Summering Glaucous Gull

A few shots of a summering second-calendar Glaucous Gull that's been hanging around Cleggan Harbour since at least 12th June when John Brittain saw it. I saw it myself on 23rd July and Michael Davis saw it again today. We get the occasional Glaucous Gull summering here. They seem to far outnumber summering Iceland Gulls. I've probably only ever seen one or two Icelands here during the winter. You can just make out some feather lice or feather flies hidden behind the eye on this bird. The blob of blood on it's mantle is actually fish blood as it was feeding on scraps of mackerel being gutted on a few fishing boats that had arrived into the harbour after a day of fishing.
Also few shots of some Rock Doves feeding in an area rooted up by Tamworth Pigs out on Inishbofin also.

 

 

Inishmore October 2015 Part One

I just spent a week out on Inishmore, 11th to 17th October. The Arctic Warbler was by far the best bird I had during the week. Otherwise it was pretty quiet with about eight to nine Yellow-browed Warblers, 1 Lapland Bunting and long staying and unseen Reed Warbler being about the best of the lot.
While Inishmore has probably become best known for it's American passerines in recent years that possiblity just wasn't going to happen during my week. Ireland has been stuck in a high pressure system for the last while so if it was going to happen it was going to come from the east. I can't exactly complain about a self found Arctic Warbler I suppose! The high pressure resulted in unseasonably good weather. For the first time ever I didn't have a single drop of rain all week. While the wind never reached gale force it did get a little strong towards the end of the week and first time you could really feel the winter chill in the wind.

Yellow-browed Warbler

Yellow-browed Warbler

Yellow-browed Warbler

Yellow-browed Warbler

Chiffchaff

Dunnock

Dunnock

Robin

Robin

Blackbird

Fieldfares

Meadow Pipit

Pied Wagtail

Chough

Adult and young Woodpigeon.

Rock Doves

Goldfinch, one of the 4.4 million of them on the island along with Linnets which were even more numerous!

 

Redpoll



Linnet

Lapland Bunting

 

Albino Curlew

A few bits and bobs from the last week or so. I did the Galway Bay Count on Sunday along with Cathal Forkan. Weather wasn't too bad at all with reasonably calm seas. Nothing too strange on the count, the best bird was a fully albino Curlew at Bishops Quarter. Tom Murtagh found it on 16th September 2014 https://twitter.com/tgmurta/status/511994961365975040
It really is a stunning bird in real life and these heavily cropped shots don't do it any justice. This must one of the few genuine albino birds I've ever seen. I've seen multiple individuals of several species but they all invariably have some traces of normal pigmentation somewhere in their plumage or have a "ghost" pattern of their normal plumage. I had a leucistic Curlew two winters ago also in county Clare, pics below - must be something in the Clare water!
Having processing the few other pictures in this post I'm not long in remembering how bad the light gets here during the winter months. Its very difficult to get decent shots in Ireland during the winter even when the target is at close quarters.

Albino Curlew, Bishops Quarter, Co. Clare, 23rd November 2014.

Albino Curlew, Bishops Quarter, Co. Clare, 23rd November 2014.

Leucistic Curlew, Pouleenacoona Turlough, 9th February 2013.

Leucistic Curlew, Pouleenacoona Turlough, 9th February 2013.

Whimbrel, Roundstone, 13th November 2014.

Rock Doves, Murlach, 24th November 2014.

Rock Doves, Murlach, 24th November 2014.

Rock Doves, Murlach, 24th November 2014.

 

Blackbird

Song Thrush



Song Thrush

 

White-tailed Eagles, Rock Doves & more Ravens

A few random shots from the last fortnight or so. Aonghus and myself had D-Bar the young male White-tailed Eagle flying over Oughterard town about two weeks back (nice office tick!). He was initially very close but was a bit more distant by the time I got the camera out. He was receiving a lot of unwanted attention from the local corvids and gulls. I followed him using the radio receiver and  had him arriving at one of his favourite spots fifteen kilometres away exactly twenty minutes later. That's an average speed of 45km per hour. Just shows what little effort it takes these birds to cover big distances.

D-Bar with Rooks, Jackdaws & Black-headed Gull.

D-Bar with Rooks & Jackdaws.

I was surprised to come across this freshly fledged Rock Dove with its two parents out the Sky Road. I've also had juveniles already at another section of cliff while looking for nesting Kestrels. These were quite vocal when begging from the parent birds. I hadn't realized Rock Doves can breed so early in the season.

 

Just to finish up on the Raven season here's a few shots of adults. Most Raven chicks should be in the process of leaving the nest at the moment.

 



 

April 2013

It's been over a month since my last blog update. Been rather quiet here of late.

The American Coot finally pushed off on 13th April and I haven't seen much since apart from some late arriving spring migrants.

Some record shots of the pair of White-tailed Eagles and a few shots from Inishbofin from a fortnight back.

Off to Georgia and Armenia next Tuesday so should have plenty of shots on my return for a few blog entries hopefully.