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 :-)

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!
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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