Wax on, wax off

With the country slowly filling up from top to bottom with waxwings lately I figured keeping an eye out for this small but colourful songbird might be worth my while. With an appointment to go to Cobh and see the waxwings there the next day with Floss I was content to go about other business. We had an awareness day for our sanctuary in UCC with a couple of reptiles and fudge that we where intending on selling. Halfway there in the taxi we realized we had forgotten the fudge so I volunteered to run back to the house. I backtracked to the house through an estate and heard a squeaking noise I had never heard before. I looked up and came face to face with a single waxwing. Holy crap! The lone bird was as surprised as I was seemingly and flew up to a nearby rooftop. I still got a pretty good shot. Epic!

Next day, we drove to Cobh and found the famous flock of just shy of 20 birds sitting around on a large bush all busily feeding. They where slightly more flighty then I would have expected for what essentially looks like a feeding frenzy, but that didn’t take away from the experience. They love those berries!

Then onto Cuskinny where a gadwall revealed itself right by the bird sign! There where also wigeon and teal in the distance and the usual mallards.

A small army of black headed and common gulls greeted us, especially when a car parked nearby and its occupants threw a large quantity of bread into the water. A ring billed gull soon showed itself too, but alas, no sabine’s gull.

Here is the ring bill, first time I have managed to get a common gull and a ring billed gull in the same shot for comparison. The ring billed gull IS lighter, I’ll be damned!

To top it all off a little egret flew past and gave some nice views in a tree and the usual statuesque great black backed gulls posed down at the piers!

A good morning out all in all with Floss who also has a birding blog which can be found here. http://noobirder.blogspot.com

The gullmination of spring

As part of my massive backlog of late winter an early spring pictures I thought I’d get it over with and give you the remainder of my gull pictures. I particularly enjoyed the encounter with 2 ring billed gulls at Atlantic pond on March 1. One of these had changed into its brilliant white summer plumage, where the streaking on its head had entirely disappeared. Unfortunately this ‘tuxedo’d’ gull only landed for about ten seconds so they aren’t my best ring billed shots. See if you can tell the two ring bills apart ;)

My attempts to capture summer plumage black headed gulls before their departure from the city.

Guess this common gull might be trying to go for the summer look too.

Some great black backed gulls not too long ago in Kinsale. A great spot for them, at all ages. I’d imagine that this place may be the best spot for me to get the hang of aging great black backed gulls and herring gulls.

Rather liked this adult herring gull and a non adult herring (I think).

Not the most exciting post maybe, but it’s a little hard to take pictures lately as rain seems to be a near constant right now.

Kleine Burgemeester

On one of my recent outings I discovered yet another uncommon gull, by uncommon I mean not likely to be seen at any given pier, rubbish dump or car park unless your either very lucky or regularly keep an eye out for them. The Mediterranean gull from December fits into this bill considering its an unusual but by no means rare species (unless your me apparently). Anyway...the uncommon gull I found this time was an Iceland gull, my first Iceland gull in fact.Whats more I was lucky enough to encounter it in one of those semi social moods that meant it was somewhat approachable. It is not an adult bird but I would have to say that this is one of those rare cases where the non adult plumage is nicer! It looks entirely white from a distance. The white extends even to the tips of its wings which in all the everyday Irish species are black.

The Iceland gull winters here from its nesting ground in places like Canada and Greenland, but interestingly not Iceland. I must say I prefer the Dutch name kleine burgemeester, which translates to ‘little mayor’. The much bigger but similar Glaucous gull (which I have yet to find) is fittingly called ‘Big mayor’.

And look! Last week at the Lough back in Cork city I managed to spot another Iceland gull. Pretty crazy since I had never seen one that I would suddenly find 2 in the space of a week (I looked last winter too!). The Lough pics where not as good ;)

On another trip I took some pics of the two polar opposites in gull land, the delicate but stunning kittiwake (always a favourite), and the massive and imposing great black backed gull (also always a favourite). These guys are common of coarse, but always worth a shot!

And my favourite gull species (kidding), a Goldfinch in a tree, if only that one twig hadn’t been there. Still closest shot one of these finches has let me get, so I’m happy!

Kinsale part I, Scavengers

Ever have a batch of pictures so large that you put off the laborious job of going through them all and picking out the viable shots? Well...that’s why I am only now ready to show my pictures from a recent trip to Kinsale.  Kinsale is a small fishing town in west Cork complete with Oceanside scenery, marina, various piers and even a spar or two.  It also sports some of the most obese gulls I have ever seen. The bay (or inlet, whatever it is) was covered with the usual screaming crowds of black headed gulls but also had a couple of common gulls and a group of about twenty herring gulls. Only 2 of those where in full adult plumage but that didn’t matter as they where both perfectly willing to be fed. 

 

This one I call 'Alpha' since he was more then willing to push off his competitors. A giant herring gull with attitude it seems! Is it me or do these guys have far more confidence then their cousins the lesser black backs?

   

           

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One of the youngling herring gulls chancing his luck.   

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One of the thousand or so hovering black headed gulls eager for an easy meal. Hard to imagine that these guys are so hard to find in summer.

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A common gull
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Also spotted this unusually aproachable great black backed gull, truly a massive bird, specially compared to the pigeon sized black heads.
   

   

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A jackdaw and a rook or two joined the party too showing glimmers of colour in their plumage. Always nice to see!