Well, since it’s now officially summer (despite appearances
in the weather) the city is full of song birds tending to their families.
Nothing out of the ordinary naturally, but that makes them no less photogenic.
Robins, if there’s no robins around the city, chances are,
there’s been a cloud of lethal gas released in Cork and you should get out of
town rather quickly. Just in case that statement is too confusing, that means
that there’s a lot of them.
Pied wagtails, another constant companion, though it can be hard to get them to sit still when they are foraging for insects on the ground, (or whatever it is that they are doing).
Linnets, small finches, didn’t get particularly close but noteworthy to see them in the city centre. The male
Female linnet
A greenfinch on my feeder, one of the few visitors photographs that wasn’t entirely white washed as a result of taking the pictures through glass.
A dunnock. At this point I have a couple of alright shots of these birds, but I’m just never satisfied. My quest for the perfect dunnock picture continues.
Mistle trushes. Currently quite common around the city to my delight. Just can’t get enough of these large greyish trushes which respond to your presence by uttering an alarm call that sounds like a machine gun. A walk through Phoenix park in Dublin yesterday revealed dozens of these birds too, seemingly in every second tree.
One of the hooded crows at the Atlantic pond, I’m always delighted to see these birds which don’t seem to stray all that far from the pond and its nearby trees.
Nother week, nother visit to Ballycotton. This time things
where on the quiet side (I think I miss the butterflies). Luckily though I did
find a considerable number of brent
geese and managed to get some halfway decent flight shots. A lot more around this
time then a couple of weeks ago (30 or so)
My first grey plover ground shot (I think). Not great but
still nice to see one that’s not a mile away.
A group of dunlin awaiting low tide, one ringed plover with them (not in shot)
Amongst other things I photographed my first sanderlings,
living up to its name, ringed in Iceland apparently, very interesting! Facebook thread
Couple of other things in the neighbourhood too, such as
about 30 choughs feeding in the seaweed. Characteristically hard to photograph
despite my almost lying flat on the sand to get an eye level shot, it didn't
quite work out as planned but that’s life I suppose.
Some teal showed themselves reasonably well, its not the shot I want but you can see the detail on their heads which is an improvement over my past teal shots!
Finches, sparrows and starlings galore as is always the case
in Ballycotton! This should have been a great greenfinch shot but alas my
automatic settings made them too dark!
Linnet
House sparrow
Starling, rather like this shot
Ballycotton pier had a steady group of about 40 large gulls
all day, a number which swelled to well over a hundred when a fishing vessel
came in. No rarities (that I have the skill to pick out of a crowd).
Amongst the herrings, lesser black backeds and great black
backeds where a small number of kittiwakes. I love these gulls! I’m not used to
seeing them in the city, so a pleasant surprise!
Oh! and an otter by the pier too!Always nice to see
We put up a bird feeder in the garden, set up so I can point and shoot through the window of the kitchen for rainy or study filled days. The lack of nearby cover seems to be discouraging some birds but I’m getting sporadic groups of blue tit / chaffinch. So far I have blue tit, great tit, greenfinch, chaffinch, blackbird, jackdaw, magpie, rook, collared dove, woodpigeon & song trush. Not too shabby!
I’ll be keeping tab of what shows up anywhere in the garden, in this page here, which can also be found to the right under sub pages (over there -> )
Here’s some past shots I have gotten of these individuals.
I’ll be honest, of the 55 or so species (you better be right Wikipedia!) of mammal in Ireland I have seen maybe ten and only managed to photograph a couple. Here in the city, as you might imagine, we are a little short on creatures such as Sika deer and Pine marten so finding these species on my limited time and transport is near impossible (bring on the Summer).
Go a little more coastal or rural though and you have a significant chance of finding Otters. These large Mustelids are one of the least hated animals in Ireland at the moment, their playful and inquisitive nature endear most of the people that they share ground with and aside from that they feed primarily in fish, a habit that keeps them generally out of human conflict. Heck maybe it’s just the fact that they are rather entertaining! Just look at the video below (not mine, random vid, hope they don’t mind the embed).
