Brent from Ballycotton

About a month ago I took a trip down to Ballycotton. Mostly I wanted to see what bumblebees and butterflies I could find so early in the season. It’s amazing to see the shift in wildlife in this small town. All the exotic gulls gone with a pier covered largely in mewing herring gulls interrupted by the occasional great black backed gull. Anyway the cliffs have once again become noteworthy with the peregrines the ravens, the choughs and the pipits all busy doing what they do best. This chough on a post posed quite nicely.

The two ravens near the cliffs however did not, as the pics didn’t work out so well I turned them into silhouette style images instead which still somewhat shows off the birds features. Great birds as always.

Highlight of my day though was the brent geese still present down by the beach, on my stroll along the surf most waddled off lazily to avoid me but one individual stayed. Apparently he just didn’t want to bother, or perhaps he had simply become used to the dog walkers on the beach and no longer care when humans approached him. Whatever the case, he posed for some pictures before I left him alone to return to his eating. I also saw quite a few shelduck that day but they where too flighty to get a good shot.

Aghada & Rostellan lake

I realize it’s been a couple of weeks since my last post; indeed the subject of this one took place last year in late December. Still I think in my head I am going to count it as the first achievement of the year.

I decided to scout Rostellan lake and Aghada for birds. I had never been on that side of the bay before and the idea of a woodland and lake habitat seemed like it might be a good change. Indeed the area was quite nice with paths winding through deciduous woodland littered with the ruins of old buildings, definitely not an unpleasant area, having said that though there wasn’t much bird life around bar some large flocks of tits/finches, a number of little grebes in the lake & a group of wigeon feeding in someone’s garden. All in all fun to look at but not all that out of the ordinary.

I decided to scout the bay fringes and again came up with only a few birds, some brent geese, shoveller flyovers, one potential ring billed gull and the standard flocks of black headed gulls.

The weather took a turn for the worst with periodic rain showers and a steady and rather severe wind, all contributing factors to my waning mood. Aghada pier was next where I had hoped to wait out the 2 hours before the next bus home was to come. Along the way, a curlew was enjoying the weather about as much as I was.

Well...having been almost ready to write the day off as bad timing I suddenly spotted next to a common gull not just one but four adult Mediterranean gulls! What a rush, I had never seen one before despite repeated attempts to look for one. I even managed some fairly okay shots of one of them.

It wasn’t until two days later when I went to sort out my shots that this shot of 2 brent geese revealed to me that I had in fact missed a fifth med gull sitting right in front of me. Evidence that I still have much to learn about bird identification. And learn I will! :)

Ballycotton in December

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

Chats in Ballycotton

Cormorant with an eel, lots of these around.

Seeing the opportunity for a sunny day out I recently took yet another trip down to Ballycotton to try and take a good look at all the sandy bits. What I and my measly camera found mostly consisted of miniature dots sitting on sandbanks. Primarily wigeon shaped ones. Still a very pleasant walk!

So shy that this is probrably my best wigeon shot to date, bleh!

The shoreline by the beach car park had this small cluster of Brent geese. A first for me! Yes I know..., I haven’t been at this as long as most folks.


The hedgerows where full of songbirds though, thousands of house sparrows, dunnocks, large numbers of rook, linnets, goldfinch and many more. The worst moment of my day was coming face to face with 4 yellowhammers sitting in full view less than a meter away. Needless to say they were gone before I could get the stunned expression off my face. Ah well.

Goldfinch

Linnet (with oddly light legs)

A young rook

The moment that ultimately made my day was the sight of this very approachable stonechat which gave me some excellent views. It’s not the stunning summer plumage that is most associated with the stonechat but this was definitely the closest I’ve managed to get to one.





It being late October (at the time), few butterflies remained on the cliff walk. In fact the only thing I saw was admirals.



I was surprised to find a dragonfly on the cliffs as well. It is most likely a female red veined darter (see facebook debate) on account of the bluish tint to its wings. A new species for me and likely the last I’m going to see this year!