Peregrine's Bird Blog

A Rarity of a Ross's Gull at Ardglass Harbour

2012-01-19T21:06:00.000Z

Ross's Gull Ardglass Harbour Co.Down found by Tom Ennis

Yesterday I had been dropping of some photos off in Bangor and was on my way to Belfast when I heard that a Ross's Gull had been found at Ardglass Harbour by Tom Ennis. (Brilliant find Tom) A big rarity for Northern Ireland with the last one being seen in 1998. I had never seen a Ross's Gull before and it is one of the five gulls that I would really like to see. The others being Ivory Gull, Pallas's Gull, White-eyed Gull and Heermann's Gull. It was a quarter to four . The pain of knowing that I had to go to Belfast to pick up my keys for work and that by the time I had done that and got to Ardglass it would be dark and then the fact that I am at work before it is light meant the bird had to stay around until the afternoon. When I got home I found out it was an adult bird which was even better still

Ross's Gull

At work today it was fairly quiet and fortunately I got away at three and drove down to Ardglass Harbour cursing every driver who was driving slowly and cursing Downpatrick as it is a nightmare to drive through when the four schools are being let out.

I arrived in Ardglass and drove onto the pier and parked and could see four birders, Chris Murphy, his wife, son Tim and Derek Charles looking out from the top of the harbour wall. I was already beginning to feel relieved and Chris Murphy shouted down that it was still there. I climbed the steps and there it was flying in the middle of the entrance to the harbour. What fab birds Ross's Gulls are. It was small, slightly larger than a Little Gull smaller than a Kittiwake but with similar feeding actions, of aerial dipping, to the Little Gull.

Ross's Gull Aerial dip feeding

One of the first things that strike you is it's wedge shaped tail and it's pale grey underwing and which has a broad white trailing edge to the wing. It also had a very small splash of pinky orange on its belly and fairly big eyes for its body.

Ross's Gull

I watched it for over an hour flying up and down the entrance to the harbour. The light was not good for photography and I had to use a high iso to get any speed. Oh for an upgrade of camera with better low light ability. There was a strong breeze and it was bloody freezing. Nevertheless I went home happy because of yet another unexpected lifer.

The first specimen of a Ross's gull was collected by Sir James Clark Ross in 1823 in the Northwest Passage. The Ross's Gull is mainly an Arctic and subarctic species distributed around the Northern polar region and mainly breeding in northeastern Siberia and on some sites in Svalbard, Greenland and Canada.

Ross's Gull

Ross's Gull- Wedge-shaped Tail

Adult Ross's Gull

Ross's Gull

...

It Is a Very Happy New Year I've Found a Lifer a Richard's Pipit

2012-01-02T20:07:00.001Z

Richard's Pipit Killard NR 2.1.2012

Normally on the 1st of January I spend the day birding but yesterday I had to work and only got to do a wee bit in the afternoon. I was in Belfast and so headed over to Belfast Harbour where there were large numbers of Lapwings which were nice to see. Loads of Teal as well. Afterwards I headed home and went for a walk on the shoreline in front of the house. It was a fab evening and there were flocks of Brent, Golden Plover, Curlew and 6 Greenshank, 3 Grey Plover and loads of Dunlin. There were also quite a few Shelduck, Oystercatcher and a lone turnstone. My 2012 Bird List

Brent Geese

Curlew

Golden Plover

This morning I headed out to walk my hound at my local patch Killard Nature Reserve and it was very bright. I wasn't expecting much as there were loads of people out there being a bank holiday. I was hoping to add a few birds to the year list with Purple Sandpiper and Stonechat being the main targets. Purple Sandpiper yes and Stonechat no. The wind was fairly ferocious and as I came off the beach I saw what at first I thought might be a Skylark because of the size but it flew off into a rocky area which I thought surprising. So I walked over to where I thought it had gone and it flushed quite a few yards from where I thought it had gone. It landed and then I told myself it wasn't a Skylark and it seemed to have quite a supercillium and not the streaking of a Meadow Pipit. So what was it. It then flew a few hundred yards ahead with out calling. I eventually got to it and lay down on the ground and even though I had Pickle with me it came closer and closer and so I was able to get reasonable shots which I hoped I would be able to identify it when I got home.

Richard's Pipit

When I got home and looked at both Lars Jonsson's "Birds of Europe" and Collins Bird Guide and I wasn't sure whether I had found a Richard's or a Blyth's Pipit. In "Birds of Europe" I thought Richards and in Collins I thought Blyth's so I sent the photos to a couple of birders and both thought it was a 1st year Richard's Pipit. The difference in sketches between Birds of Europe and Collins really shows why Lars Jonsson is in my opinion the best bird illustrator in Europe. Thank you Owen and Ronan confirming it was a Richard's.
Happy Days
Here is a wee bit about Richard's Pipit from Wikipedia

Merry Christmas

2011-12-25T11:43:00.000Z

Bar-tailed Godwits and Grey Plover at Killard Nature Reserve

2011-12-07T20:05:00.000Z

Bar-tailed Godwit

What a fab morning it was this morning. When I listened to the weather last night the forecast was for heavy gales and rain in the morning and I thought that had put paid to my day off. So when I got up later than usual and the sun was streaming through the house I hastily grabbed some porridge before heading to Killard Nature Reserve with Pickle my dog.

The sun was incredibly bright and the tide was just on the turn. This can be really good for shorebirds as they feed on the receding tide. One particular spot at Killard is very good and there can often be Dunlin, Ringed Plover, Turnstones, Purple Sandpiper, Grey Plover, Oystercatchers and Bar-tailed Godwit.

Dunlin

Ringed Plover

Grey Plover and Ringed Plover

Grey Plover / Black-bellied Plover

Over the last five or six years there have always been one or two Grey Plover that spend the winter out at Killard and I have always found them very difficult to get close to but a couple of days ago this bird above allowed me to get fairly close, even if it took 45 minutes of crawling to get close to it. It was worth it. They are one of my favourite birds and I would love to see them in their full summer plumage on their breeding grounds.

Today the Grey Plover wasn't on the beach but there were three Bar-tailed Godwits which were flying around along with some Dunlin and Ringed Plovers.

Bar-tailed Godwit

At first they were quite flighty but the longer I stayed in the one position the less they became worried about me or the dog. After quite a while I crawled across the very wet sand and got to within about 25 feet of them and watched feeding on ragworms. I meanwhile was getting colder and colder as the wet beach was working it's way through my clothes and called it a day. I walked away with a spring in my step (this might be to do with the fact I have lost 35lbs in the last two months) There is something about bird photography that gives me a real buzz especially when the light is right and you finally find yourself getting close to birds that aren't that easy to approach.

Bar-tailed Godwit feeding on Ragworm

Feeding bar-tailed Godwit

Incoming Bar-tailed Godwit

Bar-tailed Godwit

Inishbofin 2011: Wind, Rain, Chiffchaffs and Blackcaps

2011-11-06T23:03:00.000Z

Pied Wagtail on Inishbofin Harbour wall

I have recently returned home from eight days on Inishbofin Co.Galway and as I type it is pouring with rain. Pretty similar to Inishbofin. Anthony McGeehan and I arrived last saturday on a nice afternoon. We settled into the cottage that Pat Coyne the owner of the Dolphin Hotel had very kindly lent us for the week before heading out to the east end of the island. In a few hours of birding we came across 12 Blackcaps 11 Chiffchaff and a Willow Warbler, so were in high hopes for the week.

On our return to the cottage we put out some seed to see if anything would be attracted. The following morning I looked out the window and the first visitors were a pair of Pheasants, 9 Hooded Crows and 3 Magpies. The Magpies and Hoodies flew off when they saw me and then a flock of Rock Doves came in followed by a small party of Reed Buntings.

Rock Dove

The Reed Buntings and Doves were a common feature all week with as many as 11 Reed Buntings on one morning. There was also a small flock of Starlings which used to visit everyday. We put out seed every day and amongst others it attracted Redwing, Blackbird, Song Thrush, Robin, Meadow Pipit, Linnet, House Sparrow and Pied Wagtail. On some days the conditions were so bad that birdwatching from the house was all that we could do.

Male Reed Bunting

Infact of the 8 days I spent there there was only one day with superb weather. The forecasts were also almost all inevitably wrong. Most mornings we would head off to the east end of the island past St. Colman's cemetery, which dates back to the 7th Century, onto the beach at Dumhach. The graveyard stretch can be good and as there are loads of blackberry bushes along the road and are quite often full of Thrushes, Blackbirds, Robins and Dunnocks.

Dunnock calling

On most days this donkey would be in the field above the graveyard.

Inishbofin Donkey

I was hoping we might see a Ring Ouzel again this year but no such luck. Over the week there were quite a few blackcaps feeding amongst the blackberries and we were hoping that we might see a Barred Warbler as this was the section that we had one for four days last year. On the way to the beach there is a small crop field on the lefthand side which we would check out each day. Anthony had found five Rosefinch in it early in September. On the nicest morning of the week it had Linnets, Meadow Pipits, Blackbirds, Song Thrushes, Reed Buntings and a Pied Wagtail feeding in it but no Rosefinches.

Rosefinch on Inishbofin A.McGeehan

Just after the crop field there is a stretch of bramble alongside the road and a pair of Stonechats could be found there most days.

Male Stonechat

Female Stonechat

This year the beach at Dumhach was covered in weed and there were Turnstones, Sanderling and Ringed Plover feeding as well as Meadow and Rock Pipits.

Sanderling

We would then head to two different sets of willows behind East End Bay, one of which was quite protected from the southerly winds we were getting, the other less so. One bush that had been very poor in previous years held 5 Chiffchaff and a Willow Warbler.

Chiffchaff in Willows

The next set of willows was where we found the Cedar Waxwing a couple of years back. There is a bank that you can sit on and look down onto the willows and where most days we would have a cup of tea while we watched. One morning This is the view if you look directly east towards an island called Damhoileán.

View towards Damhoileán from East End Bay

On one of the mornings it was blowing very hard so we sheltered in front of one of the cottages on the beach and had our tea there instead and were lucky as this Juvenile Arctic Skua came closer and closer into the bay.

Juvenile Arctic Skua

Most days in Waxwing Willows, as we now call them, a Blackcap could be found and the odd Redwing. One day we heard a lot of alarm calls and looked up to see a Merlin had perched up on a rock close by.

Male Blackcap in Willows

We then would head up to the top of the field to what we call "Irene's Garden". On the way up we would put up a few snipe most days. In front of the garden there are a few bramble patches and on one of the days a warbler dropped in and before I could put up the binoculars Anthony shouted Lesser Whitethroat

Lesser Whitethroat

which was a lifer for me. It didn't hang around and I only got a few shots before it was off. After looking at the garden we head back to our cottage where I would generally make lunch before heading out again in the afternoon to the western end of the island.

Firstly we would head to the church and check out the habitat behind it. On one of the days we turned up to find an old rotten tree that looked a perfect spot for a flycatcher had been cut down :-( Then we would go round the harbour and one could look over the harbour wall and if the tide was in the Turnstones would be directly below you.

Turnstone

Then we would head towards the only two patches of willows in the west end and having searched one bush we headed up the road and Anthony spotted a Whinchat perched on the wall.

Whinchat

It was very windy and again it shortly headed for cover and sadly the background behind the bird wasn't really to my liking.

On the best day of the week in the afternoon Anthony and I headed off in different directions as I wanted to walk right round the West Quarter and climb Cnoc Mór the highest point on the island. I passed the Doonmore Hotel and this Starling was perched on the wall beside it.

Starling

A few yards later I passed this wee shuck and saw a warbler fly into it and it was a Chiffchaff.

Chiffchaff

As I neared the top of Cnoc Mór the wind was fairly strong and two birds flew away from me into the sun and I couldn't identify them but then as I reached the summit two Snow Buntings flew close by and looked beautiful in the sunlight.

The View from Cnoc mόr looking towards the Connemara Mountains

There were great views of the neighbouring island Inishark and a flock of nearly 300 Barnacle Geese landed on it. I descending and headed towards the north west corner of the island overlooking "The Stags" which are stacks about sixty to seventy feet high which in very strong westerly gales can have the waves breaking over them. A sight I would love to see one day. On my way I saw a pair of Chough and quite a few Redwing. To the north there was a steady stream of Gannets, Kittiwakes, the occasional Arctic Skua, Guillemots and Razorbills flying by the island.

It was a beautiful evening and as the wind began to drop the harbour looked fairly calm.

Inishbofin Light At Entrance To Harbour

The following day was a different story altogether with a force seven to eight southerly gale. I did very little birding and went to the community centre in the afternoon to get onto the internet. When I came out the ferry was leaving the harbour and I was very happy I wasn't on it.

