The flycatcher invasion

The UCC spotted flycatchers remain with one pair actively established on the grounds & a third flycatcher some 30 seconds down the road which likely implies that its mate was somewhere nearby. The river walk also revealed glimpses of another one! The city’s green patches are full of them evidently.

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The flycatcher belongs to a group of about a hundred small insect catching birds (Old world flycatchers), some of which are not quite so bland, take this here Malaysian blue flycatcher for instance!

Our little friend has his good sides too tho...

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The flycatcher looks unremarkable at first glance with its small size, unobtrusive voice and drab green colouring but one thing that stands out about it is its precision and speed. Whilst taking pictures the flycatchers moved between close knit branches with split second timing and movements that where barely visible to the eye (not ideal for taking pictures then).

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If you look closely you can see that the flycatcher is actually more elongated then say a similar sized robin, with a pointed bill and a tapered body/tail. Its tail fans out widely and can be used to make fast mid air course corrections. These adaptations combine to allow the flycatcher to hunt by perching on a branch and quickly flying up and grabbing insects in mid air before returning to the branch. All this happens in moments. See the arkive video below to see what I mean. 

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It’s amazing how each species has adapted to its environment in different ways. I also happened to find a tree creeper in the park (in a tree with a pineapple stuck in it! What the heck where they getting up to in that mid Summer festival!?). This is the best shot I’ve gotten of one so far, it’s not at all great but at least it shows the important details of this bird. It has brown camouflage to blend in with the tree bark, a stiffened tail to allow it to rest vertically against the tree trunk, a long probing bill to grab insects in and around bark and long claws that allow it to walk up and down tree branches with ease. Again, it’s perfectly adapted to life in the trees!

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There are quite a number of newly fledged birds around and those who are still dependent on their parents can be quite easy to spot. You will generally see them making a lot of noise and being far less careful about being seen then their stressed out elders. Blue tits and wrens in particular are abundant and can easily be found by their sounds. (mother on the fence on top, baby at bottom)

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Yesterday I spotted this goldfinch, pity it wouldn’t stop to be photographed at close range, still its colours more than make up for my lousy stealth abilities!

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Other everyday but none the less enjoyable sightings where several young greylags at the Lough, a jackdaw posing rather nicely and a young coot. (greylags,jackdaw,coot).

General greebous

Couple of small updates, after a week of almost constant rain sun has suddenly descended on Cork city and fried its confused citizens to bits. I am thinking of proposing that we rename the Irish maritime climate to an Enigmatine climate due to its severely random nature.

Since I wrote this the weather has turned decidedly average again but I guess that just proves my point.

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Good start for my nature return as the UCC rounds revealed a spotted flycatcher! This seems to be the only flycatcher we have in any great abundance here in Ireland but is by no means easy to find. It’s a summer visitor here and in most of Europe. This picture is not great but fingers crossed that I find some more in the next few weeks. There seems to be a lot of them around the country at the moment so I’m hopeful! 

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The rest of UCC seems largely lifeless with most birds hidden away and recovering from the stress of parenting but one pine tree did reveal an unusual abundance of feeding songbirds. 6 goldcrests, 4 coal tits, 6 blue tits, 7 long tailed tits, 2 great tits and a treecreeper all in one tree. (Treecreeper on top, WOW not my best shot, coal tit bottom, also not great).

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Also made my weekly (ish) trip to the Atlantic pond where I found the usual grey herons but unfortunately no good views of the little egrets. The young heron was showing well again so I had to photograph him despite already having about 20 shots of the same animal (top). Last but not least a little grebe finally wandered into some light and gave me a fairly good shot (bottom), wahay.

 

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Barn swallow and spotted flycatcher added to UCC list

Now lets hope the weather sticks!

The squirrel occupation

My trip to Phoenix Park and Dublin zoo last week didn’t turn up too many wild creatures in the 4 hours or so I spend wandering around and avoiding random and extreme rain showers. None the less it was great fun because it’s almost impossible to avoid one of Ireland’s most prosperous invasive species; the grey squirrel. These small grey and quite unwary creatures are simply everywhere going about their daily routines and can be quite easy to photograph.

As is well known the grey squirrel originates from America as its Latin name suggests (Sciurus carolinienis) and was (allegedly) accidently introduced when a rather ill thought out wedding present of little squirrels ran amuck back in 1911. Since then the grey squirrel has pushed out the smaller, less adaptable red squirrels from most of its range and gained a permanent foothold in the food chain.  (top, red s from little island, bottom, grey s from Phoenix park)

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Luckily the problem doesn’t seem so bad down here in Cork where sighting a squirrel of any sort is a fairly rare occurrence for me. Oddly little island seems to have both species but not in any great abundance.  

