West Pier, Dun Laoghaire

Went down to West Pier today – saw some cool Terns

Seaside of West Pier, Dun Laoghaire

Arctic Tern? (updated id = Arctic Tern)

No black at end of tip of bill = Arctic Tern? (Updated id= Arctic Tern).

Arctic Tern? (Updated id = Arctic Tern)

Black bill with yellow at the end = Sandwich Tern

Common Tern? Red bill with black tip = Common Tern (Updated id = Common Tern).

Common Tern? (Updated id = Common Tern)

?? (Updated id = Juvenile Common Tern).

?? (Updated id = Juvenile Common Tern).

Bullock Harbour, Co. Dublin

Greater Black Backed Gulls

Nestboxes at Dalkey Tern Project, Colliemore Harbour

Dalkey Island

Roseate Tern? (Updated id = Roseate Tern).

Roseate Tern - all black bill

Roseate Tern

Roseate Tern

A Wheatear, West Pier, Dun Laoghaire

Whatear - White Arse.

The only Tern I’m completely sure of in this post is the Sandwich Tern – if anyone knows any of the definite i.d’s of the other Terns – let me know.

My first Med Gull, Dun Laoghaire

On Saturday at Bull Island, I ended up chatting to a guy called Mick when I lent him my telescope to look at the Kestrels, as we were chatting I told him that after 2 years I still hadn’t seen a Med Gull, he told me to look down at the rocks next to the old swimming baths in Dun Laoghaire, so this evening, I did. Thanks Mick.

Another grey, rainy summer evening in Dun Laoghaire, Dublin

With my scope from left to right, Turnstone, Terns and a possible BH/Med gull

Finally, my first definite Mediterranean Gull!!!!

Black Headed Gull left, Med Gull right

See how the black hod on the Med gull goes down the back of its neck where the Black Headed Gull's black stops behind its eye.

Mediterranean Gull, Dun Laoghaire, Dublin

I wasn't sure if this was Med or BH, saw Niall (Hatch) tonight and he said its a Med Gull - just must have its neck rolled in against the cold. He then went on to say it was probably a 2nd year gull and started talking about dots on its tail. I'd love to have that kind of knowledge.

Moved on from Dun Laoghaire down to Bullock Harbour, Dalkey

Family of Herring Gulls.

Greater Black Backed Gulls ( my favourite gulls). Herring Gull top of the post

Cormorants on rocks on left, Greater Black Backed gulls on rock on right and a Black Headed Gull in flight

Love the plain jet black on the wings of the Greater Black backed gull..and my new BFFL MED gull top right

Black Backed Gulls, they really are deceptively massive birds

This looks like I photoshopped it or something, but I didn't, pure white and black and yellow bill with orange thing the chicks poke at (can't remember the name).

Juvenile Herring Gull

Juvenile Herring Gull

Kittiwake

After some time in Bullock, I drove on to the Tuesday meet organised by South Dublin Branch at Collimore Harbour, Dalkey.

Mist coming in over Dalkey Island

Double click for Tern Nest boxes. There were Roseate Terns (who have successfully bred chicks here this year), Common Terns, Sandwich Terns and Arctic Terns there today. Plus a Ringed Plover hanging around the nestboxes. you can't really see any of them from this pic. Cormorant, bottom right.

In middle of pic you can see lots of Terns sitting on the rocks. Cormorant top of rock.

Humans

On hand to answer any questions were Niall and Michael who is heavily involved in the Dalkey Tern project. Michael was saying they had gone out to the island at the weekend and managed to ring 9 Terns.

From a distance he could tell what every single Tern was, whether it was a Juvenile, Roseate, Sandwich, Common or Arctic, his working knowledge and care for the project was admirable.

Thats when faith in humans is revived, when you see the work they do to help the survival of another species, not for money, not for recognition, simply because they care.

Eventually everyone started to leave and head home, I couldn’t do a U-ey where I’d parked so drove up Vico Road, took a pic of Kiliney turned round and drove home.

SICK ofthe rain and the cloud.

Rule should be one day of showers per week and that’s it during summer months – no more rain and 15degrees. Sunshine and 32 degrees, please.

