Birds springing to life

As winter came to a close I decided to try get some shots of the birds out and about preparing for nesting. What I really wanted was some good song trush shots. Another species I regularly see but whose photographs rarely seem to work out. I guess because it’s hard to get to their eye level and because they tend to be in shadowy parts. Anyway, here’s some early attempts at finding some of the more common species of songbird in the city at the moment.

Hooded crow

Little magpies. There was five of them fighting on the ground. 

Starlings in a field, showing the yellow bill colour that they develop for the breeding season

Always nice to see the various colours hidden in the starlings plumage

House sparrow

A female chaffinch which decided to pose for the camera

Long tailed tit. Frustrating bird to photograph as it sits still for only a few seconds. Some day I'll actually get a good shot of one!

Needs no introduction. Robin patrolling UCC

Same bird

One very nervous blackbird in UCC

Some song trush shots

Easily overlooked. Personally I like all the patterns in the plumage

A single redwing trush in the city. Hardly a sign of spring, but since I have 2 other turdus trushes in this post, I figured, why not.

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

Ballycotton

Spurred on by my recent lack of bird finds in the city I decided to take a day trip down to Ballycotton. First time! Although it didn’t have quite as many species as it does on other months I was definitely not disappointed. I gave some thought about whether to show the good stuff first in this blog post or whether to leave it until the end. I decided on the latter! 

So...loads of small songbirds around, especially large numbers of stonechat and goldfinch which could be seen pretty much everywhere. Alonside them where occasional linnet, pipit and pied wagtail. The town itself was stuffed to the gills with house sparrows chattering away. Particularly amusing was the sparrow attempting to drag a large piece of plastic into its nest, he succeeded after about ten minutes. 

House sparrow showing off

Stonechat, named thus because its song sounds like small stones being knocked together

A male stonechat, they always seem more cautious then the females

An odd specimen, its throat implies stonechat whilst its eyebrow suggests whinchat. Stone seems more likely

A flock of Goldfinch flocking

A goldfinch sitting on the charred bushes that ruined my pants!

Was hoping for Reed but Sedge warbler is always nice to see too!

Finally got a barn swallow in good light

I kept an eye on the sea and spotted a few gannets and a fulmar along with the usual great cormorants and shags. None of them came anywhere close to me so no good shots, ah well.

Fulmar, he never did come back to be properly photographed

A fairly distant gannet

To my delight I saw two new birds I had never seen before, perhaps I was unlucky before or perhaps I just wasn’t looking. Either way, I was happy. 

Not only is this Yellowhammer a great looking little bird but I also never realized how nice its song is.

Also, this Whitethroat, pity I didn't get a good shot.

I was absolutely ecstatic to spot and photograph not just one but two species of falcon. Kestrels can of coarse be found in Cork city but are rarely approachable, they usually just fly past or perch high up on wires. I watched 8 of them in Ballycotton!

Kestrel, surveying its kingdom!

 

Last but most certainly not least two peregrine falcons on the cliffs gave me quite a show. The peregrine is one of the most widespread falcon species on the planet and with good reason, its aerial abilities are so impressive that it can outrun every other bird with ease. The two individuals I saw where chasing each other and doing some impressive manoeuvres such as turning upside down to accept food from the others talons, very cool.   

It pays to be cautious if you’re a pigeon. Peregrines can strike a bird in mid air at 325 km/h causing near instant death. Just to put that in context Cheetahs have a maximum running speed of only 120 km/h.

All in all a great day, looking forward to returning during the migration season!