Wildlife every way I tern.
I’ve had a rather hectic couple of weeks. The school holidays have just kicked off here in Ireland, and I took a short trip with my wife and kids. Being the photography enthusiast that I am, I couldn't resist bringing my camera along. I visited areas in the northwest and southeast of Ireland: Sligo and Clare, along with Waterford and Wexford. The weather, as always has been changeable. Mostly bright and cool, but also overcast and muggy. Despite being pestered by the kids (I have two boys aged six and eight) I was able to get the camera out and shoot some half-decent stuff.
The beginning of last week we travelled to Sligo, a small county on the west coast of Ireland. It’s not particularly known for its wildlife diversity but that was where my wife wanted to go, so that was that. I did a little research in terms of places to go that were both kid and wildlife friendly. We were based a very short distance from the town. We decided on a few spots which were the beach and dunes at Strandhill, the woodlands of Union Wood and the Isle of Innisfree on the banks of Lough Gill. Strandhill has a partially sand and pebble beach, a links golf course and amazing dunes. Here I was able to photograph Ringed Plover and Skylarks. The Skylarks were plentiful and fine with my presence. The Ringed plover were not so obliging but I was still able to get some good ground level shots. Union wood, to the south of Sligo town is a part coniferous, part native woodland with a small lough. There were lots of common woodland birds, an amazing number of coal tits and I saw crossbills briefly but was unable to photograph them. I was hoping for a sight of a pine martin or red squirrel but it wasn’t to be. I could see lots of deer tracks, which I suppose are from fallow deer. I did get a glimpse of one on my way up to the wood in the car but was unable to stop. The woods here are absolutely full of rhododendrons and i have never seen so many foxgloves. Last of all, we visited the woodland and bog at the Isle of Innisfree. An amazing, somewhat managed, mature native woodland and heath bog on the banks of lough Gill. The woods were full of small birds. Lots of long tailed tits, treecreepers, goldcrests and chiffchaffs. Once through the wood you come out onto a heath bogland which has a timber raised path to walk along. Here I saw a kestrel, lots of meadow pipits and was able to photograph reed buntings. With the kids around my feet it was difficult to get close, so most of my photos were of birds and their environments which actually I enjoy as much as any other wildlife photography. Stunning scenery and plenty of life but it was time to move on.
In Sligo town itself, I was able to take some wildlife photos despite many people asking or commenting about my ‘big’ lens. However, I was able to photograph a young bullfinch, a common whitethroat and a cormorant fighting an eel at the quays.
On our way home we were able to stop in county clare, more specifically the Burren. The weather however was horrendous with driving rain. We didn’t have long between the showers but I did find Bullfinches and lots of Blackcaps and Willow warblers. It doesn’t matter how much you plan, one thing for sure is you can’t plan for the weather. The lens was dried off and off back to cork we went.
Back home in West Cork, I was able to get out a few times with the camera. I found goldcrest fledglings, which was a first for me but the real highlight of the last couple of weeks was a chance encounter with two Irish hares just a few miles from home. I spotted the hare as we drove down a country lane. I pulled over, realised my battery was almost dead, changed it, turned off the engine and started shooting. I was so happy when one of the hares decided to come and see what I was doing. I was able to get a crazy amount of shots in just a few minutes. Fantastic stuff!!
So to the start of a new week and off to the south east of the country for the day. I took my wife to the first day of her new job in Waterford and then went looking for wildlife. I had heard of a couple of great places to go in Wexford so hastily made my way to Our Lady’s Island near Rosslare, where I knew there was a pretty good chance of photographing terns. No sooner was I out of the car park, I was snapping away at arctic terns, common terns and sandwich terns. What incredible birds these are but also difficult to shoot, especially with a 800mm lens. Many attempts ended in missed shots, but persistence paid off with a handful of sharply focused flight shots, including a captivating image of an arctic tern shaking off water while soaring gracefully through the air. I played around with my focus settings, frame rates and shutter speed and my keeper rate improved no-end. Most of the birds were flying south from the sea with sand eels and heading to feed young on the small islands in the lake. It was quickly getting easier to plot their flightiness and behaviours and thus helping to improve the composition of the photos that I was taking. I also got some lovely shots of black headed gulls swooping and diving. A truly amazing few hours with very special birds. On the way home I was able to stop off on a main road and photograph great-crested grebes and their young at Lough Aderry, in East Cork.
So, thousands of photographs to sift through, hopefully many keepers and possibly one or two ‘bangers’. Maybe, in fact definitely, some will need a fair amount of post enhancement. Looking forward to going back to wexford and photographing more wildlife at tacumshin and cahore marshes. Both places that I had no time to visit this time.
An arctic tern (sterna paradisaea) shaking off water after it was diving for sand eels.
Irish Hare (lepus timidus hibernicus) standing proud.
Ringed Plover (charadrius hiaticula)