Inishbofin Ferry Heading into Force 7 Gale

Inishbofin Ferry heading into Force 7 Gale

My crossing the following day back to the mainland was relatively calm.

While I was on Inishbofin I was texted that Northern Ireland's first Cattle Egret had been seen near Belfast Harbour which came as quite a surprise as I had been told ages ago that two years previously a Cattle Egret had been seen by three birders on a WeBS count on Lough Neagh in November 2009. So I got in touch with Adam McLure the RSPB's new Kite Warden and asked him about it as he was one of the observers. He confirmed that he was with Stephen Dunlop doing a WeBS count and another birder Eddie Franklin was there as well. Below is the BTO section about it.

http://www.bto.org/sites/default/files/u18/downloads/publications/wituk0910_section7.pdf

A Few days in Co.Donegal, The Tail End of Hurricane Katia and a Baird's Sandpiper

2011-09-15T22:18:00.000+01:00

Baird's Sandpiper

Click on any image to enlarge in a new window

I went up to Donegal on Sunday night as the weather forecast was dismal with the tail end of Hurricane Katia expected to hit the North Donegal coast on the Sunday night/ Monday Morning and I thought there might be a chance of some interesting birds being deposited in Donegal.

On the monday morning I headed to a friends house in Downings he looks towards Dunfanaghy and is right next to the sea. The 50mph+ winds were coming directly into the front of his house and it was wild. The view from his living room window is below and looking south below that. By the time I left in the afternoon the gusts were getting up to 80 miles an hour. I headed around the Atlantic Drive and had a look from the top of the head.

View from Downings towards Marble Hill

View from Downings towards Ards Priory

View north from Melmore Head

I had my scope on the car window and it was virtually impossible to see anything as my car was being rocked in the wind so I headed to the inlet between Carrigart and Downings mainly to let my dog out for a run as the tide was out at this point. There were a few Dunlin and Sanderling out on the sand all hunkered down and a couple of Bar-tailed Godwit on the machair. I took this photo of a Dunlin struggling to fly into the wind.

Dunlin in flight.

Then I headed back to the car and disaster struck it had broken down. Well it wouldn't go faster than 20mph and the revs never got over 2000. Something I had never experienced before and it took me over an hour and a half to get home. At this point I thought my three days break were buggered. However on Tuesday morning I got the car to the dealership in Letterkenny and in the afternoon I collected it somewhat poorer. I then headed to Fanad Head and on to the Lighthouse where it was still gusting up to fifty miles an hour. As I was heading down to the lighthouse I noticed three Chough feeding in a field on the clifftop. They were only twenty feet or so away from me. The light was dreadful and so was difficult to get detail in the birds which was sad but it was a pleasure to watch them so closely. They really attacked the ground looking for worms throwing the earth from side to side.

Choughs at Fanad Head Co.Donegal

Chough feeding

Chough

I parked in the car park at the gates of the lighthouse

Fanad Lighthouse in Stormy Weather

and walked past the ruined barracks to the left of the lighthouse and noticed these two donkeys taking shelter from the wind.

Donkeys at Fand lighthouse

Fanad Lighthouse

There is a small building that I watched the sea from out of the wind just beyond the Barracks and over a period of an hour I saw quite a few Manx Shearwaters, a single Great Skua and loads of juvenile Gannets and quite a few adult birds. I then thought I would head over to Carrigart to look for waders but the Harry Blaney Bridge was closed because of the wind so I headed home. When I got home my mother suggested I photograph the swallows in the shed beside the house. There were three juvenile birds. My mother has been watching the shed for an hour or so in recent days and counted the adults making upwards of six to eight visits to feed them every minute. With the storm this had been reduced to two per minute.

On wednesday morning the wind had completely dropped and it turned out to be a fine morning apart from the fact the electricity was off. Out came our Kelly's kettle and just as I had finished boiling the water the electricity came on which was a relief as my mother makes very good bread so we were able to have our toast and home made marmalade. Before I left I took one last look at the swallows and only one bird was in the nest and as I got closer I noticed it was dead. I assume it died from starvation as it's parents hadn't been able to feed them so regularly during the storm.

After breakfast I headed back to Carrigart as the tide this time was only just starting to drop. There were loads of waders and the first two I saw were a couple of Curlew Sandpiper. There were also a few Knot, lots of Turnstones, 20 or so Bar-tailed Godwits, 1 Black-tailed Godwit, Curlew, Sanderling and Ringed Plover.

Curlew Sandpiper

As I was scanning a flock of mainly Dunlin I saw a small Stint and at that moment all the birds were spooked and I lost sight of it. Then five Bar-tails flew over.

Bar-tailed Godwits in flight. Centre bird has been ringed.

All the Dunlin flew to some seaweed and most started to go for a nap. So I gradually got closer and closer and took a few shots.

Dunlin, Sanderling and Turnstone

Dunlin

Then I noticed a bird out on it's own feeding differently to the Dunlin it seemed to be far quicker and it's wings projected further. It's bill was also shorter and straighter. It had to be either a White Rumped or Bairds Sandpiper. At this point my dog ran out towards me and all the waders near me took to the air and flew to the Carrigart side of the Bay. I headed back to the car and decided after reading my "Birds of Europe" by Lars Jonsson that it had to be a Bairds. A lifer for me. On returning home I sent the photographs to a couple of birders who agreed it was a Baird's. Happy Days :-)

Baird's Sandpiper

A Fabulous Day on the Saltee Islands off Co.Wexford

2011-07-06T21:40:00.000+01:00

Click on any image to see larger file in seperate window

I think the Saltee Islands off the coast of Co.Wexford must be one of Irelands greatest wildlife spectacles and in my view easily rivalling the Farne Islands of Northumberland in England. I went down there the other day on one of my days off and had a brilliant time. We arrived in time for the daily ferry journey to the island at Kilmore Quay, a fairly quaint village where many of the houses having thatched roofs. Infact there were two boats taking people out to the island.

The Saltee Islands are two Islands lying about 3.5 miles from the Wexford Coast and are in the private ownership of the Neale family, who very generously allow the public to visit between 11.00am and 4.30pm. It is famous for its seabird colonies with breeding Gannets, Puffins, Guillemots, Kittiwakes, Black Backed Gulls, Cormorants, Shags, Fulmars, Razorbills and Manx Shearwater.

We took the second boat and below is the boat in front of us.

Ferry to Saltee Island

We travelled past Little Saltee. On the water there were Puffin, Guillemots and Razorbills as well as Gannets feeding.

Puffin on Water off Saltee Island

This Razorbill flew alongside the boat as did Puffins and Guillemots.

Razorbill flying alongside boat

When you arrive at Great Saltee the larger of the two islands you transfer to a rib for the last few hundred metres to the shore hoping that your camera equipment doesn't get soaked before you get there.
You then make your way past the house that is on the Island and onto the main area of the island. There were Sedge warblers singing everywhere. Quite a few Meadow Pipits and Skylark were also in evidence.

On the far side of the island we came across an area that held Puffins and Guillemots and I stopped to take photos. While I was there a family of Choughs flew along the cliffs. There were also Kittiwakes flying into their nests.

Puffins with Tilt Shift

Puffin on Saltee

Guillemot on Saltee

Chough on Saltee

Kittiwake

After photographing these birds for a while we headed over the hill towards one of the Gannet colonies passing some Lesser Black backed Gulls and their chicks. I was particularly pleased with this portrait of one of the parents.

When we popped over the hill there were loads of people photographing the Gannets so I decided I would wait until later and had our picnic lunch instead in the blazing heat. After lunch I went to photograph the Greater Black Backed Gulls and their chicks.

Greater Black Backed Gull Chicks

Greater Black Back Gull Chicks

As I was doing so a number of Gannets were flying by and one bird just hung in the wind and preened for at least thirty seconds.

Gannet

Gannet preening on the wing

The real beauty of this place is the closeness with which you can get to the birds. There were at least twelve photographers photographing the birds and nobody in my opinion was disturbing them.

Photographers at the Saltee Island Gannet Colony

They seem habituated to having people so close. It was a very similar scene to the one I saw on the Gannet colony on North Island New Zealand. You can really experiment with lenses and I used a 10-20mm, 50mm, 70-200mm and 400mm. So you can photograph them as portraits, juveniles, flying by really close, overhead or even preening each other.

Gannets preening

Gannet Portrait

Gannet flying overhead

Gannets and Chick

Gannet Chick

Flying close by

Wide Angle Gannet Fly by

Gannet on a Rock

Gannet at 170mm

Gannet Flying into the Sun

When I felt I was done with photographing Gannets I slipped down the back of the Island to photograph some of the Razorbills congregating below the Gannet Colony. First of all there were this loving couple. Then I tried some flight shots before ending up with a portrait.

Razorbill Couple Preening

Razorbill coming into land

Portrait of a Razorbill

Time had gone fast and with only 45 mins until the ferry came to pick us up we headed to the other end of the island where we met a photographer who said there was a Peregrine just over the hill. No sooner had we crested the hill an adult was calling close by and the reason was fairly obvious a young Peregrine was fifty yards below us.

Young Peregrine on Saltee

Adult Peregrine on Saltee

So we made our way back to the boat and as we were going three Painted Lady's, my first of the year, fluttered around us. At the same time some Herring Gulls were right next to us and I got this portrait.

Painted Lady Butterfly

Herring Gull Portrait

As we made our way back down the hill to the boat a Rock Pipit popped up on some ferns.

Rock Pipit on Ferns

This was the view of the house as we made our way down the hill. What a fabulous Island and one of the best five and a half hours I have spent in my life. I can't wait to go back. The only drawback I got really sunburnt.

Neales House Saltee Island

We got to the shore and were ferried out to the waiting boat on our journey back to the mainland. On the way there were a few Manx Shearwater flying by the boat.

Rib ferrying passengers from Saltee Island to boat.

More Bad News from RSPB Belfast Harbour

2011-06-20T17:42:00.001+01:00

On friday a fox was seen going under the Tern Island in front of the main viewing hide and then coming up through a hole onto the main platform of the island. So little hope for the eggs or chicks that were on the island.

The Tern Island has obviously been allowed to get into this parlous state and it just seems to me they couldn't care less any more.

When is the RSPB in Northern Ireland going to understand that the "P" in RSPB stands for "Protection".
That is the "Protection" of birds not foxes.

It is high time Mike Clarke the boss of the RSPB and James Robinson RSPBNI Director sorted out these problems.

House Martins and a Gift of a Dead Swallow

2011-06-15T10:21:00.000+01:00

House Martin

I love my House Martins and last year by the beginning of June I was wondering whether the pair that breed on the house were going to return. They did eventually return and only had one brood. This year they arrived back at the house on the 7th April.

House Martin returning to its Nest

In recent days I was quite surprised as it appeared that there were often three to four adult birds leaving the nest at one time. On closer examination it turned out that one pair was building a nest adjoining the nest already there.

House Martin Nest Building

Meanwhile at the same time on a gable on opposite side of the house another pair has been building a new nest.
The first few days of the new build seem to be a rather slow process as they wait for the first bits of mud to dry to the wall but as the days go on the process seems to speed up considerably. The farmyard of my neighbour seems to provide them with all the material.

House Martin with Building Material

House Martin's resting on their new build

House Martin with Mud

Carefully Placing Mud onto Nest

Proud of Her Nest Building

Yesterday afternoon a father of one of my sons friends knocked on the door to give me a dead Swallow as he thought I would be interested. It was an adult male with long streamers but most interestingly of all was that it was ringed in Italy. So I sent the details to the Istituto Nazionale per la Fauna Selvatica where ringing recoveries are recorded and await news of when and where it was ringed. Swallows don't weigh very much it weighed 15 grams.

Ringing Recovery from Dead Swallow

Tory Island Co Donegal , Corncrakes and a sighting of what I firmly believe was a Great Snipe

2011-06-10T23:31:00.000+01:00

Corncrake on Rathlin

Last week I arranged by means of Twitter to meet Rónán McLaughlin, an excellent Bird Photographer originally from Co.Donegal now living in Co.Cork, at the Magheraroarty ferry for a day trip to Tory Island off the northwest coast of Co.Donegal. We were hoping to photograph some Corncrakes. My inspiration to come and photograph these birds was the above photograph taken by Anthony McGeehan on Rathlin last year and the photograph below taken on Inishbofin a couple of years ago. The top photo being simply superb.

Corncrake on Inishbofin

So on monday morning he set off from Cork at 4.30 in the morning and I set off at 6.30 and we met at 11.30 at the ferry at Magheraroarty.