Kiliney beach. Sugar loaf in the background and DART line on the right.

Dalkey Island, Co Dublin

This evening South Dublin organised a gathering from 6.30-7.30pm at Collimore Harbour in Dalkey.

Sign about Dalkey Island, if you double click it you can read the writing.

As well as the main Dalkey Island, there are also several rocks surrounding which seem to have acquired ‘island’ status and names.

On the very left you’ve got Maiden’s Rock where they’ve put up some Tern nestboxes, next along there’s Clare Island where the Shags seem to hang out, next to the right is the bigger Lamb Island where the Cormorants hang out and there’s more tern nestboxes and gulls and rabbits, then there’s the main Dalkey Island at the very end. Behind all these islands is another biggish island with a red and white lighthouse on, this is called the Mugglins.

Colliemore Harbour, Maiden Rock in the background.

Dalkey Island, Black Guillemot bottom right, there were a few swimming around.

Black Guillemot, apparently they're nesting in the harbour wall.

6.29pm.

Bing! 6.30pm.

On Maiden Rock there were aout 20 nesting boxes for Terns

Hopefully in this close up you can see the nest boxes a little clearer

I didn’t manage to get a decent photo, but through the telescope you could see a Roseate Tern (globally threatened species), it was mostly above nest box number 42. in late summer hundreds of Roseate terns can be seen roosting on Maidens Rock.

The South Dublin Branch has been involved in a joint initiative to protect and increase the colony of terns on the Dalkey Islands for the last 15 years. Please click on the following link to read about the great work done by the Dalkey Tern Project since 1995 and read greater detail on Terns in Ireland.

I asked Niall (Hatch) whether it would be ok to show the photos of the nest boxes on this blog and he said it would be completely fine as we weren’t causing any disturbance to the nests and its quite well known that these Tern nest boxes are here on the Dalkey islands.

But then he also thinks that Common Terns look like frying pans so I’m not sure exactly how much I’d go by what he says.

Common Tern. I wouldn't fancy my chances getting a decent fried egg using this.

Black Headed Gull

Herring Gull

Kittiwake

Goats.

Clare island, where the Shags hang out

Lamb Island, where the Cormorants hang out

5 Curlews flying across

There were plenty of Greater Black backed gulls and we spotted two Lesser Black backed Gulls with their easily identifiable yellow legs.

The images were too far away to see the Gulls clearly, I’ll get down to Bullock harbour and get photos there because they practically sit on your lap down there.

GBB Gulls and Herring Gulls on rock on right. Shelduck in the middle where the two islands meet.

Manx Shearwater. We got great views with the scopes, there were about 6 flying very close.

It was a cool evening, I always think its amazing what you learn from just listening to people talking birds. Colliemore harbour was a good spot for decent birding.

This gathering is happening each Tuesday through July from 6.30 – 7.30pm.

Colliemore Harbour, Dalkey

Seapoint, Dun Laoghaire

On Thursday I was meeting a friend down in Dun Laoghaire for dinner, so before I met her I thought I’d get a bit of birding in first.

I stopped in Blackrock, there were some Terns diving into the sea, they were quite far out and not easy to see so I moved down to Seapoint.

It was a lovely evening.

Thurs evening, Seapoint, Co Dublin. Terns searching the sea for fish.

I watched the Terns a lot, something I’ve never really done before. They seemed to me to be the Swallows of the sea. The way they flew, the similar forked tails, the speed and agility. It was interesting to see their stuttered hovering before they plunged into the sea for their food. I’d never noticed this before, like they were playing a game. I can’t think of how to describe it, maybe next time I see them the words for their unusual pre-plunge movements will be more obvious.

I also noticed how a lot of the time they’d make a plunge for the water and at the last second decide it wasn’t a go-er and they’d just lift back up into the air.

These two photos below were taken much later in the evening, but they were the only closeup I managed to get of the Terns.

Tern, searching the sea for fish

Tern

I’m only new to Terns so I’m not sure what Terns these were – Artic or Common? It was difficult to tell, with more practice seeing them I’ll get better (hopefully) at their id.

