Back to Basics

Since Cork city itself has once again become a more satisfying place for birding with the influx of Iceland and ring billed gulls I have been making an increased number of visits to the old haunts. Whilst hundreds of photos remain as yet unsorted I decided to throw up some photos of the ‘Old familiars’.

UCC is still a great place to photograph blackbirds since they often sit on the various railings which allows for better backgrounds. The two below made for quite an entertaining watch as they interacted with each other.

Here is my latest attempt at a Goldcrest shot, I say attempt as if it was planned but this tiny bird decided to land right next to my by Sunday’s well and obligingly posed, which added to my irritation when I found the other shots where ruined. Still I got this one and at least it shows the characteristic crest. Along with long tailed tits these guys are the smallest birds in Ireland.

Also got a not so picturesque shot of this robin. A correction on previous blog posts, I always assumed as a studious child that robins where members of the trush family like the above blackbird. Turns out that these guys along with wheatears and stonechats are probably more closely related to old world flycatchers like the spotted flycatcher. Must say I am finding it hard to get used to the reclassification, probably because I have been thinking of robins as trushes since I was 4! (There seem to still be people that consider them trushes. More research is undoubtedly required.)

Additionally I have been trying to get some good shots of Common gulls around the city. Mostly because it’s my favourite resident gull and because in summer it is quite challenging to find one in the city centre. Results where mixed, the detail is there, unfortunately the lighting is not, it’s been a somewhat grey January (on my days out anyway). The final shot really shows why this species is also often called a mew gull, it really does mew :)