The weather was fairly dreary and grey. Not good bird photography light. On the ferry trip over to Tory Island we saw Great Northern Diver in summer plumage, Shags, Cormorants, a fair few Manx Shearwater, a single Puffin, Gannets and a single Storm Petrel.

Storm Petrel

Manx Shearwater

Great Northern Diver

Tory Island is situated on the north west corner of Ireland it is about ten miles from the mainland and the crossing can be fairly hairy with atlantic ocean swells that have come all the way unbroken from America. Fortunately for a person who suffers from seasickness this trip was ok. Rónán, however is in the Irish Navy so not a problem for him.

We arrived and were welcomed by the "King of Tory" Patsy Dan Rogers and Rónán had a little chat to him in Irish of which I didn't understand a word apart from traon the gaelic for corncrake. No sooner than we had left him on the pier we heard a Corncrake in the fields behind the main street. Infact there were two or three birds calling. Now we had to find them. We walked up the street and came across another bird photographer who had seen them earlier. From his accent we guessed he came from Dublin. There was a bird calling only a few yards away behind a wall in a field of nettles but could we see it. No. So we decided to head out towards the lighthouse.

Tory Lighthouse

The cacophony of sound from birds on the way there was deafening. There were Lapwing protecting there young from Lesser Black-backed Gulls. Oystercatchers protecting their nests, Common Gulls protecting their young and both Ronan and I were mobbed by one particular individual. Ringed Plover were doing broken wing displays. All in all it was absolutely wonderful.

Common Gull on the Attack

We walked right round the lighthouse and came across this family party of Choughs feeding on the short grass just in front of the lighthouse before they took off at our arrival. Then we both photographed this Common Gull that allowed us to get quite close.

Choughs

Common Gull

After walking right round the lighthouse compound we decided to head towards a lake close to the Lighthouse to see if there were any Little Terns about. As we were doing so we walked through a stretch of boggy land and this bird got up and flew into the wind about forty metres before flopping down again. It was bigger than a snipe and flew low not much more than a metre of the ground in a much less frenetic way than a snipe. It also appeared to land rather suddenly as though it had just stalled and put its wings out at the last moment. Rónán commented afterwards that it was almost lazy in flight. We both said to each other almost simultaneously that it was a Great Snipe even though neither of us had seen one. Apart from the size difference it appeared to have far more white in the tail than a snipe. We decided we had to get photos and headed down towards where it had landed. As we were doing so a number of Dunlin flew around us. We also flushed two snipe both of which flew straight into the wind before heading skywards and over towards the east of the island. These were definitely not the same species in our minds to the bird we had just flushed. Rónán also commented that it was almost Woodcock in size. After searching in the area we thought it had landed we couldn't find it. Then a Dunlin presented us with a nice opportunity so we took a few shots.

Dunlin

I then said to Rónán that we had to go back over the ground we had just come and see if we could find it again. Fortunately for us the bird hadn't moved too far from where we reckoned it had landed and yet again it took off similarly to when we originally flushed it and I got the following poor shots. Yet again it flew only a few metres off the ground and headed away from us before flying to our right and behind a hillock. The tail was again noticeably white. I am positive it was a Great Snipe.

Great Snipe?? 1st Shot

Great Snipe 2nd Shot and Crop

I used to rough shoot and have seen hundreds of snipe over the years and this in my mind and Rónán's was definitely not a Gallinago gallinago. I have also taken photos of snipe in flight before and apart from the obvious difference in size I cannot for the life of me see how the tail feathers of the above bird is similar to the one below.

Snipe in Flight

We searched for quite a bit longer but didn't find the bird again. The ferry that was due to leave at 6.00pm we had been told was leaving at 4.00pm so this curtailed our visit and we headed back to the ferry past a calling Corncrake. The light was now getting worse and the chances of getting a last minute photograph were doomed. On the boat journey back to the mainland a Great Northern Diver appeared even closer to the boat.

It was a long day and even though the light was not in our favour and we did not get to see any Corncrakes but did hear 5-6 birds. It was an exciting one never the less with a possible sighting of a Great Snipe. We will be making a submission to the Irish Rare Bird Committee at some point. Thanks to Rόnán for a great day.

RSPB Belfast Harbour Revisited And It Is Still A Disgrace

2011-05-19T14:20:00.003+01:00

I had to kill a few hours in Belfast a couple of weeks ago so I thought that I would go along to the RSPB Belfast Harbour Reserve and see how the Terns were coming along. Firstly the reserve was bone dry no water at all and on the right hand tern island there were Black-headed Gulls nesting all over it. I counted 12 nests and very few terns.

Black-headed Gulls nesting on Tern Island

I cannot understand why the water situation is allowed to get like this on the reserve. WATER is the lifeblood of this reserve. The warden knows how to put water into the reserve as does his boss Gregory Woulahan. All they have to do is make an arrangement with NI Water. They just do not care and it is only when too many people start complaining that they bother to do anything about it. The laziness on this particular reserve is astounding. I went back to the reserve yesterday and much to my surprise the water had only been turned on the night before. (It takes about a week to fill the lagoon without rain water) There were also more terns than on my previous visit thankfully. I was talking to a visitor who had queried the lack of water a few weeks previously and he was told that they were unable to put any in.

The fact that there are Black-headed Gulls breeding is very worrying as well. Firstly they like to nest in colonies. Secondly they start to nest before the main wave of terns arrive.The space on the tern islands is limited and one has to bear in mind that the terns are territorial so by allowing the gulls to nest they are effectively reducing the areas that the terns can nest. Each year quite a few immature Black-headed Gulls roost on the islands but are not interested in using the islands as nesting spots. In the past the previous warden would have strung wire in a matrix over the islands which scared away the gulls as if disturbed they would fly into them and after a few times would be deterred. You do get colonies of Common Terns and Black Headed Gulls breeding together but only if there is the space for them to do so. I hope the RSPB will move them on elsewhere. In 2008 there were 200 pairs of Common Tern and 25 Pairs of Arctic Tern breeding and even a visit by a pair of Roseate Terns. Will this situation ever return I wonder. It would be a travesty if after all the work that went into creating these islands, including the help from the RAF, to be wasted as it seems to be at the moment.

It wouldn't surprise me if we are going to have a similar situation as 2010 when there was a 90% breeding failure of the terns on the reserve. The RSPB said that this was due to lack of food. This was a lie. The food availability in Belfast Lough was not an issue. Belfast Lough is a fabulous fishing ground. The Terns at the reserve have a wide diet confirmed in study by the RSPB NI Directors wife Lorraine Chivers "Courtship feeding and food provisioning of chicks by Common Terns Sterna hirundo at Belfast Harbour Lagoon" Irish Birds, 8: 215-222 In fact no other tern colonies in the North or in the South of Ireland failed due to food issues. Some were affected by bad weather and one colony suffered through vandalism.

The real reason was that the water levels were so low that it allowed the two foxes that are trapped in the reserve by the predator proof fence to predate them. If the water levels are high enough the foxes cannot get onto the islands. GUESS WHAT they now have two offspring so now there are FOUR FOXES trapped within this 24 acre site. So now any of the Lapwing that breed within the reserve will have their young predated. One of the volunteers was telling me that there were already some lapwing chicks and that they hadn't been seen for a week.

RSPB Belfast Harbour Fox Food

It has now been nearly three years that these foxes have been there. The RSPB in Northern Ireland seems far more keen on keeping to the corporate message than doing anything about conservation.

The reserve itself was looking very poorly maintained. The grass outside the main hide hadn't been mowed in quite a while. The willows immediately outside the front of the hide had been cut down so there is no longer as much cover for the Reed Buntings, Robins and Linnets that you would find there. The grass on the far side of the reserve hasn't been properly maintained and the scirpus is just encroaching further and further onto the lagoon. In this months Bird Watching magazine there is an aerial photo of the reserve which was taken in 2008 and if a similar photo was taken today I think the difference would be very noticeable. For a start the reserve looked well maintained in the photo.

From what I hear the headquarters at Belvoir is a really unhappy place. Staff have been off with stress. Even at the meetings about the reserves nobody is allowed to bring up the state of the Belfast Harbour Reserve. Aodhán who was the media officer and ran the RSPBNI twitter site was facing a disciplinary and left before they pushed him.

Belfast Harbour Reserve was once a well maintained well run reserve which attracted keen birders all the time and would turn up three or four nice rarities each year. It is now just a shadow of its former self.

So RSPB my advice is. Find a new warden for the reserve who knows what they are about and who is prepared to do a hard days physical work maintaining the reserve to a high degree.

Then if you want there to be a nicer atmosphere in Belvoir transfer the Reserves Manager to England. Then from what I hear the atmosphere will change very quickly.

And finally hire Tom Black, the man that used to deal with your predator control, to either shoot or trap the foxes within the reserve and then maybe any nesting birds within the reserve might have a chance of survival.

EarthShots Photo Of The Day

2011-04-26T12:06:00.000+01:00

Today This Photo is Earth Shots Photo of the Day.

Here is the Link

For those of you that have come from the EarthShots website here is my blog post of when I was out at Kaikoura New Zealand

Having left Kapiti Island we stayed in Wellington with my father's first cousin Jan for a few days before we headed to the South Island and went our seperate ways. I wanted to see Albatrosses at Kaikoura and Kea in Arthur's Pass and my father wanted to visit friends and go fishing.

I arrived in Kaikoura and stayed in the Adelphi Backpackers Lodge.I had booked to go out with Albatross Encounter about a week earlier on the internet. I got up on a beautiful morning and headed to the Encounter building.I had made sure I had taken my seasickness tablets the previous night and an hour before we were to leave. At the Encounter centre there is a really nice cafe serving excellent breakfasts and great coffee. so i had a quick coffee before our group of seven were to meet up with our guide Alastair Judkins.

Alastair drove us from the centre around a headland to where we would board the boat. Pretty much the same as Kapiti we got onto boat and it was then reversed into harbour. We made our way out to an offshore canyon which is pretty close to the shore.It is about a mile deep. It is here that two currents converge and forces nutrient rich water upwards which in turn supports a wide variety of fish and marine animals creating a wonderful feeding habitat for many different species of seabird.

The first we were to see were the Cape Pigeon or Cape Petrel.

They have a black and white colour and were named cape pigeons because they frequent Cape Horn. They are not a pigeon but a Petrel and in NZ follow fishing boats looking for scraps.

Once we were over the canyon Alastair put a bag of frozen chum overboard and what felt like seconds birds were coming in all directions. There were Great Northern Petrels,

Mollymawks,

Albatrosses and as they came in Alastair was pointing them out and naming them as they came in, as I was trying to photograph them. Westland petrel, Sooty Shearwater, White Chinned Petrel,

Buller's Shearwater,

Hutton's Shearwater, Salvin's Mollymawk,

Gibson's Wandering Albatross.

The shear beauty of these very large birds cleaving the water as they bank over the waves was awe inspiring. Also the backdrop of the Kaikoura Mountains made it all the more spectacular. To me it was one of the greatest birding experiences I have ever had.

Alastair then shouted Chatham Island Mollymawk.

This had to be the bird of the whole NZ trip for me. It is critically endangered on the IUCN red list. There are about 4500 pairs in the world and they breed on a rock called the Pyramid 800 miles to the East in the Chatham Islands. They would be a very rare visitor to New Zealand and this was only the third time in six or seven years that Alastair had seen one.It is one of the three sub species of Shy Mollymawk. It flew round the boat before coming intoland right next to the chum.It really was a beautiful bird.

It then flew off not to be seen again. I then tried to take photos with my sigma 10-20mm lens with my camera body as low to the water as possible. I got a range of shots. In this one immediately below the tip of his bill is only about an inch away from the lens!!!

This Photo was runner up in Naturescapes Bird Photo of the Year 2009

Then we were visited by a Black-browed Albatross of the Campbell Island Race. It is one of the most widespread albatrosses. It looks as though it is wearing eyeshadow.

The only other Mollymawk we saw was a New zealand White -capped Mollymawk. This one is immature.

Alastair then headed to show us the Spotted Shag Colony on a rock just a few hundreds from the shore when we stopped at a group of Buller's Shearwaters sitting on the water. We looked and photographed them and then he chucked the remaining chum into the water. The albatrosses and the giant petrels went into a feeding frenzy.It was a pretty noisy affair.

As a photographic experience it was second to none.It had to be one of the best mornings of my life. The next time I am in NZ I will definately go out on an earlier trip in the day to experience the early morning sunlight. I would also love to photograph the birds from an underwater perspective.

I entered this photograph, which I changed to Black and White, into the Birdforum Monthly Photo Competition (In this case the title was Monochrome Birds) and it won so I was pretty pleased with that.