Tern about to plunge into the sea for food.

The Terns were quite far out and looking at the photos when I got back home I didn’t catch any of the dives into or emerges out of the water that I thought I had.

If I had time I would have walked to the end of one of the piers to get closer views. Next time.

Gannet searching the sea for food aswell. Notice the obvious black tips to the end of each wing.

Oystercatcher flying arcross

Cormorant on a rock, Seapoint, Co Dublin.

Male Pied Wagtail (female has a greyer back). In winter this male wagtails chin and throat would be white, in breeding season it's black.)

Seapoint on this particular evening was a great spot for birding, there weren’t that many people around, it was off the beaten track of the Dun Laoghaire walkers, joggers, dogs and children noise etc and it was a pretty peaceful spot to set up the scope and get on with birding.

The downside is that where I was was quite far away from the birds. A walk down the pier would have been ideal for closer views.

The distance from these birds ‘pictured’ was particularly frustrating.

I have no idea what they were and the photos didn’t help when I got home as there’s no quality of image to zoom in on.

There were 4 of them, black (above) and white (below) from  distance – not oystercatchers and not guillemots. Looking into it, maybe Skuas or Shearwaters? They stuck together in their flock as they flew across the sea and then disappeared out of view.

They seemed small enough, but they were quite far away, but you could see glimpses of the white and black.

Anyway here’s some poor quality photos if any of you want to have a go at their id.

Double click - If you see the lighthouse, drop your eyes and you'll see the 4 of them flying across the sea.

Double click- Top left of the yellow buoy

Double click - Middle of the photo.

I’m leaning more towards Skuas – but I haven’t a clue really.

So that was my lot.

I walked left Seapoint and walked down to Sandycove for a last 10 minutes and saw these,

Shag, yellow mouth marking

Cormorant - yellow and white mouth marking

Jeuv Common Gull?

Guy thinking he can pretend to be on a Gondala in the middle of the sea in Dun Laoghaire.

Gondola Guy gone.

And with that I packed up and went for dinner.

Lens envy

So a lot of people know there’s a little Black Redstart hanging out minding its own business down at Dun Laoghaire.

I went down myself on Sunday to get a glimpse and hopefully a photo.

Even though Eric had told me exactly where he’d seen it (down the main steps at the East Pier) it still took me about an hour to find it.

In fairness the reason I didn’t see it quicker was that it had been hanging on some rocks next to 5 drunks who were fighting and pushing each other around so I wasn’t about to go poking my binoculars in their direction only to get concussed by a can of Dutch Gold being lobbed at my head.

Eventually though I got impatient with letting their shouting rule things and I walked past them to get a look at the rocks infront of them – and there was the Black Redstart flitting around.

Keeping an eye on the Black Redstart and an eye on the boozers I kept walking and luckily the Black Redstart must have had it’s fill of  noisey neighbours and it flew over to a quieter spot on the rocks nearer the main steps.

From there I was able to take some photos and look at it through the binoculars. It really was a lovely, unassuming little bird. Flitting around from rock to rock and searching along the moss and seaweed for food.

The reason I’m writing this post though is to highlight the difference in 3 photos of the same bird in the same location – 2 of them on the same day!

First there’s Eric Dempsey’s gorgeous photo, colouring and detail perfect, secondly there’s the photo I saw yesterday on Andrea and Paul’s website- they always seem to get a pic of the latest interesting sightings around Ireland so when I saw that they’d also been out taking photos of the Black Redstart on the same day I was it really brought home the difference a decent lens can make for bird photography. The third photo is the best and closest one I could manage with my 18-200mm lens.

Gorgeous photo of the Black Redstart by Eric Dempsey (Copyright) down at Dun Laoghiare. I think he uses a 500mm lens.

Great super clear photo of Black Redstart, Dun Laoghaire by Andrea or Paul, they don't say. This pic shows brown in the bird which I didn't get close enough to see. Lens used Canon 400mm 5.6. Copyright - Irish Bird Images.com

My best pic of the Black Redstart, Dun Laoghaire with my Nikon 18-200mm lens- same day as pic above taken.

