Chats in Ballycotton

Cormorant with an eel, lots of these around.

Seeing the opportunity for a sunny day out I recently took yet another trip down to Ballycotton to try and take a good look at all the sandy bits. What I and my measly camera found mostly consisted of miniature dots sitting on sandbanks. Primarily wigeon shaped ones. Still a very pleasant walk!

So shy that this is probrably my best wigeon shot to date, bleh!

The shoreline by the beach car park had this small cluster of Brent geese. A first for me! Yes I know..., I haven’t been at this as long as most folks.


The hedgerows where full of songbirds though, thousands of house sparrows, dunnocks, large numbers of rook, linnets, goldfinch and many more. The worst moment of my day was coming face to face with 4 yellowhammers sitting in full view less than a meter away. Needless to say they were gone before I could get the stunned expression off my face. Ah well.

Goldfinch

Linnet (with oddly light legs)

A young rook

The moment that ultimately made my day was the sight of this very approachable stonechat which gave me some excellent views. It’s not the stunning summer plumage that is most associated with the stonechat but this was definitely the closest I’ve managed to get to one.





It being late October (at the time), few butterflies remained on the cliff walk. In fact the only thing I saw was admirals.



I was surprised to find a dragonfly on the cliffs as well. It is most likely a female red veined darter (see facebook debate) on account of the bluish tint to its wings. A new species for me and likely the last I’m going to see this year!