A Few More Migrants And A Lifer. Not A Bird This Time But A Pine Marten

2011-04-25T21:17:00.000+01:00

Had a great day I first of all headed to Castle Island Hide on the Quoile and spent some time watching a pair of Little Egrets courting. Then a Little Gull flew once around the bay followed by some Common Terns. They didn't like what they saw and headed to the opposite end of the pondage.

Little Gull at Quoile Pondage

Then it was quiet and I walked down the road hoping to hear the Grasshopper Warblers that I had heard a few days ago. Nothing only Blackcaps and Willow Warblers but it was later in the day and the Groppers tend to sing in the early morning or evening.

Male Blackcap at Quoile Pondage

I then headed over to Killard and there were a few Whimbrel on the shoreline and quite a few Whitethroat calling. There was also a Kestrel hovering almost motionless in the strong and quite chilly breeze. I noticed a quadbike had ridden along the tideline where the Ringed Plover breed. I didn't see any evidence of damage thankfully.

Whitethroat Display Flight

In the afternoon I walked from my house to Castle Ward the local National Trust Estate where I used to live. The NT has cleared 18km of paths within the estate and they are brilliant. As I was walking down one of them I heard a Blackbird calling with alarm and I looked over and there was the first Pine Marten I had ever seen in the wild jumping across some branches. Sadly I only got two record shots of which this is the best. It gave me a real buzz.

Pine Marten at Castle Ward Estate

I then carried on down to Temple Water and the Ring Necked Duck was still there with a female Tufty. He wasn't letting any of the other Male Tufties anywhere near her.

Ring Necked Duck at Castle Ward

Ring Necked Duck and Female Tufted Duck

As I was walking home I found a Buzzards Nest so all in all a pretty good day.

An 80th Birthday and My First Sighting of a Grasshopper Warbler

2011-04-22T01:35:00.000+01:00

Grasshopper Warbler Locustella naevia

I have been up in Co.Donegal for the last few days. On Wednesday it was going to be my Fathers 80th Birthday. My sister and I went up on Monday to prepare for the day. It was fab weather and all around us we could hear the sounds of Spring, Willow warblers and Blackcaps singing all over the place. The recently returned Swallows preparing their nests. In the garden we had a pair of Treecreepers heading to their nest along with a pair of Mistle Thrushes who also breed in the garden every year. There were Chaffinches everywhere along with Coal, Blue and Great tits. There was as yet no sign of the Spotted Flycatcher that breed in the garden I suppose a wee bit early.

On Tuesday after my stint preparing food for the following day I walked to the edge of Lough Fern hoping to find Sedge and Reed warbler but was surprised to find no sign. I did see at least one pair of Lapwing protecting a nest against a passing Hooded Crow. There was also a Mute Swans nest on the edge of the Lough. On the water there were Mallard, Teal and a pair of Wigeon. There was also no sign or sound of Grasshopper warbler that breeds here every year.

On Wednesday my sister and I spent the day preparing my fathers 80th Birthday lunch for just over thirty friends which went really well. The weather smiled on us as we were eating outside in a marquee. A starter of Potted Shrimp with my mothers wheaten bread. A main of cold fillet of beef with three salads, a tomato cumin coriander and red onion salad, New potato and peas with pesto dressing and a baby spinach, feta and asparagus salad. For pudding a chocolate cake made by my sister with a raspberry coulis. Here's the birthday boy :-)

My Father on his 80th Birthday

After the party I was heading to bed about 10.30 and my mother had just come down from the farm from feeding the dogs and said she could hear some Grasshopper Warblers reeling away. We went out and couldn't hear anything and then suddenly the unmistakeable sound was coming from the bottom of the garden. Happy days!! I went back into the house and fluttering against the window was an enormous moth which I let into the house and caught. It was a female Emperor Moth.

In the morning after a bit of post party tidying up I could hear the Grasshopper Warblers again and I decided to go and look for them. This up to now is a bird that I have only heard and never seen. I have heard them in Co.Down and many times in Donegal and on each occasion I have searched for them but have never seen them. They are very difficult to see due to their skulking behaviour and their love of low tangled ground cover particularly bramble patches. I have quite often seen photographs of them on Birdguides perched up on brambles,and been extremely envious, but until today this had never happened to me.

I crossed the road in front of the house to a boggy field and at first could not really determine where the sound was coming from. It seemed to be all around me. Then I thought it was behind me and then bingo there was this bird on a bramble branch. I looked through the binoculars and yes it was a Grasshopper Warbler. I reckoned there were at least three different birds singing in the area.

Grasshopper Warbler

I approached it slowly and it remained for a while before flying to the next patch of brambles where upon it started to sing. For those of you that have never heard it, it is quite unlike any other birdsong in that it sounds very similar to a fly reel being wound in. You can listen to it HERE

Grasshopper Warbler Singing

I watched the bird for about twenty minutes and it would disappear deep into cover and the only sign that it was there would be the odd twitch of a blade of grass before re-appearing.

Grasshopper Warbler Amongst The Brambles

Sometimes it would sing low down in the bushes and at other times right out in the open. It would also fly low into the rushes and dive at the last minute into the base and again the only way to keep track was to watch the vegetation move. It appeared at times almost to jump between the clumps of rushes.

Male Grasshopper Warbler Singing From Gorse

Male Grasshopper Warbler Locustella naevia

I felt really lucky to witness this bird and hope that I will still be finding them when I am 80 and Father Many Happy Returns

I Love My Visiting Goldfinches

2011-04-15T14:55:00.000+01:00

About eight years ago I rarely had a goldfinch to my feeders and even when I started feeding nyjer seed it only seemed to attract a few birds. Then I started to use sunflower hearts and ever since I have had loads of Goldfinches visiting the feeders every day. This has enabled me to be able to photograph them at fairly close quarters. This latest photo is I think my all time favourite. Click on a photo and it opens in a new window at a larger size.

Goldfinch

Goldfinches on Feeder

Goldfinch on Holly

Goldfinch on Teasel

Goldfinch alighting on Teasel

Goldfinch on Holly Branch

Goldfinch on Dead Cow Parsley

Great Grey Shrike at The Ulster Wildlife Trust Slievenacloy Reserve

2011-04-07T11:38:00.000+01:00

Great Grey Shrike sitting on Blackthorn

Last week a Great Grey Shrike (Lanius excubitor) was found at the Slievenacloy Ulster Wildlife Trust Nature Reserve in the hills above Belfast. It was found by Dermot Hughes, who was a former director of conservation at the Trust. There have been only 17 records of one in Ireland since 1900. I had resisted the urge to race off and twitch it and had decided if I was going to look for it I would wait until we had better weather. As the reports kept on coming in that it was still around and I had to go to Belfast anyway I decided to combine the two.
I arrived at 10.30 and there was one other bird photographer there. He had not seen the bird at this point. I had just missed Cork/Donegal birder Ronan McLaughlin who I was told had got some nice photos of the bird. I scanned the blackthorn bushes on the north side of the road and immediately a bit of white caught my eye on some far off bushes. I was thinking Yes! this is easy. But it didn't move and after a while I decided it couldn't be. So I headed in it's general direction and was disappointed to see it was a small plastic bag. I spent an hour and a half looking along with some more birders that had arrived from Dublin. The only thing I had seen of note at this stage was this Orange Tip Butterfly.

Orange Tip Butterfly Anthocharis cardamines

I was going to give up and I decided to drive up and down the Flowbog road and scan from the car again no success. A birder I didn't recognise waved and I waved back and then I drove to where I originally parked and decided to have a snooze. Little did I know until later that the birder was waving me to stop as the bird was on top of the bushes in the roadside hedge as I was passing by under it ! After kipping for an hour I headed back up the road and saw Mark Killops with his scope and the birder who had waved at me, who introduced himself as Mark McMullan. It turned out that he read my blog and I had also come across his photos on Flickr . They had the bird in their scopes on the south side of the road. Brill a lifer for me and thanks Mark K for the use of your scope. It was a long way away and even with the two times converter on my sigma 500 lens I was getting pretty poor results.

Great Grey Shrike

It then flew off to some adjacent bushes and as you can see I couldn't manually focus fast enough :-)

Great Grey Shrike in Flight

We also got good views of the bird dropping down into the grass and catching some prey before flying back into blackthorn and impaling it on a thorn and then eating it. From it's size it looked most likely to be a small frog.

Great Grey Shrike Dropping Down Onto Prey

Mike O'Keefe then suggested that we were not going to get decent shots of the bird if we stayed on the road so we slid under the fence and headed closer to it. I learnt a lesson do not take your eyes of a bird in this type of habitat as it had disappeared. It took us a wee while to relocate it and by this time it was hundreds of yards away. After about ten minutes it flew back again to where we had originally seen it and on this occasion I was able to stalk the bird and get within about 20 yards and it posed nicely for me :-) Click on images for larger view.

Great Grey Shrike at UWT Slievenacloy Nature Reserve

A Memorable Days Birding with a Belgian Visitor looking for Ring-necked Duck and Red Grouse

2011-04-04T16:09:00.000+01:00

On Saturday evening I sent a text to Anthony McGeehan saying that the Ring-Necked Duck was on Temple Water in the National Trust Property at Castleward and that it was giving fabulous views and was easy to photograph. On Saturday I had popped down to Castleward to see the duck which had been relocated there by Joan and Spencer Marshall earlier in the week. I lived in the Green Row on the estate for eleven years which is only a couple of hundred yards from the lake and used to walk round the lake almost daily. The Ring-necked Duck was associating with about ten Tufted Duck in the middle of the lake. As I was photographing the duck I heard and then saw my first Willow Warbler of the year as well.

Male Ring-necked Duck

Male Ring-necked Duck and Tufted Ducks

Male Ring-necked Duck and Female Tufted Duck

Male Ring-necked Duck

My First Willow Warbler of the Year

Anthony replied asking if I wanted to join him as he was taking a Belgian birder out for a days birding with the main aim of the day to find Red Grouse, which would be a lifer for him.

So on on the dot of eight Anthony turned up with his friend Ken Douglas and Belgian Birder Maarten Schurmans on an absolutely beautiful morning. I had coffee waiting for them and showed them my visiting Tree and House Sparrows and ubiquitous Chaffinches before we headed down to Castleward.

House Sparrow

Male Chaffinch

We walked round the lake and there were lots of Tufted Ducks but no Ring-necked Duck. First dip of the day.

We then headed to St.John's Point Lighthouse to see if there was any seawatching to be had. The wind was in the wrong direction and it was pretty chilly but nevertheless we saw a few Red-Throated Divers both flying and out on the water as well as a few Manx Shearwater, Gannets and Kittiwakes about.

St.John's Point Lighthouse

Seawatching

As we were leaving we saw five newly arrived Wheatear near the lighthouse. We then headed back to Strangford to get on the ferry to Portaferry. There was a Carrion Crow on the beach just outside Portaferry. Next stop was Lough Cowey to see if we could relocate the Ring-necked Duck but after a fruitless search nothing. On then to Portavogie to see if there was any interesting gulls. On getting out of the car the first bird we saw sitting on the harbour wall was an adult Glaucous Gull.

Adult Glaucous Gull

Glaucous Gull

We then headed back to Belfast to drop off Ken at his house before heading to the Antrim Hills just north of Larne to look for Red Grouse.

We were full of expectation and in my mind we would find some birds but they would explode away from us before we would get good views. We spread out and started walking over the bog when Maarten saw one in the distance. It was a male with it's bright red eyebrows. Happy days as it was a lifer for him. We walked slowly towards the bird and it slunk down into the dead grass. As we got closer Maarten also noticed a female just behind it. She was even better hidden. Much to our amazement we approached closer and closer and closer finally to within ten feet of the birds before they flew away. They obviously have great confidence in their ability to hide.

Male Red Grouse Lagopus lagopus scoticus

Female Red Grouse

Male Red Grouse Lagopus lagopus scoticus

Maarten Schurmans after finding his first Red Grouse

We then walked over the brow of a hill and saw a few more but not with quite such stunning views. Here are a couple of them flying. As we were walking back to the car I noticed out of the corner of my eye some broken eggshell at the base of a heather bush and on closer examination it turned out to be a beautifully constructed old nest with some broken eggshell in it. Whether it had been predated one will never know. However its camouflage was superb and if it hadn't been for the shell I would never have noticed it.

Red Grouse Flying

Red Grouse

Red Grouse in Northern Ireland are a priority species with no more than 220 pairs surviving. There are those that suggest that the Irish population of Red Grouse is taxonomically different to the British population but in genetic testing this has turned out not to be the case. Here is a link (DNA Analysis of Red Grouse) However the Irish Grouse is definately paler and more golden than British population and this may be attributed to the fact there are a higher proportion of grasses and sedges in the Irish habitats. Which in turn is effecting their diet or possibly their camouflage requirements.

