BirdWatch Ireland raptor diet research project:

A BirdWatch Ireland research project to compare the diet of Irish breeding raptors & owls in different parts of the country is under way this spring. As part of this study, miniature cameras will be placed near nests to record the prey items fed by birds of prey to their chicks. During the 2010 breeding season, details of nests or suspected breeding locations can be e-mailed to this website - mail@sligobirding.com and will be passed on confidentially to the research group. Alternatively, if you wish, you can just pass on your contact details and the name of the species and these will be passed to the project team who will contact you directly.

This work is being conducted under the relevant NPWS permits, and all project staff will have appropriate insurance cover. It is an offence to approach or interefere with the nest of a breeding species except with appropriate training and permits. Please do not approach or do anything that might disturb a suspected nest site, or reveal its location publicly. Any information given will be treated in the strictest confidence.

Have you seen a Stonechat recently?

Given the extreme scarcity of Stonechats since the extremely hard weather of the January/February period, BirdWatch Sligo would welcome your reports of sightings of this previously common bird in the county. Stonechats are known to be very susceptible to population crashes in severe winters, and numbers were probably artificially high after three exceptionally mild winters.

The absence of these charismatic birds has been noted at usually reliable coastal sites at Raghly & Ballyconnell (S. Feeney)

Please report any sightings to this website by emailing us at: sightings@sligobirding.com

Sligobirding.com Corncrake reports.......... the 2010 tally to date:

8 reports so far this season in the Sligo/Leitrim/North Roscommon area

It seems likely that some of these reports may refer to a single bird moving around (e.g. the two reports from Sligo harbour may refer to a single bird, and the two reports from Drumcliff Bay may refer to another)

Corncrake Fieldworker Tim Gordon comments (28/5/2010).

"Nationally, at the moment there are 37 to 38 in NW Donegal, including 18 or 19 on Inishbofin, the most here in many years. There’s at least one in the Shannon Callows. There are at least 19 in Erris (22 last year), three in SW Mayo (nine last year) and six or seven in Connemara (11 last year), so in the West, at the moment Sligo is the only area looking to have an increase in crakes"