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.

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 :-)

Kinsale part 2, KinSeal

As with the previous post this one is set in Kinsale. Aside from the gull frenzies I also managed to catch the end of the low tide and spot some of the regular waders. Calidris sandpipers, turnstones, curlews, lapwing, wigeon, teal and shellduck where all present. Naturally I managed to photograph very few of the above. The curlew shot is one I am less then pleased with but it is still the closest shot I have gotten to date.

   

       

Highlight of the day I think was the discovery of this seal, which like the gulls seems to hang around and feed on discarded fish. It was clearly used to humans as it was only moderately cautious and stayed within several meters of the waters edge at all times. Being in the city most of the time I often see seals in the river but they’re never willing to stick around. This made for a nice change!

   

   

   

   

    

Some roadside mushrooms made for a nice distraction too, no idea what they are, i'll get to identifying them eventually!

   

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?

   

           

  .

One of the youngling herring gulls chancing his luck.   

        .

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.

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

   

.

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