We left the Antrim Hills and tried for Long-Tailed Duck at Carrickfergus unsuccessfully before heading back to the Castle Island Hide on the Quoile pondage for another look for the Ring-necked Duck again nada. There were both Swallows and Sand Martins there and we also got to see a Female Sparrowhawk catch a Teal. There was also a white Mallard which I suspect is the same bird that spends its summer off Killard.

By now it was half past seven and we decided to try Lough Money which is a few miles away to see if the Ring-necked Duck had gone there. Success. The RND was busy chasing a female Tufty as it had been on Templewater which makes me think that wherever she goes the RND will follow. It made a brilliant end to my best days birding this year. I never dreamt that I could get that close to a Grouse. Thanks to Anthony, Ken and Maarten for great company.

Keep Calm

2011-03-26T12:59:00.000Z

Tree Sparrows

2011-03-07T18:17:00.000Z

Tree Sparrow

During the really cold weather at Christmas I started to ground feed the birds at well as the feeders. It attracted this solitary Tree Sparrow below. Little did I realise that now ten weeks later that there would be a cacophony of sound coming from the hedge in front of my house every morning. I now have as many as a hundred Tree Sparrows visiting my feeders. They seem particularly attracted to Jollye's Wild Bird Feed mixed with Jollye's Foreign Finch food. I have an 18inch feeder and I fill it every night and sometimes by 2.00pm in the afternoon it can be empty. Some birds are even using the nyjer seed.

Tree Sparrow

The Tree Sparrow is a bit smaller than the House Sparrow and the other difference between the two is that both male and female Tree Sparrow look the same. I now have lots of both House and Tree around the house. The House Sparrows nest in a colony next to my garage. The House Sparrow also has a more harsh call than the Tree Sparrow. I put up this broken branch on the hedge as they like to wait their turn on it.

Tree Sparrows

Having now attracted them I am beginning to put up some nest boxes in the hope that they will use them and breed. With the Tree Sparrow you have to have a nestbox with an entrance hole of 28mm. If it is larger than this the House Sparrow can take it over.

I have to say I think they are a lovely bird and am very pleased that these birds, whose conservation status in the UK is now red due to their rapid decline, have decided to make this area their home. I had hoped that I might get a visit from a Yellowhammer as one can often see Tree sparrows and Yellowhammers in the same area. We used to have them around when I first moved into this house. I would quite often see them in the bushes behind the above feeder but it is a couple of years since I have seen them here.

The other bird that I get to see on a regular basis are these Redpolls

Dead Birds Falling From the Sky and Fireworks

2011-01-05T21:14:00.000Z

Red-winged Blackbird by Rob Travis

There have been reports all over the media about dead Red-winged Blackbirds falling out of the sky in the United States and Jackdaws in Sweden from the BBC, Daily Mail, Los Angeles Times and the Huffington Post,. Social media such as facebook and twitter have quickly spread these reports round the world.

In my opinion the Red-winged Blackbirds in Beebe Arkansas were affected by the fireworks on New Years Eve. They would have been at a roost site close to where they died probably sharing it with Starlings, Common Grackles and Brown-headed Cowbirds. By the time the fireworks were going off all these birds would have been at their roost site and with the sudden explosions and flashes of light the birds would have all left the roost in panic. Red-winged Blackbirds tend not to fly at night so would have been completely disorientated being able to see one minute as a firework lit up the sky and then not the next. They probably flew into buildings and overhead wires. I suspect the same thing happened in Sweden where up to fifty Jackdaws were found dead.

I witnessed something similar in Belfast at halloween in October 1999 when pyrotechnics expert Christopher Bertonneau did a dry run for the Millenium New Years Eve Party in Belfast. The fireworks were launched from a bridge over the River Lagan and a pontoon on the river. This was very close to the Albert bridge a renowned roost site for Starlings. The first bangs startled the birds and they were flying everywhere. They were flying into people, they were flying into the large plate glass windows of the Waterfront Hall, some were flying straight into the road. Then there were birds that had obviously flown into buildings and had sort of bounced/flew back before falling. I believe a few hundred were found dead in the area the following day.

Feeding the Birds with My New Applefeeder and Some New Garden Ticks

2010-12-29T17:42:00.000Z

Click on Images to come up in New Window

I feed the birds in my garden all year round. I have a peanut feeder,which attracts mainly Great Tit, Blue Tit, Coal Tit, Starling, Greenfinch, House Sparrow and Long-tailed Tits.

Long-tailed Tits at Peanut Feeder

A Nyjer feeder which mainly attracts Goldfinches, Siskin and Lesser Redpoll and a window feeder which I put sunflower hearts into which attracts Goldfinches, Chaffinches, Blackbirds and occasionally Lesser Redpoll.

Lesser Redpoll at Nyjer Feeder

Earlier in the year I was in a friend's garden and saw his success at pulling in birds by putting apples out on the ground, particularly the thrush family. So I decided I would make a hanging applefeeder and see how it would fare. I used an old coathanger and fed the apples onto it as well as making a few perches. In the first few days there didn't seem to be that much interest. Then little by little I saw more and more birds using it. My first real surprise was a male Blackcap. It visited for three days in a row but hasn't been back since. Bluetits use it a fair amount and Blackbirds are the most popular user with Starling coming a close second. So all in all a success. Apart from my unwelcome visitor see below.

Blackbird and Blackcap on Applefeeder

Starling on Applefeeder

Bluetit on Applefeeder

Rat and Applefeeder

With the recent cold weather and snow cover I have been putting wildbird food out on the ground as well. I use Jollyes Wildbird Food (£8.69/ 13kg) which is similar to the RSPB Table Bird seed Mix for which they charge (£16.99/12.75Kg) Thats a staggering £8.63 more expensive per bag!!!!
I also have been putting feed out on the shoreline in front of my house during the really cold spell for this I use the Jollyes Budgerigar No 2 seed. This was the seed that used to be put out in front of the Belfast Harbour Reserve Hide to attract the Godwit and Duck on the reserve. Putting this feed out in front of the house attracted Teal, Wigeon and some Mallard and on one afternoon I had 70+ Black-tailed Godwit as well, which would be the largest amount I have seen here.

This cold weather has attracted five new species of bird into the garden the first was this Mistle Thrush. I have also had up to four Brambling and two Tree Sparrows and this very bossy Fieldfare. However my most exciting garden tick was on last friday morning as I was getting up I noticed a large shadow in a patch of grass which I had cleared of the snow on my lawn. I switched on the outside light and walked outside to witness a Long-eared Owl taking off. I assume that with all my ground feeding it was attracting rodents and the owl had been attracted by them. They breed within a few miles of the house so not together all that surprised.

Mistle Thrush

Brambling in Snow

Tree Sparrow

Fieldfare

Short-Eared Owls, Woodcock and Merlin at Killard Nature Reserve

2010-12-27T12:27:00.000Z

Woodcock

A week ago Sunday I was walking Pickle out at Killard Nature Reserve when I saw a Short-eared Owl fly off into the distance towards Gibbs Island. At the time I was quite disappointed as it was only the second time I had ever seen one and it was too far away to photograph. The first time being also out at Killard about seven years ago and on that occasion it was also fairly distant.

Pickle in the Snow

On wednesday it was my day off and a beautiful morning to boot so yet again I headed out to Killard. As I approached the Cloghy Rocks the sight of the mist lifting off the Strangford Narrows with the sun shining through was so intense that i had to stop the car and get out and photograph it.

Mist over the Strangford Narrows

Lapwing and Mist over the Strangford Narrows

The roads around me were treacherous with the snow that had turned to ice. We are experiencing one of the coldest Decembers on record in Northern Ireland with daytime temperatures getting no higher than -5C and in some parts it has gone down to -18.6C the coldest since the 1890's. This in turn is having a dire effect on the birds. As I approached where I park I could see Chaffinches, Bramblings, Skylarks, Yellowhammers and even Snipe feeding right in the centre of the road. In the car I had some bird seed which I put out on the side of the road for them.

Brambling

Skylarks

Snipe Gallinago gallinago

Walking out round the small peninsular that Killard is I was putting up Snipe and Woodcock everywhere. They were feeding right out in the open. I assume that the ground is marginally softer here than further inland. There are also cattle feeding out there and the probe marks in the cowpats were plainly obvious.

As I came round to Ben Dearg Beach I saw loads of thrushes. There were mainly Song Thrushes, Redwings and Blackbirds. In the past on this blog I have mentioned the thrush anvils where you can see the detritus of smashed snails against rocks and how I had barely ever seen a thrush out there. Not this time the song thrushes were working away all over the place.

Song Thrush using Anvil

I then saw this Peregrine diving on a Woodcock. I actually heard it first as it came over my head with a real whoosh, the Woodcock literally dived into the ground and escaped. The Peregrine almost looked bemused and then flew high up in the sky and proceeded to dive on another bird which also escaped into a clump of gorse.

As I headed inland from the beach this Short-eared Owl flew up from the long grass and flew directly away from me and pitched back in to the maran grass and as I headed to get a better look another one lifted out of the grass just in front of me which I was able to photograph and then yet another one lifted up out of the grass to my right. What fabulous birds. One of them was far more rufous underneath than the other two. Three at one time absolutely made my day. I assume that they were using the area to roost.

Short-eared Owl at Killard

However the day just got better and better with Woodcock everywhere and decent light to actually photograph them in flight. On the previous Sunday I had seen 30+ , on the Wednesday 50+, and this morning I saw 72. I have never seen anything like it, some birds appeared to be coming in off the sea.

Woodcock Scolopax rusticola

While I was photographing the Woodcock I noticed a Merlin chasing Skylarks and in mid attack it diverted towards the ground and out of sight only to reappear clutching a Robin.

Merlin with Robin

Merlin looking back at me

All in all it had to be one of the best mornings birding I had ever had.

I and the Bird #140 and Twitter

2010-12-16T05:54:00.001Z

Playatdawn.com

Wow "I and the Bird" is still here and so am I. Exactly 100 editions ago on 7 January 2007 I hosted the #40th Edition of "I and the Bird". How time flies when you are having fun. I find unlike the regularity of "I and the Bird" I now blog irregularly compared to when I started. So for all those that host "I and the Bird" fortnight after fortnight I am in admiration.

I now read far more birding blog posts than I used to and this is primarily down to Twitter. I have thoroughly taken to Twitter and I reckon if you are a blogger who blogs about birds or a bird photographer it is an excellent form of social media to promote your blog or photography, infact far better than Facebook. You will also over time make quite good friends as well. So please feel free to follow me @Birdblogger

One of the wonders of following loads of birders and bird photographers on Twitter is that all these people are tweeting about things they have seen or posting links to interesting subjects. So for those not on Twitter it's time to join.

In this edition of "I and the Bird" there are some that tweet and others that don't. So I am going to going to describe the link within 140 letters as you have to on twitter. If the blogger is on twitter I will start it with their twitter name and then a second link within the tweet will be to the post in question.If they are not on twitter I will start with an imaginary twitter address which will be linked to their post.

@Docforestal  Dan Huber went to Hammonasset Beach and took photos of Ring-billed Gull, Northern Harrier and Waders. http://bit.ly/hgt7cj

@Tyto_Tony Tony asks himself whether he should be helping a juvenile Pacific Baza (Crested Hawk) that has fallen from the nest.

@Dreamfalcon Dreamfalcon is giving the results of his Quiz from a "Walk in the Snow part 3" http://bit.ly/fg3mpC

@Ben_Cruachan Duncan from Australia has been watching the Grey Fantail building it's beautiful nest.

@Dendroica John has found a Northern Parula staying in New Jersey a wee bit longer than expected.
http://bit.ly/gV8Vg2

@Twin_Cities_Naturalist Kirk has been using a motion activated camera to photograph a Bald eagle on a deer carcass.

@The_Ridger Karen spent time with her father over Thanksgiving and you should see the birds she saw. http://bit.ly/ejBr5v

@Nemesis_Bird Alex has been watching Hawks and Raptors in Snowy Weather

@The-Birders-Lounge Amber has been studying the White Ibis an ancient idol.

@GrrlScientist  This post invites YOU to join in the World Parrot Count an international citizen science project http://bit.ly/fQ9Ttk

@Slugyard  Mike found three different species of Woodpecker in his backyard including the biggest and smallest in America.

@CountYourChickens BLUE, BLUE, BLUE Jill has been out photographing Eastern Bluebirds

@Focussing JSK was driving from Howard's Covered Bridge when she came across a juvie Red Shouldered Hawk.

@10,000_Birds Corey has been birding in the high elevation grasslands of Ecuador in the Antisana Ecological Reserve.