I don’t think you should ever fall into the trap of negatively comparing yourself to others.

I think my pic is pretty good for a 200mm, but for Really good, detailed, sharp bird photos – you really do need a more expensive lens and the above photos demonstrate why.

600 Brent Geese Pearse Park – Crumlin, 1 Black Redstart – DunLaoghaire

Eamon Ceannt Park, Sunday morning

Drove down to Eamon Ceannt park first thing, but no Geese on pitches or in cycle track. Drove to Dolphin Park (GAA field on Crumlin Rd) but there was a match on there.

Black Headed Gull with full summer plumage already, Crumlin

Mistle thrush, Crumlin

Redwing, Crumlin. There was a flock of around 60 Redwings feeding in the park.

Starling, Crumlin

150 Brent Geese, Clonmacnoise Roundabout, Crumlin

Yes there they were in all their brenting glory.

There were only 2 tags out of the 150.

PBYY, Clonmacnoise Roundabout, Crumlin

CFWR (Dublin ringing!) Clonmacnoise Roundabout, Crumlin

Brent Geese on your doorstep, Crumlin

After looking at these I drove home for some lunch….

On the way up Windmill Rd I looked into Pearse Park on the off chance and saw them partying it up.

The entrance to Pearse Park, Windmill Road, Crumlin

Counted about 600 Brent Geese, Pearse Park, Crumlin, Dublin 12

Dog lolled into the middle of them and up they lifted off

Maybe they'll circle and land back down

No they didn't. Waited ages but they didn't come back.

LUCKILY I finally read some tags:

7HRY AND 7XRY were together (associates)

PPRY

PKWR (Dublin ringing)

HARY

T3WR (Dublin ringing)

I didn’t see any others because they flew off.

I went home to get some lunch…home being about 3 minutes away.

The shame.

In my defence I never drive along Windmill Road and thought that Pearse Park was only a few footie fields – now I know different so hopefully this park will prove a successful reading spot.

(Here’s the link to where Pearse Park is in Crumlin - link )

After lunch I had to drive down to a friend in Dalkey, on the way I thought I’d try to see the lovely visiting Black Redstart.

Dun Laoghaire this afternoon

In flew some Brent Geese - I could have given them a lift from Crumlin.

The old swimming pools at Dun Laoghaire. Black Redstart was at the other side near rocks at East Pier

Meadow Pipit. Not a Rock Pipit. Even though it's a pipit and is standing on a rock and not in a meadow. They can be found on coasts in wintertime, usually in busy little feeding flocks.

Grey Wagtail

Pied Wagail. If you look at this long enough you think your eyes are going funny. They're not, it's the wagtail's plumage.

Turnstone

After an hour of looking I saw the Black Redstart, Dun Laoghaire

Black Redstart. Gorgeous.

The deep orange you see when it flies off

Black Redstart

Poolbeg Towers and end of another birding day.

Eric’s Fancypants

passage migrant Black Redstart.

Amazing photo by Eric Dempsey of the Female Black Redstart down at Dun Laoghaire East Pier

Just look at this photo.

I know! Even the grey (my least favourite colour) looks good in this pic.

Having a good lens is one thing but the light in this photo, for such a small bird, with such grey colouring – is perfect.

That’s the obvious huge appeal of expensive lenses for cameras, binocs, scopes – they bring the bird so much closer and you get the honour of seeing in near perfect detail what with the naked eye would just be a grey splodge.

You certainly couldn’t describe the bird in this photo as anything but beautiful. Look at the colouring on the tail feathers.

I checked the Irish Birding website (in links) and this little Black Redstart has been hanging around (with the Dutch Gold crowd) near the old swimming baths and on the East pier since 1st November 2009. There’s only records of just one Black Redstart so I assume this is the one and only which will probably head on around March time.

So whilst I was stood in an empty birdless field in Ballyfermot with nothing but my scope, binocs, camera and Brent droppings for company -  he’s down in dunners taking pics of this gorgeous bird. Easy to tell who has all the birding knowledge on their side.

More about the Black Redstart here