other birds, some of the farmers were encouraged and subsidised to supplement the kite’s diet by leaving out raw meat for the birds. One of these farms, Gigrin Farm is now a Red Kite Centre and attracts thousands of visitors every year to what has been described as “Surely the largest, most fantastic bid table in the world”. Every day at a set time kilos of raw meat are spread from the back of a trailer in front of a row of bird hides. As the hour approaches birds start to gather in the nearby trees. Soon the feeding area is surrounded by eager ravens, buzzards and of course dozens of the star of the show, red kites. Many of these kites have wing tags and they can deduce that some of these birds travel vast distances from their nests during the breeding season for a guaranteed meal. When the farmer stops his tractor and starts to spread the meat around the air becomes full of swooping and diving birds the most spectacular being the kite whose distinctly forked tail gives it great agility for turning and weaving. The birds have become a very important part of the area’s economy bringing in thousands of tourists all year round even in winter when there have been up to 400 kites at the feeding station! Hopefully we’ll be seeing them over the hills of Wicklow soon and maybe even a little closer to home since in late July Birdwatch Ireland HQ got a call to say one of the Red Kites had been seen over Killiney Hill!

One September morning a few years ago as I was coming down through the trees on Killiney Hill I heard the familiar croak of a raven overhead and got a fleeting glimpse of a black shape through the treetops. Eventually emerging from the tree cover I looked overhead expecting to see a pair of ravens but the sky was teeming with ravens, a seriously large flock of them. I couldn’t count them properly because the pairs and individuals were wheeling, diving and soaring within the flock but there were at least 30 and maybe 32. I’d seen groups of 18 and more before but never this many. Unlike Hooded Crows, Rooks and Jackdaws which gather and sometimes nest in large flocks the ravens are generally only seen singly or in small family groups. I had thought maybe the large group of ravens was coming over to visit the resident pair in Dalkey introducing the new family to their cousins but they might in fact be heading a bit further afield. Less then a hundred miles away is the biggest winter roost of ravens in Europe. A Monterey Pine forest outside Angelsea in West Wales holds up to 1,000 roosting ravens in the wintertime and there’s every chance that some of these birds, many of whom would be young non breeding birds, may come from Ireland which is only a short hop across the sea for them. Hopefully Dalkey’s ravens will have bred again this year. Adults are still seen regularly on Dalkey Island and over the hills where they often perch in suitably lordly and dramatic fashion on top of the obelisk or on the Telegraph Tower.

In early July our Red Squirrels on Killiney Hill were often to be seen feeding on the ground in the early hours of the day picking up last years beech seeds. It got to the point where we’d put the dog on the lead after she got terribly close to squirrels after very hectic chases. The squirrel would retreat up the tree and wait often perched at a fork of the tree, its front paws held in front of it as if in prayer or contemplation but probably just waiting for the dog to push off. Then for weeks no sign of any squirrels till a morning in early August when after the dog’s interest in something in the treetops I heard the a rain-like pattering through the leaves and was able to see a Red Squirrel high above on a Scots pine while a little shower of discarded pine scales fell around me. The squirrels peel off the scales to get at the tiny protein packed seed beneath each scale and the bare centre of the cone is left looking like an apple core. I probably mentioned before that unusually for mammals squirrels, like people, are either left or right handed and it’s possible to tell which by the way the scales have been peeled off.

In May the South Dublin Branch of Birdwatch embarked on an ambitious field trip, taking a coach load of birdwatchers to Poland. With its large wetland areas, enormous forests including some of the most ancient woodland in Europe and large areas of agricultural land unsullied by intensive farming methods, Poland still has lots of ideal habitat for a vast range of bird species and many mammals. With clear blue skies and temperature hitting 30c the weather was glorious though the weather seemed to give a boost to the population of mosquitoes which were very active, numerous and too willing to get to know the visitors. Lovely wooden farm buildings and meadows full of wild flowers made for very pleasant scenery. Some of the fields, covered with dandelions about to go to seed, looking like they were covered in snow and providing great food for seed eating birds and insects. Storks stood or sat on the mass of twigs that comprise their nests often built on platforms deliberately constructed for them. Cuckoos calling everywhere and even at night we were sometimes surrounded by the ‘crak’ noise of calling corncrakes. Eagles, woodpeckers and owls including the tiny Pygmy Owl gave great views. One member of the group, up early on our first day, went to a nearby river and got wonderful photographs of a kingfisher feeding its young and a mink ferrying its cubs across the river.