@gregladen Greg has been watching some ducks being blown about both at home and on youtube. http://bit.ly/e4F9fc

@Soaringfalcon1 Larry has posted his favourite Bird Photographs from this year. http://bit.ly/e9oXO8

@WanderinWeeta    Susannah has been in Rome or was it Boundary Bay looking at Sanderling and Dunlin   http://bit.ly/gUp1My

The Next Edition of "I and the Bird" is being hosted by Robert Mortensen who can be found on Twitter @Birding_Is_Fun  send him your blogpost to birdingisfun at gmail.com or contact him on Twitter.

My Favourite 40 Books about Birds, Birding and Bird Photography (Part 2: The Second Ten)

2010-12-13T20:34:00.000Z

11. Top 100 Birding Sites of the World by Dominic Couzens

I really like this book as it fills you with pipe dreams of where you could go birding in the world. Do I want to go to Merzouga in Morocco to catch up with the Houbara Bustard, Andasibe in Madagascar to see the Common Sunbird-asity, Abra Patricia in Peru to see the Marvellous Spatuletail, a pelagic in Monterey Bay off the coast of California to see the Black-footed Albatross or the Bale Mountains in Ethiopia to see the Spot-breasted Lapwing. It just fills you with dreams of birding in foreign shores.

12. Birds of Southern Africa by Ian Sinclair (originally from Northern Ireland) Phil Hockey and Warwick Tarboton

This has to be in my opinion the guidebook if you are going to the Southern half of Africa. I used it on my visit to Namibia and found it invaluable. You can even get it now as an app for the Iphone.

13. Down the Long Wind by Garth Christian
My parents have had this book for as long as I can remember and I would have read it in my teens when I had a voracious appetite for reading. It was published in 1961 and is all about bird migration.

14. The Big Twitch
This to me is the best twitching book that I have read. It is gripping, amusing and unputdownable. Sean Dooley tries to break the record for the amount of birds seen in Australia in one year. Not that I have the inclination to do a big year, well maybe I might be keen on photographing as many birds as I can in one year. However in the book Dooley writes "infact the older I got, the more important birdwatching became to me. It went from just a hobby to being fundamental to my sense of self and a vital component in maintaining my mental health." I feel in total agreement with this comment as do I am sure many other birders. Go get it it's the best twitch book there is.

15. Shorebirds by Hayman, Marchant and Prater
An excellent guide to the Wader species of the world. Hayman doing the illustrations which I think are excellent. A couple of years ago I bought a plate of Black Grouse that Hayman did for the Birds of the Western Palearctic Concise Volume 1. I think highly of his skills as a bird illustrator.

16. Border Reflections by Lord Home
In my teens I used to shoot and fish alot and I was given this book by my father. It is a signed edition by Lord Home (pronounced Hume) who was Prime Minister from 1963 to 1964. The book was illustrated by Rodger McPhail an outstanding sporting artist. Even though I gave up shooting four to five years ago it is one of my favourite books. Strangely a few years after I received it I was travelling through Europe on the Interail. I met three girls from London on a train in Italy and I continued travelling with them for a few weeks and one of them, Fiona, who I quite fancied, was Lord Home's granddaughter.

17. Masterpieces of Bird Photography by Eric Hosking and Harold Lowes
This book was published in 1947 and has amazing black and white prints of birds photographed in Britain going back to as early as 1892 by the Kearton brothers. There is a great photo of a pair of Black Throated Divers at their nest in Argyll taken by J.E Ruxton. It was taken with 8.5 inch focal length lens which today would be a 200mm lens at f8 for 1/4 second. Amazingly the photo is sharp.
Even in 1914 Douglas English, President of the Zoological Photographic Club, was concerned with photographs of captive species. He wrote "The true function of nature photography is to record and illustrate natural phenomena, without addition, without suppression, and above all things, without exaggeration of the difficulties involved." He also wrote "publication of a natural history photograph which purports to be a photograph from life, but which is in fact a photograph of a posed specimen, is in our view, a contemptible form of dishonesty" !!!!

18. Blokes and Birds edited by Stephen Moss
My sister gave me this for my birthday six years ago. It is pieces written by well known members of the British Birding community and relates a tale by each of them and also mentioning their favourite bird. On one side of each page there is a nice black and white portrait of each birder.

19. Flight Identification of European Seabirds by Blomdahl, Breife and Holmstrom
I bought this when I first started to seawatch in the hope that it may help me identify seabirds. It is a photographic guide and pretty good. My only point against it is that most of the photographs are taken on really beautiful days and in reality the weather on a seawatch is rarely as nice.

20. The Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Eastern North America
This is my latest acquisition as I thought it maybe helpful if I found an American bird on Inishbofin and didn't know what it was. It's a really nice guide and nicely illustrated. I use it quite often when reading American Birding blogs and am not sure about the species that is been talked about.

My Favourite 40 Books about Birds, Birding and Bird Photography (Part 1: The First 10)

2010-11-28T16:34:00.000Z

These are the first ten of my favourite books either about Birds, Birding or Bird Photography. They are in no particular order of favouritism as I find on some days I am more interested in one particular book than another.

1. Birds of Europe by Lars Jonsson
To my mind the most beautifully illustrated Bird guide in the world. Lars Jonsson has to be one of the finest bird illustrators there is. One day I intend to go to his museum in Sweden and buy one of his illustrations.

2. Thorburn's Birds by James Fisher
This was the book that started it all for me. I was given this book as a 5th birthday present by my paternal grandfather. The illustrations by Archibald Thorburn are quite superb, he is definitely one of my favourite bird artists. I have a couple of signed prints one is a pair of Nuthatches and the other a Woodcock. Unfortunately the cover on my book disintegrated years ago. So below is one of the plates from the book.

3. Readers Digest Book of British Birds
This would have been my first guide book, which not that I knew it at the time was seen to be a breakthrough in bird guides in that era (Early 70's). It was illustrated predominantly by New Zealander Raymond Ching for the main plates and Robert Gillmor for the line drawings. It has been well thumbed over the years.

4. The Eye of the Wind by Peter Scott
This is Sir Peter Scott's autobiography. He was one of the founding fathers of modern conservation and bird painter. He founded the Severn Wildfowl Trust , which is now The Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust

5. An Eye for a Bird by Eric Hosking
For forty years from the beginning of the 40's Eric Hosking was Britain's most renown bird photographer. This is his autobiography. He photographed 1800 species of bird in his life and don't forget this was prior to digital photography. Up until the 60's he was using medium format before changing to 35mm. In thirty years he said he took around 150,000 photographs. Nowadays a full time bird photographer would be taking that amount in a year or two. In 1949 he took this photo of a hovering Nightjar. Even nowadays you wouldn't find many bird photographers being able to take a shot like that.

6. The PEREGRINE Falcon by Derek Ratcliffe
I bought this signed edition in the last few years off someone from Birdforum it was published by T & AD Poyser in 1980. It is a fascinating book which covers the Peregrine's biology and the effect that pesticides had on their decline in the UK. It was later updated in the 90's. Derek Ratcliffe's most important legacy was the National Nature Reserves and Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSI's) set up when he was the chief scientist of the Nature Conservancy Council

7. Finding Birds in Ireland by Eric Dempsey and Michael O'Clery
If you are visiting Ireland and want to go birding I reckon this book Finding Birds in Ireland and the Birds of Europe by Lars Jonsson are all you need. It covers every County in Ireland and is very detailed. For example one of my local patches is the Quoile Pondage. It gives you good directions how to get there, the species of bird you are likely to find year round and then a list of the seasonal birds as well as a list of the rarities that have been found there.

8. The Shorebird Guide by Michael O'Brien, Richard Crossley and Kevin Karlson
This is mainly a photographic guide from America that relies on looking at the birds size, structure, behaviour and colour patterns at different stages in their life cycle. The photography is quite superb. I have a number of shorebird guides and this is definitely one I would turn to first. Richard Crossley is publishing the Crossley ID Guide in April which will be a very different photographic ID book to those in the past.

9. Bird News Vagrants and Visitors on a Peculiar Island by E. Vernon Laux
This book is about a year in the bird life of Martha's Vineyard, an island off the coast of Massachusetts. I lived on Martha's Vineyard on and off for nearly five years in the eighties and was sent this book when it came out. I have read it a few times and reminisce what I might have seen. At the time I wasn't quite as fanatical about birds and even though I saw Cardinals, Blue Jays and Common Grackle and even at one time killed four Northern Bobwhite when they flew in front of the van I was driving. I look forward to going back there one day.

10. The Birds of the British Isles by Bannerman and Lodge
This is a series of twelve volumes completed during the 50's and early 60's. They belonged to my grandparents only two still have their original cover. The illustrations were all done by George Edward Lodge one of the finest bird artists at that time.

Wordless Wednesday

2010-11-24T20:47:00.000Z

Grey Plover (Click on Image to see in larger form)

Waxwing in Belfast

2010-11-21T14:34:00.000Z

Waxwing

I popped up to Belfast this morning hoping to photograph some Waxwings. I parked in a carpark adjacent to the River Lagan. I could hear the Waxwings as soon as I got out, little did I think when I left home that the carpark would be absolutely full of people, rowers, joggers etc. Too many people and there were initially only five waxwing to be seen high up in a tree over looking the carpark. I also met up with fellow bird photographer Danny Boyd who was also hoping to photograph them as well. He showed me his new camera of which I was fairly envious :-) Sadly the birds didn't play ball and flew off.

So we went our separate ways and I headed in the direction of where I had seen them fly. Luckily there was one in a tree on its own and I was able to get a shot.

Links to Bird Photographers

2010-11-17T18:18:00.001Z

I have been recently adding a few photographers from all over the world to my links on the right of this page.

From Brazil we have Octavio Campos Salles He runs photo tours and takes great photos his blog is HERE

A Female Amazon Kingfisher from the Pantanal by Octavio Campos Salles

From Canada we have Greg Schneider who has to be one of Canada's leading Bird Photographers his website is HERE and he has a blog HERE

Male Pine Grosbeak by Greg Schneider

From England I have added Jules Cox a Wildlife Photographer whose site is HERE and his blog is HERE

Female Common Kingfisher by Jules Cox

From South Africa I have added Morkel Erasmus his website is HERE and his blog HERE Morkel had a Highly Commended photograph in the 2010 Veolia Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition.

Giant Kingfisher by Morkel Erasmus

Also another Wildlife Photographer from England Austin Thomas his website is HERE and his blog is HERE

Swallow in Flight by Austin Thomas

Birding on Inishbofin October 2010

2010-11-04T19:01:00.000Z

Male Stonechat

Click on Images to see in New Window

I have recently returned from an absolutely brilliant week on Inishbofin Co.Galway. I was not sure whether to title this blog post "Inishbofin I Love You" or the above but as this blog is generally about birds I went with the above. I am exhausted and sore from leaving the house at first light, walking and searching for birds all over the island and returning at about six thirty every evening.

I arrived on Sunday by ferry to find a body being lifted out of the harbour by the RNLI. Two men from Castlebar had drowned in the early hours of the morning after leaving a bar at two in the morning. Sadly the same old story of two people with too much alcohol on board making their way back to their boat by dinghy, the dinghy had been tied up to their motor cruiser and it looked as though it flipped over when they were trying to board the bigger boat. Both men were found with inflated lifejackets. It should really never have happened as the two men had been offered a bed to stay on the island for the night . Some of the islanders were extremely unhappy that they were attempting to do so on a moonless night and one even switched his car headlights on to illuminate the harbour for them.

I was picked up at the pier by Paddy-Joe King and taken to the cottage where I stay while on the island. I unloaded all my gear and stocked the kitchen cupboards before heading out with my binoculars and camera. I was meeting Anthony McGeehan later in the day after he had finished leading a birding tour. However it was only a few minutes later that I bumped into him near the Dolphin Hotel with his charges. He knew I hadn't seen a Ring Ouzel before and said that they had just seen one near the graveyard. He said it was a first winter bird and that if I was lucky I might also connect with an adult bird that they had seen earlier in the morning. Well I made haste to the graveyard where there were also quite a few blackbirds and then I heard the Ouzel before I saw it. It was the first winter bird.

1st Winter Ring Ouzel

A lifer in the first hour on the Island. Things were looking up. I headed back to the Dolphin and joined Anthony and his guests before we headed back to our cottage. We went out in the afternoon and saw Whitethroat, Blackcap, Brambling, Tree Sparrow, lots of Stonechats, Redwings, Song Thrushes and just before we got back to the cottage we heard some Choughs.