Still, despite its influence and bad reputation the grey squirrel is admittedly a great looking little creature and very photogenic!

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The zoo has some rather tame wild birds as well, magpies, jackdaws, rooks, collared doves, herring gulls, starlings, house sparrows, robins, dunnocks, grey herons, mallards and even a little grebe where quite approachable, more so even then the ones in Cork city. (from top to bottom, little grebe, house sparrow, juvenile starling, jackdaw, collared dove, magpie)

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As for the zoo creatures themselves, they too got their pictures taken; I even made them a special page which can be found on the right under sub pages or by clicking on the tiger below!

Valentia island part 2, Buttercrabs

Having done the bird side of things I thought today I would share some of the landscapes of Valentia island as well as the smaller non bird creatures such as the various butterflies around the place.

I found several species of butterfly here but couldn’t get good shots of them all, the bog was covered in common blues, the rocky coast had an abundance of small browns and the mountain had a lot of Small heaths. Its amazing how these butterflies seem to exist in and around the plants in which their caterpillars specialize. (Wall brown Top, Common blue Middle and Small Heath Bottom)

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I also spend some hours in Caherciveen in the hopes of finding some coastal rockpool fish like shannies and blennies but since the tide was in all I found where a couple of juvenile shore crabs. Enjoyable day none the less and the shingle/seaweed even revealed some ringed plovers. (Guess which one is the crab).
 

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I only spotted one mammal, not too sure if it’s an Irish hare or a common hare although I am pretty sure it was a common hare. I almost got a perfect portrait shot of it but I couldn’t get off my bike fast enough. Unfortunatly I ended up with this.

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I found Ireland’s most remote pub on the lowland bogs, not doing so well judging by the dilapidation. Apparently they shot a Guiness add here.

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Some landscape shots. The island has a narrow calm canal on one side but is exposed to the full force of the Atlantic ocean on the other. Consequently the calm side is all shingle beaches whilst the opposite has impressive cliffs. Slightly puzzled at the lack of cliff birds here, the gulls, ravens and choughs seemed to be the only species in attendance. I suppose maybe they are happier on the offshore islands. The terrain itself is mostly limestone and bog terrain, definitely worth a visit!

Ravenous wheatears (The Valentia island trip)

Apparently it has been 18 days since I posted, oh well...I have been on holidays to the remote Western side of County Kerry on Valentia island where I stayed for a week to explore the local bird life and wildlife in general. I had intended a trip to the Skellig islands but alas weather conditions and timing got in the way. Still, my findings more than made up for that. 

First off one of the local attractions here is the so called Tetrapod walkway, a well preserved trail of footprints made by one of the first amphibian creatures to walk on land. It’s estimated to be a whopping four hundred million years old and is one of the oldest footprint sites on the planet. Pretty nifty! 

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Valentia is a haven for gulls, this time only great black backed, herring, lesser black backed and kittiwakes where present but I’d imagine that in Winter it gets pretty easy to spot some of their rarer cousins. (Herring top in white, great black backed bottom)

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In the higher areas I had hoped to find and photograph a wheatear. This personal favourite of mine is an undeniably stunning little bird with its black, grey and creamy contrasts. 

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Indeed the rocky areas had an abundance of them. The pair pictured here strayed into my area when a fledgling crash-landed nearby prompting frenzied attempts to lure me away by both parents. A very entertaining experience. The wheatear is a member of the trush family and is comparable in size to a large robin.

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It’s smaller but more colourful cousin the Stonechat could also be found here in the hedgerows and particularly near the lowland bogs.

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In keeping with the theme of small songbirds I managed to find an unusually social sedge warbler which unlike most warblers posed (albeit at a distance) for the camera (below).  Grasshopper warblers too where unusually abundant but entirely unwilling to be photographed. At least I saw one for once!

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On the mountain and the bogs Skylarks (top) where everywhere singing as is their trademark far up in the sky. Meadow pipits (bottom) too where easy to find especially in the bog areas. 

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Last but most definitely not least I discovered 2 pairs of ravens on the island which after noticing my presence started mocking me and flying overhead in what was both a dazzling and slightly nerve wrecking display of crow like power. The raven is the largest European songbird with a wingspan of up to 1.5 meters and a body length of about 65cm. Truly an impressive bird!

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More Valentia stuff tomorrow!