Thanks to everyone who showed up at 5am for the Dawn Chorus at the Ballymascanlon Hotel. As luck would have it we slipped in and out between two rain showers. On arrival a mistle thrush was singing from the top of one of the eucalyptus trees on the avenue. Walking first through the old walled garden and parkland, then along the river we picked up song thrush, blackbird, wren, dunnock, blackcap and many woodpigeons. Moving into the conifer plantation we listened to the terrifying vocalisations of the grey herons and little egrets feeding their young. We then moved up to the more open country and picked up a few distant finches (goldfinch, linnet) until we got to the dolmen where we finally found a robin, along with two more blackcaps, a song thrush and a blackbird all singing from the same copse. We finished up in the carpark were someone had brought along some donuts, which we munched as the drizzle started in.