Before I arrived on Inishbofin Anthony had sent me a text to say not only to bring my binoculars but to bring my ears. In some ways almost as important as the eyes. I am a slow learner but as time goes on I spend more and more time listening to the bird calls and trying to identify them, you eventually become tuned in to their specific calls. As I sit here writing I can hear a Dunnock in my garden along with some Long-tailed Tits. Whenever I go out to Killard I usually hear the Reed Buntings before I see them with their plaintive tseu . Anthony has a fantastic ability in identifying bird calls and then the ability to transcribe them onto paper. On one morning he said "can you hear it?" I couldn't. But as the bird got closer and closer I eventually could hear this Snow Bunting with its teuw followed by tiririririririp flying over head with its white wing patches visible. He would occasionally ask me how to transcribe the sound which I found difficult but it certainly made me think alot more to what I was hearing. One evening I played various American bird calls from my Ibird pro app on my phone to test him and he was rarely wrong. I now listen to a different bird call each night before I go to bed in the hope that with a bit of repetition it will lodge itself in the recesses of my brain.

On Monday morning it was an absolutely fab day with clear blue sky and a lovely sunrise. Each day we had breakfast and were out of the house by eight. Every morning we would first check a small plantation of alder and sycamore that Anthony had planted. We were straight onto a very pale chiffchaff of the northern race. There were a number of meadow pipits flying overhead. Then we headed back to the garden in where we were staying and I spotted a Yellow-browed Warbler which I had never seen before. Anthony didn't see it and then I was beginning to doubt whether I had seen it, especially as we went and looked from the other side of the hedge and the first two birds that we spotted were more chiffchaffs. Then the Yellow-browed popped up again. RELIEF and another lifer. Two in two days was this going to keep up I asked myself.

Hidden Yellow-Browed Warbler

We then headed to the east end of the island and Anthony spotted this Pied Flycatcher which was the second time I had seen one; the last time being on the island in a previous year. We spent a while gradually getting closer to get some photos.

Pied Flycatcher

We left this spot and headed to Irene's garden where I had previously seen one. Only a couple of Blackcaps and not much else apart from a Golden Plover calling overhead. Below is a youtube clip of the view.

We then headed to the cottage for some lunch via the graveyard. Again loads of Blackbirds, Redwings, Song Thrushes and Blackcaps. As we are approaching the Dolphin Hotel Anthony says did you see that. I say no :-( then this bird pops up and he says "Barred Warbler". My third lifer in two days.

Barred Warbler

We were lucky with this bird as it stayed in the area for four days. It was feeding on the blackberries and in another photo it has a very red/purple back side!

In the afternoon we headed to the west end of the island via Lough Bofin here we found 2 Pink Footed Goose and 1 Brent Goose. On some days the Brent Goose would be on the east end of the island eating weed from East Bay and on others it would be at Lough Bofin. We then headed to a house where there are a couple of willow bushes and we found two blackcaps. Over the whole week we saw quite a few sometimes as many as four together. I took this shot of one at the hostel.

Male Blackcap

Each evening we would head back to the cottage and I would cook the dinner for the both of us this was usually in exchange for lighting the fire and the washing up. My least favourite jobs.

We were up at first light on the tuesday morning and yet again it was an amazing day. The Yellow-browed was still in the garden, the Barred warbler was in roughly the same place and a Spotted Flycatcher was near the graveyard and unusually a Tufted Duck was on the little lough beside the graveyard.

Spotted Flycatcher

We carried onto the beach next to Inishlyon and decided we would come back in the winter to tidy up all the rubbish which has accumulated on the high tide line. Then it was onto the willows where we found the Cedar Waxwing last year. This year it was very different from last year. Last year there were always a few phylloscs in the bushes every time we visited. This year a single chiffchaff on one day. So we headed up the field to Irene's Garden and I spotted a Pied Flycatcher which I assumed to be the same bird as the previous day. I took quite a lot of photos and it wasn't until that evening when Anthony I were looking at them that he said that it might not be a Pied but there was a possibility that it might be a Collared. He felt there looked as though there was the sign of a second wing bar and that the pale mark on the primary coverts was very close to the wing edge. His inclination was that it was probably a Pied Flycatcher.

Mystery Flycatcher

At the time we were out of internet contact and weren't aware that another similar bird had been spotted on Cape Clear ninety miles south of us. This bird had been trapped and a DNA sample taken. Here is a link to the Cape Clear bird from Paul and Andrea Kelly. I have to say I think it looks very similar to our bird and also to this bird found at Spurn Head. Here is a link to Martin Garner's website Birding Frontiers"

One afternoon I headed out to the west of the island and came across a party of thirteen Chough feeding on the turf. These birds were probably the total island population. They are such a fabulous bird fairly talkative calling their distinct Che-oww call but never really letting me get that close to them. I got this silhouette photograph.

Chough

As I made my way back from the westquarter I passed what I regard as the Most Beautiful Beach in Ireland.

Fab Beach on Inishbofin

As I made my way back there were loads of rabbits all diving into their burrows. This one remained outside his burrow long enough to photograph.

Inishbofin Rabbit

I passed the memorial stone to the three men that had drowned on Easter Sunday 1949 on their way back to Inishshark

Ruins on Inishshark

and as I did so I heard a Chough calling close by just above me on the hill so I was able to photograph it in the setting sun. The Choughs seem to roost in a cave on the hill overlooking the cottage we stay in along with a pair of Ravens.

Chough

As I continued my walk back to our cottage I passed Day's Bar and was rather taken by these two dogs sitting on the wall.

Dogs outside Day's Bar on Inishbofin

One of the things I love about Inishbofin is the opportunity to photograph the more common birds. Here is a Female Stonechat and a Dunnock.

Female Stonechat

Dunnock

One morning we went past the graveyard and out to the beach before following the coast round to East Bay and we saw two Great Northern Divers and in the water just below us was a shoal of these Grey Mullet.

Grey Mullet

I had a wonderful week seeing 75 species of bird including three lifers in absolutely gorgeous weather and yet again learnt more and more about different species. It was a shame I had to drive back on yet another beautiful day here was the view from the ferry back to the mainland. I will be back.

Looking from Inishbofin to the Galway Coast

A Rather Dazed Sparrowhawk. Photo Taken With An Iphone

2010-09-25T21:07:00.000+01:00

I arrived home from work and was sitting at my living room window. I had been sitting for a while reading "The Biggest Twitch" by Alan Davies and Ruth Miller and was quite surprised that nothing was coming to the bird feeders especially my window based one. Then I noticed a juvenile Sparrowhawk sitting on the ground with it's eyes closed and it's head twisted around on it's back. So I went out and picked it up remembering how Staffan Roos from Queen's University held a Sparrowhawk at a BTO bird ringing course a few years back. I then took the following photos with my Iphone 4. It spent nearly half an hour with one of its eyes closed before before it flew off. It flew in a couple of circles round the house before settling in a tree where it remained until dark.

I have to say I have been very impressed with the quality of photograph for a phone.

Juvenile Sparrowhawk

I Thought For A Moment I Had Found A Rare Wheatear and The One Legged Redshank

2010-09-22T20:25:00.000+01:00

I was out at Killard Nature Reserve this lunchtime and I noticed a small pale bird fly up and land down on the shoreline. I put up my binoculars and my heart was racing as I thought initially I had found a rare Wheatear. Not knowing the family particularly well I wondered whether it might be a Desert Wheatear or Isabelline and beyond those I wouldn't have a clue. I got close enough to photograph it and was really looking for some obvious black detail in the feathers in the tail.

Leucistic Wheatear

Then it flew off and you can see from the photo below that it was a very pale colour where the black should have been and from that I assumed it had to be a leucistic Wheatear.

Leucistic Wheatear in Flight

On my way back I saw in the distance this Peregrine chasing a Sparrowhawk. It was a pretty close thing and in the end the Sparrowhawk just dove straight into a crop field to escape scattering hundreds of Linnets that were feeding there.

Peregrine chasing Sparrowhawk

I then stopped off at Tullyhill on the way back and the two Curlew Sandpiper were still there and there also seems to be an increasing amount of Golden Plover every day. This Linnet popped up onto a rock right beside the car.

Linnet

For at least the last month I have wondered whether a particular Redshank only had one leg. It hops everywhere and after a certain amount of effort just sits down. Well today it was far closer to the shore and I could see that it's left leg was just a stump up by its body. I hope it survives.

One Legged Redshank

The "East Cork Edition" Seems To Advocate Poisoning of Birds

2010-09-22T08:42:00.000+01:00

I was rather astonished to be alerted to a link by Bird Photographer Rónán McLaughlin in the East Cork Edition about the Indian House Crow that has recently been found in Cobh Co.Cork. With the concerns in Ireland about the recent poisoning of Birds of Prey it seems extraordinary and totally irresponsible to have posted this article in it's format.
There is the picture of the bird followed by a few lines about the bird and the reason for the twitchers visiting it. The remainder of the article had been plagiarised from the GISP (Global Invasive Species Program) website . Shoddy journalism. You can see from the article that it is saying that this bird is undesirable shortly followed by method of control. How long will it be before somebody thinks it's time to get rid of this bird. It essentially is not that different from our own Hooded Crow and Magpie who both have the same undesirable characteristics.

This was the article below copied

Rare Sighting – Indian House Crow Visits Cobh

Rare Sighting The Indian House Crow photographed by Stephen Lawlor in Cobh on Sept 18th

‘This is only the second time this species has been spotted here in Ireland. It most probably came here on a boat, as they do not migrate or fly over large bodies of water. This species has never been spotted in the UK, hence the twitchers from the UK present in Cobh’. Stephen Lawlor

———————————————————

About The Indian House Crow

As its name suggests, the native range of the Indian house crow, Corvus splendens, is centered in India, and extends from Iran in the west to Burma in the east However, the bird was introduced to Africa in the 1890s, reportedly via Zanzibar, where it was brought to help keep the island free of rubbish. It subsequently spread along the coast of Africa by hitching lifts on ships, and is now found right down to Cape Town at the southern tip of Africa. The crow also inhabits parts of the North African coast bordering the Suez Canal and Mediterranean Sea. It mainly occurs in urban and suburban environments, living in close association with humans.

A mean competitor

As an avian invader, the Indian house crow is undesirable for a host of reasons:

• It is an aggressive and opportunistic feeder, and has a devastating impact on indigenous bird populations by eating eggs and chicks, and mobbing other birds that might compete with it.

• It threatens the local wildlife by preying heavily on frogs, lizards, small mammals, fish, crabs and insects.

• It affects agricultural productivity by stripping fruit trees in orchards and decimating grain crops, eating chicks of domestic poultry, and has even been known to peck out the eyes of sheep and pigs.

• It is unafraid of humans, and may enter houses to steal food, dive-bomb people walking past the nest, and frighten or even injure children by snatching food from their hands.

• In Cape Town many of the roosting areas are close to the airport, representing a bird-strike hazard for air planes.

• Indian house crows have also been blamed for causing power cuts in some areas, as they often construct nests out of wire in electric pylons.

• Furthermore, their droppings at roosts and feeding areas have been known to strip paint off walls and deface statues.

More seriously, however, the birds pose a threat to human health, because they are a vector for pathogens that cause cholera, typhoid, dysentery, and salmonella poisoning.

They scavenge for food in rubbish dumps, informal settlements, open-air abattoirs and markets, and may contaminate food and drinking water with their faeces. It is primarily because they represent a health hazard that efforts are made to control their populations.

Control

To date, the most effective control has been achieved using the poison Starlicide (3-chloro-p-toluidine hydrochloride). The poison is mixed with meat bait, ideally beef, which should be cut into small chunks and fed to the birds at a feeding site near their roost. However, before any poisoning takes place the birds should be accustomed to being fed by conducting pre-baiting for at least two weeks. A regular feeding routine should be established until the birds recognise the baiter and a large group gathers at the feeding site well before feeding. Pre-baiting also lessens the risk of ingestion by non-target species, as the crows will chase off any other birds approaching the feeding site.

Once the crows are habituated, they should be fed poisoned bait. Starlicide takes about 20 hours to take effect, but since it is metabolised during that period, the corpse will be free of poison and will not affect other animals that might scavenge on it. Dead crows around the roost site should be collected by somebody other than the baiter to avoid arousing the birds’ suspicion.

Island innovation

An innovative ‘bounty system’ has proven highly successful in controlling the Indian house crow in the Seychelles. A cash reward is paid for each crow delivered to the authorities, which encourages community involvement in the control programme. In addition, a ‘green line’ has been set up, allowing members of the public to phone in and report sightings of the crow and other alien invaders. The initiative is part of an aggressive campaign to raise public awareness about the threats posed by invasive alien species to this island paradise.

Did You Know?

It is thought that the Indian house crow was introduced to Europe via Egypt as a stowaway on warships passing through the Suez Canal while returning from the Gulf War. The first European record was from Gibraltar in March 1991, and a small breeding colony has since become established in Holland.