To find otters, estuarine areas are probably easiest. My preferred area is Clonakilty bay where I have spent extensive time exploring and encountered otters nine times. Not bad considering I wasn’t looking for or expecting to find them. Otters live inland too but apparently are shyer, I think maybe this has something to do with coastal otters being well used to flocks of large and aggressive gulls circling and mobbing them for fish. Once you’ve had a great black backed gull (wingspan 1.7m) lunge at you you’re probably not going to be afraid of a long haired dude with a camera.
Here in Ireland we are quite lucky because we apparently have one of the highest concentrations of common otter anywhere in Europe, a pretty awesome statistic if you consider that we usually have the lowest concentration of or completest lack of most European species!
Early mornings are the best time to find otters, they like the peace and quiet of not having too many people around I guess! The mentioned gull mobbing are also a handy way of finding them since these large birds circle the poor otter and can be seen from quite a distance, a gang of gulls is always worth investigating. The oddest thing about these guys seems to be that once you do spot them they usually start watching you right back instead of running off. This mother and littleuns is the perfect example. She was unaware of my presence at first, but after she noticed me she just watched me for about five minutes before strolling off. An encounter that made my day!
I am not sure if we have otters here in the city but I am guessing that the answer is yes, the area of waterlogged fields and ponds across from the Lee river fields seems ideal; if it’s quiet enough to have kingfishers then I am sure otters exist too. Further research to come!
In other news! Nothing new in the past few days but I did get some interesting shots of the ‘everyday’ birds.
Also, added a page for the UCC bird list (Here) or on the Sub-page toolbar to the right!
My favorite Pied wagtail shot to date!
Some experimental closeups of the Grey heron. Monsters of the water, I actually saw one eat a baby duck yesterday
Mute swan.
Greenfinch, my best shot to date but I'm still not happy with it!
A hooded crow at UCC, looking a bit grumpy!
A Dunnock (?) I think its a dunnock but it looks odd somehow, I'm guessing its newly fledged!
University College Cork (UCC) may at first seem largely devoid of life but on closer examination it reveals a surprising variety of wildlife. The river, stone walls, trees, bushes and short grass areas all provide ideal habitat for several small songbirds as well as some bigger species.
The best hotspot for life on the UCC grounds is the river walk which can be accessed by taking a right just past the main gates, here overhanging willows and a variety of other tree species provide ideal refuge for many robins which can easily be spotted looking for food, feeding chicks and singing on branches, these robins are quite approachable and are undoubtedly drawn to the nearby restaurant where they can scavenge for tidbits. (robin of the day!, right)
Alongside the robins live numerous chaffinches which can be easily viewed amongst the branches!
Another attraction, perhaps the most significant of all is the presence of several mistle trushes (below). These large trushes are much bigger than the closely related blackbirds and song trushes that can be seen around the city, they have slate grey backs and a harsh urgent calls and can be seen regularly looking for food around the fields. I have never seen such an abundance of them as I have here, one day I found eleven of them in one area. These birds can be hard to find and go largely unnoticed but are quite worth pursuing. An Irish nickname for them is ‘storm cock’ because they have a tendency to sing from treetops during rain showers.
Pied wagtails (top) and Grey wagtails (bottom) can also be found along this path, both birds are closely related but the pied is a lot more common, the grey is harder to spot and generally sticks only to river banks. It’s worth seeking out as its yellow plumage is quite a sight! The pied wagtail in contrast is extremely common and at least one can usually be seen on the fields and paths of UCC at any given time.
The rocky part of the river walk with its overhanging vegetation provides ideal habitat for several species of tits such as the great tit below. These entertaining birds can also be seen at the bird feeders around campus.
Other species of interest that I have seen here are bullfinches (left) and greenfinches (right) and gold crests (bottom) which remain camouflaged most of the time but can occasionally be seen amidst the leaves, a bird worth pursuing, it’s also Ireland’s smallest bird.
The four most common crow species of Ireland can all be found around campus as well. Magpies are easy to find with their bold colours and loud agitated calls whilst jackdaws roam most of the grassy areas. Rooks and hooded crows occasionally join them as well especially if there is food to be scavenged. A visit to UCC is guaranteed to turn up at least two of these species if not all four! (rook below)
