Iceland gull

Last week an Iceland gull showed up in Cork city. It stayed for about 3-4 days and gave plenty of opportunities for photos. So many in fact that it took several days to sort out all the shots. I am quite pleased with the results though. This bird provided a bit of a challenge as sunshine and white feathers overexposed a lot of my shots but I nonetheless got plenty of shots with the (almost) correct balance.

Down near lower Glanmire

Showing off its mid air moves

Gliding around in the sunshine

Checking out my new tripod

Off to chase a black headed gull

Early morning swim

Another one at the quays

Gotta love the big eye and the 'dove' like features

Curious gull

About to take off

Hovering

Floating again

Close crop

One last flight 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!

Iceland gulls coming to a theatre near you!

Lately 3 Iceland gulls have been visiting the Gate cinema area of Cork city. Which just so happens to be a stone’s throw from my house. The weather and lighting hasn’t generally been great but I nevertheless managed some acceptable shots. 2 of the Icelands seem to have since moved on but one, the large adult has remained in more or less the same area for over a week now.

The non adult dropped in only briefly and quickly returned to his rooftop perch, no matter, the other two where willing to stick around.

Iceland number 2, now also absent seemed to prefer staying on the water with the black headed gulls rather then perching overhead on the street lights.

Number 3, still seems to be frequenting the area, seemingly he prefers staying overhead on the overhead lights but occasionally he comes down and swoops out over the river when one of the regular bread feeders come along. Since it only gives about a 30 second window before returning to its perch it is actually quite hard to capture with the camera.

A surprise adult ring billed gull showed up for a few minutes. I had never seen one this far from the docks before. It’s not the same bird I found at the Atlantic pond since this one had bright yellow legs instead of greenish.

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!