The Indian house crow is known to stage gang attacks on domestic livestock, pets and even people in its native range. Records of the crow feeding on human corpses and killing young goats, calves, sheep and domestic cats are commonplace in India. It is not unusual to see the birds hitching rides on the backs of pigs, feeding on watermelon rinds and street garbage, flitting in and out of train stations or darting through open windows to snatch food.

UPDATE: The article has now been changed due to I suspect complaints to a much better one by birder Jim Wilson.

Buff-Breasted Sandpiper and Lapland Bunting at Ballycotton Co.Cork

2010-09-14T20:45:00.001+01:00

Buff-Breasted Sandpiper

On Saturday evening I had just got home from work and was pondering what to do on Sunday when I noticed I had a missed call. I rang back and was asked whether I would like to go to Ballycotton in Co.Cork (272 Miles Door to Beach) on Sunday to hopefully see the Buff-breasted Sandpiper's and Curlew Sandpiper's that had been seen on the beach there over the previous couple of days. Buff-breasts would be a lifer for me. Well in 1997 I spent three months living in Ballycotton while I attended the Ballymaloe Cookery School in nearby Shannagary. It used to take me between five and a half hours to get there and the thought of doing the there and back in a day wasn't the most appealing. However the draw of seeing this bird was too strong. Especially as a fellow bird photographer Rónán McLaughlin had posted this beautiful shot of two of them on flickr a couple of days earlier. I asked what time we would leave and was told meet me at McDonalds in Lisburn at 3.30am......

We met up at 3.30am and I then went to sleep for a while and by 7.00am we were approaching Cork and the sun was just rising. Driving to Cork is now a doddle, especially when being driven :-) It really is dual carriageway from Belfast to Cork. All the towns that you used to take an age to drive through have now been bypassed it's just great.

We arrived at the beach and there were already three birders and a bird photographer there. Dennis O'Sullivan, who I was told was Ireland's biggest lister and Paul Moore and as yet an unidentified photographer. The Buff-Breasts hadn't at this stage been seen so Anthony and I headed off towards the lake and were astounded by the amount of Wheatears. They were everywhere.

Male and Female Wheatear on Hogweed Seedheads

Wheatear on Thistles

It wasn't long before Anthony said there's a Lapland Bunting on the fence.

Lapland Bunting

My first lifer of the day. We saw seven in all with five flying overhead at one point. We were also fortunate to see both Lapland and Reed Bunting perching on a fence for comparison purposes. Every now and again when it was disturbed it would fly off and circle giving it's fairly distinctive flight call.

Lapland Bunting and Reed Bunting

Then as we were walking along the shore we put up a Ruff. Then we saw 9 Brent Geese all of which were adults. These were the first I had seen this autumn. A Kestrel flew over and was being mobbed by Linnets and Meadow Pipits.

We headed back to the car to make a cup of tea. As we were having tea the Buff-Breasted Sandpipers landed on the beach in front of us along with a couple of Curlew Sandpiper, some Dunlin and a Little Stint.

As time went on there were more and more people arriving to walk their dogs which were putting up the birds. Dick Coombes of Birdwatch Ireland dropped in for an hour to see them before heading off to Cape Clear where he was due to be Course Leader on Birdwatch Irelands Migration and Seabirds Course.

After the waders had been flushed again by a couple totally oblivious to the fact that lots of people were watching them. I decided to walk further down the beach on my own. I was looking at the rotting seaweed at the the tideline and saw quite a few more Wheatear and then noticed one of them was behaving differently. I had found the Buff-breasts again so I signalled to Anthony to come over and then spent the next five minutes crawling closer and closer to them. One of the birds just seemed to walk towards me closer and closer.

Buff-Breasted Sandpiper

By this time Anthony had crawled alongside me and we were getting hopefully good shots when the other bird photographer, who turned out to be from England, that we had seen earlier just walked right up to us and started talking to us. I wasn't very amused and a few moments later they were off again. They are not that easy to photograph as they are constantly on the move.

Buff-Breasted Sandpiper

We all walked back and I introduced myself to Rónán Mclaughlin a bird photographer originally from Donegal. We had conversed a few times on our flickr sites. His and Mine I was also impressed by how nonchalantly he smoked as he photographed the birds.

Rónán McLaughlin Bird Photographer

The Buff-Breasted Sandpipers then all pitched in together near where we parked the car. They then made their way to the waters edge.

Three Buff-Breasted Sandpiper

As we were making our way towards them two Curlew Sandpiper flew in and landed a few feet in front of us. Here is one of them.

Curlew Sandpiper

It was near midday by this stage so we decided to head back for home. I think both of us felt elated that the journey had been so successful as after the first hour we were wondering whether we were going to even be able to photograph any of the waders.

As we left the roundabout at Little Island just outside Cork I saw a Kestrel to the side of the road. Shortly after there was another and by the time we had driven past Portlaoise we had seen fifteen during the journey. There was one more just shy of Dublin and between Dublin and Lisburn we didn't see any.

All in all it was a fabulous day. However things changed slightly when I got home as I had given my dog a flea bath the night before and used my wife's favourite towel to dry the dog and I had forgotten to wash it. She came home from taking the boys to their various universities and found it and I didn't hear the end of it :-(

Curlew Sandpipers and Dunlin

2010-09-08T21:29:00.000+01:00

Curlew Sandpiper in Flight

I was out again this afternoon at Tullyhill. There were a couple of Curlew Sandpiper, loads of Dunlin and Ringed Plover and a few Knot. They are very approachable if you move slowly. Again there was perfect light. I love watching waders when they wash themselves. As soon as they finish they flap their wings and lift up into the air a couple of feet before settling back down again. This Dunlin below was in the middle of drying itself. Click on images for larger picture.

Dunlin Drying Itself After a Wash

Dunlin Portrait

Dunlin in Flight

Michael O'Clery Bird Artist and His Exhibition "Birds of the West" and The Soon To Be Published "The Complete Field Guide to Ireland's Birds"

2010-09-05T12:43:00.000+01:00

Michael O'Clery in front of his portrait of a White Tailed Eagle
Last Weekend I went to the opening of "Birds of the West Coast" by Michael O'Clery at the Graffan Gallery at the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust Castle Espie Centre. Michael is one of Ireland's most talented bird artists and this exhibition proved this statement. Having never met him I was glad to finally catch up with him. I had heard much about him from Eric Dempsey, Anthony McGeehan and his sister who lived briefly next door to me.

The exhibition features many of the illustrations from the above book "The Complete Field Guide to Ireland's Birds" by Eric Dempsey and Michael which is being published this week by Gill & Macmillan.
This book is an upgrade to their "Complete Guide to Ireland's Birds" which has now been in print for 20 years. It illustrates and describes around 370 species of bird that have been found in Ireland.

There were individual portraits of birds and then there were some plates that would be in the new field guide.

The Warblers of Ireland

The Buntings of Ireland

The Shrikes of Ireland

The above plate of the shrikes was my favourite in the exhibition. If only I had a spare £500.

In another life I would come back as a bird artist. It is a talent that I wish I had.

If you click on the blog post header it will take you to Michael's website and if you click on the galleries you can see what pictures he has for sale.

Curlew Sandpipers ,Ringed Plover, Rock Pipits and White Wagtails at Tullyhill Co.Down

2010-09-03T22:15:00.000+01:00

One of my regular stops on my way out to Killard is a small picnic area overlooking the Strangford narrows in the townland of Tullyhill. There is a small stream that flows into the lough and there are some mudflats which can be brilliant for waders. It is also very favourable in the afternoon for bird photography as the sun is generally directly behind you. In the winter there can be sometimes over a thousand Golden Plover. At this time of year you mainly find Ringed Plover, Dunlin, Redshank, Curlew, Greenshank, Bar-tailed Godwit, Knot, Turnstone, Oystercatcher and the occasional Curlew Sandpiper passing through.

The last three evenings the light has been fantastic and I have taken the following photos.

Dunlin at Tullyhill
Click on Photos for larger images

Curlew Sandpiper

Curlew Sandpiper

Curlew Sandpiper

Juvenile Ringed Plover in Flight
There are loads of wagtails there at the moment. I love how they chase other birds. I watched them this evening chasing Dunlin, Swallows, Ringed Plover and Linnets. I wonder is it territorial behaviour or is it for fun. I even watched this Swallow chasing a Dunlin for over a minute earlier in the evening. Again I wonder the reason they do this. Any answers let me know.

White Wagtail
There are some that say in bird photography that the golden hour as the sun is setting or rising is the best time to photograph birds. I tend to disagree. The last two photos were taken two days apart. A Rock Pipit in golden light and the other in very flat light. I definately prefer the flat light as it portrays the bird in the way that I think of them. Let me know what you think.

Rock Pipit in Flat light

Rock Pipit in Golden Light

A BIRDING ADVENTURE IN CENTRAL PARK, NEW YORK CITY

2010-09-01T22:03:00.000+01:00

I have been asked by the American Museum of Natural History to mention their Fall Bird walks led by experts from the museum for any of my American readers who maybe interested.

WHAT
Fall Bird Walks in Central Park

Observe more than 50 different species of birds—including resident and migrant birds, water birds, song birds, and birds of prey— during this eight-week bird-watching adventure in Central Park. Join naturalists Stephen C. Quinn (Tuesdays and Fridays), Joseph DiCostanzo (Wednesdays and Thursdays, 7 am), and Harold Feinberg (Thursdays, 9 am) on tours through the park, one of the premier places locally to watch birds during spring and fall migrations. Participants will learn how to use field marks, habitat, behavior, and song as aids in identification. Interested birders, from beginners to the advanced, are invited.

WHEN Eight Tuesdays: September 7–October 26, 7–9 am
Eight Wednesdays: September 8–October 27, 7–9 am
Eight Thursdays: September 9–October 28, 7–9 am
Eight Thursdays: September 9–October 28, 9–11 am
Eight Fridays: September 10–October 29, 7–9 am

WHERE Walks start across from the Museum on the northeast corner of Central Park West and 77th Street.

ADMISSION $85

Maybe you will come across one of these.

Prothonotary Warbler

Peregrine's Bird Blog

A Rarity of a Ross's Gull at Ardglass Harbour

Services

Link preview

Wikipedia Links

Services

Link preview

Wikipedia Links

It Is a Very Happy New Year I've Found a Lifer a Richard's Pipit

Merry Christmas

Bar-tailed Godwits and Grey Plover at Killard Nature Reserve

Inishbofin 2011: Wind, Rain, Chiffchaffs and Blackcaps

A Few days in Co.Donegal, The Tail End of Hurricane Katia and a Baird's Sandpiper

A Fabulous Day on the Saltee Islands off Co.Wexford

More Bad News from RSPB Belfast Harbour

House Martins and a Gift of a Dead Swallow

Tory Island Co Donegal , Corncrakes and a sighting of what I firmly believe was a Great Snipe

RSPB Belfast Harbour Revisited And It Is Still A Disgrace

EarthShots Photo Of The Day

A Few More Migrants And A Lifer. Not A Bird This Time But A Pine Marten

An 80th Birthday and My First Sighting of a Grasshopper Warbler

I Love My Visiting Goldfinches

Great Grey Shrike at The Ulster Wildlife Trust Slievenacloy Reserve

A Memorable Days Birding with a Belgian Visitor looking for Ring-necked Duck and Red Grouse

Keep Calm

Tree Sparrows

Dead Birds Falling From the Sky and Fireworks

Feeding the Birds with My New Applefeeder and Some New Garden Ticks

Short-Eared Owls, Woodcock and Merlin at Killard Nature Reserve

I and the Bird #140 and Twitter

My Favourite 40 Books about Birds, Birding and Bird Photography (Part 2: The Second Ten)

My Favourite 40 Books about Birds, Birding and Bird Photography (Part 1: The First 10)

Wordless Wednesday

Waxwing in Belfast

Links to Bird Photographers

Birding on Inishbofin October 2010

A Rather Dazed Sparrowhawk. Photo Taken With An Iphone

I Thought For A Moment I Had Found A Rare Wheatear and The One Legged Redshank

The "East Cork Edition" Seems To Advocate Poisoning of Birds

Buff-Breasted Sandpiper and Lapland Bunting at Ballycotton Co.Cork

Curlew Sandpipers and Dunlin

Michael O'Clery Bird Artist and His Exhibition "Birds of the West" and The Soon To Be Published "The Complete Field Guide to Ireland's Birds"

Curlew Sandpipers ,Ringed Plover, Rock Pipits and White Wagtails at Tullyhill Co.Down

A BIRDING ADVENTURE IN CENTRAL PARK, NEW YORK CITY