Sun day soon

Last week I set out on a trek from little island to Cobh, I was hoping to find dragonflies and butterflies, specifically ruddy darters, common hawkers, migrant hawkers and painted ladies.

The morning started out with great sunlight. Fota gardens was positively buzzing with dozens of mating common darters laying in the ponds and even a few hunting out on the cut grass in front of the mansion there. I was hoping for a ruddy somewhere but ended up finding no evidence of them there. Still, I got some close-ups of the common darter

Ok, a great start, but as I was ready to continue my walk the sun disappeared and was replaced by that flat grey light we Irish inhabitants all know so well, and that’s how it stayed. The entire walk revealed only one speckled wood, even the reserve outside Cobh had no hawkers, even though they where there this time last year. It’s amazing how clouds make insects vanish almost instantaneously. I settled instead on taking some scenery shots. I did find this gadwall in Cuskinny in with the mallards.

The below shots are HDR’s, intentionally exaggerated, they are not intended as an exercise in realism as my nature photographs are but rather are made to look like say an album cover, I am a big fan of Travis Smith’s covers, so I guess that’s what influences me here.

Gadwalls, Turnstones & Hawkers

My first Gadwall in Cobh! What a great looking little duck. It’s a relative (same genus) of the common mallard but only visits here as a winter visitor. This one was communing with the local mallards in Cuskinny Marsh.

It’s been an eventful couple of weeks lacking in the time to write blog entries unfortunately, none the less I have had a couple of eventful birding trips out in Kinsale, Douglas estuary, Cobh and inch beach in Co.Kerry. I’m missing the jpegs for most of these trips at the moment but that will change in coming days! The photos I do currently have are from my Cobh trip (over a month ago L)

Also that day in Cobh a group of turnstones (about 30) took refuge during the high tide on one of the piers and gave some rare (if not spectacularly photogenic) views of them sitting on boats and on the nearby pier.

Some shots of the local wildlife, rats count as wildlife too! ;)

Found a lot of these migrant hawkers dragonflies too and a couple of darters (not pictured). Presumably it’s about as late in the year as you’re going to find dragonflies in Ireland!

And some more shots of the Gadwall, not a first time bird for most people I’m sure but definitely an unexpected sight for me!

Next week on Leon’s blog, a purple sandpiper that thinks it’s a turnstone, some dodgy shots of brent geese and my first good shots of a seal!

Big Friendly Gulls (BFG's)

I must say I haven’t got that much to say today. Over the last few days I took a few more strolls through the city and spend a couple of hours in Cobh hoping that maybe the House crow that lives there would come down from the rooftops. Alas, he didn’t even show up. Never mind because I found a load of gulls (which ain’t so common in the city this time of year). Mostly herring gulls, though I spotted some common gulls and lesser black backed gulls too. Highlight of the day turned out to be the two below. 

The Great(er) black backed gull is the largest of the Irish gulls, its strong bill, huge size and jet black wings make it easy to identify and tell apart from other species. It’s much less approachable then most gulls and this is the first time I got a good shot! Usually I get grainy images of them on sandbanks 100 meters away.

Kittiwake. Wow, what a pleasant surprise, I haven’t seen one of these in years since my last visit to the Skelligs. Its more delicate then Larus genus gulls like herring and black backed gulls and has a different build too. I’m not entirely educated on the genetics of gulls but the kittiwake looks distinctly like it belongs close on the family tree to terns, or maybe it’s just the short black legs that give it the tern like posture? Either way it really is a stunning bird.

I always imagine gulls as the unfriendly giants from Roald Dahl’s BFG as each has a slightly different way of getting their food and has different grouping behaviours. The kittiwake would probably be the BFG while the great black backed would likely be the Bonecruncher!

A house sparrow, surprisingly hard to find (or photograph) these days.

A young cormorant relaxing in Cobh posing nicely, I saw several others here too.

Back in Cork the pheasant was back in the very same place as before and seems to recur here daily. I have found him and his mate here several times now. I’ve named them Terryo and Quinn! 

Also, a goldcrest suddenly appeared on UCC campus and stayed for about ten seconds within a meter of me. The shots aren’t perfectly in focus but are certainly an improvement on my last pic of this species. Slightly disgruntled that I didn’t capture this tiny bird’s bright orange crest but there’s always a next time right! As a point of interest this is Ireland’s smallest bird in length....

...whilst the long tailed tit is the smallest in body mass, it just so happens that I also managed a dodgy shot of one of them! 

I am now off to Valentia island and the Skelligs for a week courtesy of my mother (thanks!) so no more posts for a while. Let’s hope for loads of auk species, choughs, ravens and some of them wheatear and stonechat fellows. Fingers crossed!