Brent from Ballycotton

About a month ago I took a trip down to Ballycotton. Mostly I wanted to see what bumblebees and butterflies I could find so early in the season. It’s amazing to see the shift in wildlife in this small town. All the exotic gulls gone with a pier covered largely in mewing herring gulls interrupted by the occasional great black backed gull. Anyway the cliffs have once again become noteworthy with the peregrines the ravens, the choughs and the pipits all busy doing what they do best. This chough on a post posed quite nicely.

The two ravens near the cliffs however did not, as the pics didn’t work out so well I turned them into silhouette style images instead which still somewhat shows off the birds features. Great birds as always.

Highlight of my day though was the brent geese still present down by the beach, on my stroll along the surf most waddled off lazily to avoid me but one individual stayed. Apparently he just didn’t want to bother, or perhaps he had simply become used to the dog walkers on the beach and no longer care when humans approached him. Whatever the case, he posed for some pictures before I left him alone to return to his eating. I also saw quite a few shelduck that day but they where too flighty to get a good shot.

Icelandic leftovers

Okay well these pictures are actually quite old at this point and I could have sworn they where on the blog. Apparently not! The Iceland gulls below consist of the adult Gate cinema gull, the non adult Gate cinema gull and another non adult at Ballycotton pier. Blimey, I saw a lot of Iceland gulls this winter, great birds and a pleasure to photograph. This photoset can work as a goodbye to them as they have left or will very soon leave for their northern pastures. They don’t seem to be in the city anymore anyway. Here’s hoping that I get a similar amount of glaucous gulls next year!

Icelandic leftovers! Ring billed leftovers coming one of these days too!

Lazy teals

A number of weeks ago I took a trip down to Kinsale in the hopes of tracking down some white winged gulls, preferably a glaucous gull which despite a number of efforts I still have never managed to see. Naturally I did not find so much as an Iceland gull. Still, with spring in the air I find that there is more than enough nature around to keep me amused. Flowers in the hedgerows and finches in the air made for a nice morning out! What I did find was this pair of teal in the wetlands outside the town. Unusually for this species these two didn’t seem too bothered by my presence and didn’t take to the air when I came to within ten meters. Lazy teals! This is the closest I have managed to get to these ducks, love the colourful head on the male and that one bright panel on the female’s wing. Very entertaining ducks, they are related to wigeons, mallards and shovelers, which makes them dabbling ducks of the genus Anas.

More blogs to come, college work and other things have kept me from blogging lately, but certainly haven’t deterred me from taking photos. Over 200 shots are waiting to be sorted, so plenty of blogs to come :-)