Flight of the rings

As its the month of ring billed gulls I will now write yet another post about them. Perhaps I have some sort of ring billed gull stalker problem because these guys seem to show up just about anywhere. There is the Atlantic pond ring bill (Dell), the Gate cinema ring bill and the bird below is a ring bill I found across from the bus station. It is of course entirely possible that the later bird is the same individual scouting up and down the river but no matter.

As is the habit of ring bills, this one only stuck around for a few minutes, preferring to pursue the flocks of screaming black heads rather then show up for food directly (turns out gulls really like bits of leftover plaice, who knew!). Got some half decent flight shots.

Also some more shots of the Atlantic pond ring bill. Probably the same individual as before though its hard to say.

In other news I spotted my old friends the peregrines again, first I saw one sitting on a radio antennae (or something of the kind) by city hall and then a few minutes later I saw it first capturing a pigeon in mid air and then dragging it down with great effort to a nearby rooftop all the while being chased by both the other peregrine and a group of screaming gulls. Next the still alive pigeon continued to struggle for a couple of minutes with one of the peregrine’ s talons holding its wing firmly. The kill soon followed and the other peregrine started screaming at it for a portion. The pictures below, while hardly of super quality do quite nicely tell the story. Got to love bird theatre!

Iceland gulls coming to a theatre near you!

Lately 3 Iceland gulls have been visiting the Gate cinema area of Cork city. Which just so happens to be a stone’s throw from my house. The weather and lighting hasn’t generally been great but I nevertheless managed some acceptable shots. 2 of the Icelands seem to have since moved on but one, the large adult has remained in more or less the same area for over a week now.

The non adult dropped in only briefly and quickly returned to his rooftop perch, no matter, the other two where willing to stick around.

Iceland number 2, now also absent seemed to prefer staying on the water with the black headed gulls rather then perching overhead on the street lights.

Number 3, still seems to be frequenting the area, seemingly he prefers staying overhead on the overhead lights but occasionally he comes down and swoops out over the river when one of the regular bread feeders come along. Since it only gives about a 30 second window before returning to its perch it is actually quite hard to capture with the camera.

A surprise adult ring billed gull showed up for a few minutes. I had never seen one this far from the docks before. It’s not the same bird I found at the Atlantic pond since this one had bright yellow legs instead of greenish.

Atlantic ringbill

This ring billed gull was one of several birds to appear at the Atlantic pond in the last few weeks. I was amazed to discover that this guy was more approachable even then the local common gulls. It practically sat on my lens! This of course meant that I could photograph him quite well despite some amazingly drab lighting. This guy looks a lot like a bird that spend much of last winter at the pond, could it be the same individual? I don’t see why not, these American gulls seem to return yearly in quite a lot of places around Ireland. Despite its status as a rare or scarce bird these gulls are actually seen quite often in Ireland during the winter months.

I named him Dell, after his latin name, Larus delawarensis. A very pleasant morning was had with this confiding bird!

On a different note, I have finalized and opened my splinter blog Mini-Ireland.blogspot.com which will focus on smaller things such as insects, amphibians, reptiles, crustaceans, fish, mushrooms and flowers. It won’t be updated regularly until March but if your nature interests expand beyond birds then why not check it out.

Corkwildlife will remain active and serve as my base for birds and mammals. Click on the butterfly to visit Mini-Ireland.blogspot.com :)