Today we have bird photos from reader Paul Handford, taken mostly around Dublin. Paul’s IDs and captions are indented, and you can enlarge his photos by clicking on them.
Here’s a bunch of non-passerine birds both from the Dublin area and somewhat further afield, as noted. P
Great cormorant, Phalacrocorax carbo. River Liffey, near Chapelizod. In the majority of its large Old World range, this is largely a freshwater species, as here. In its restricted N. American range, it is strictly marine:
Collared dove, Streptopelia decaocto. Kilmainham, Dublin. This species has hugely expanded its range from Asia to reach UK and Ireland in the 1950s, and, since the 1970s it has colonized much of North America south to Panama:
Wood pigeon, Columba palumbus. Drumcondra, Dublin. Until roughly the 1960s, this bird was one of rural habitats, but has since become prominent in many urban centres:
Brent geese, Branta bernicla. Marino, Dublin. While breeding in the high Arctic, these geese winter in large numbers all around the coasts of UK and Ireland as well as in Europe from Denmark south to n. Spain. Here, they make daily flights to and from their coastal roosts to graze in open grassy areas, including parks and college playing fields:
Tufted duck, Aythya fuligula. Castletown, Co. Kildare:
Little grebe, Tachybaptus ruficollis. Castletown, Co. Kildare:
Common Moorhen, Gallinula chloropus. National Botanical Gardens, Glasnevin:
Grey heron, Ardea cinerea. River Liffey, near Chapelizod:
Grey heron, close-up:
Little egret, Egretta garzetta. River Tolka, Drumcondra:
Quite an impression with these – love it!
Nice!
Wonderful photos! Thanks for sharing them.
Lovely photos! For a North American, it’s fun to see the very close similarity of your NW European birds to “our” birds (e.g. Ring-Necked Duck, Gallinule, Great Blue Heron, Snowy Egret….)
I like the lime-green legs on that moorhen. Pairs nicely with the red beak, too.
Great photos. Thanks!
“In Dublin’s fair city,
where the birds are so pretty…”
Thanks for the photos Paul!
Hi to Paul Handford.
I greatly enjoy those photos, having grown up in Dublin (though I now live in New Zealand). Lots of lovely wildlife back home.
As a teenager, I used to take my dog for walks in the fields behind our home. In the evenings, lots of small bats would be flying about. I used to take my dog’s leash and throw it into the air near those bats and watch them react. Recently, i have been researching websites on Irish bats and have narrowed the species to the Common Pipistrelle and/or the Soprano Pipistrelle. See:
David Lillis
David Lillis
Certainly, the common pipistrelle is the more likely around here.
We would pitch small stones into the sky, and see the bats chase them, presumably thinking they might be moths, or such.