Dermot Breen's Blog: stonechat

Showing posts with label stonechat. Show all posts

Monday, 31 October 2016

Inishmore last week

A selection of shots taken over the three days that I spent out on Inishmore recently. Plenty of Yellow-browed Warbler shots, can't get enough to them, they really are little gems.

Yellow-browed Warbler

Garden Warbler

Blackcap

Stonechat

Greenfinch, very rare on the island, first one I've seen out there anyway.

Hooded Crow

Song Thrush

Rather friendly Robin.

Birds on the mind.

Western Bonelli's Warbler garden.

No escaping the US election, not even on an offshore island off the west of Ireland.

Port Chorrúch, this seaweed strewn cobble beach has had two Baird's and one White-rumped Sandpiper to date.

Sunday, 24 July 2016

Another random collection of pictures from the summer. Only managed to locate one pair of breeding Merlin out on the bogs this summer. We ringed the four chicks on the same day that we ringed a late brood of two Peregrine chicks and two broods of Kestrels. One of the Kestrel chicks was actually too small to be ringed making it one of the latest Kestrel broods we've ringed in Connemara. This was the first time that we managed to ring all three Irish breeding falcons on the one day.

Juvenile Merlin

Third-calendar Common Gull

Adult Common Gull in attack mode.

Adult Common Gull

Juvenile Kestrel on Mason Island beach.

Rock Island Lighthouse off to the west of Inishmore.

Common Tern colony near Carna.

Adult Common Tern

Irish Hare

Inishbofin Ferry

Great Skua

Stonechat

Wednesday, 14 January 2015

Renvyle Shoreline

It's been a while since I've done a blog post. This is mainly down to a) the lack of birds and b) the very rough and continuing bad weather which doesn't exactly help when looking for birds. The gulls have gotten off to a rather disappointing start with very few white-winged gulls around at the moment. Nimmo's Pier is having another quiet winter and most of the other gull spots seem to be holding very low numbers of gulls. Considering the huge numbers that were in Galway Bay in November, you have to wonder where those huge numbers came from and then promptly disappeared into the ether?

I was out by Renvyle yesterday and several common species gave good views along the shoreline beside Renvyle Castle.
I should have plenty of photos for the blog come late February as I'm off to Arizona and California for three weeks in a fortnights time, really looking forward to it. The weather will certainly be an improvement anyway!