October cards and Houdini Heron

I need to bring my Olympus in to work for a few mornings. In all the years I've been walking down past Heuston, it's the first time I've seen a heron with a habit of perching up on the wall along with the gulls and cormorants. Seven cormorants this morning, I think that's an all-time record for me.
The heron shots were actually taken last week.

Quite a few favourite cards for October - my most productive month this year.

September Favourites...

...and a cormorant in some beautiful morning light - not that it lasted long. It almost looked like a bronze sculpture at one moment.

Communal Bathing by the Seaside

I was out visiting my aunt on Thursday, and went for a walk along the seafront. I really enjoyed watching this little flock of starlings having fun bathing in one of the rock pools. In the last photo there's one who looks totally soaked.

Turn your volume down for the video - unless the music got added in (which seems to have failed) all there is is a of wind noise.

Boardwalk / bird walk

Last Friday I arrived in town somewhat earlier than normal before work. I'd wanted to vote on the way, since I wasn't going to be going home as we headed to Clare at lunchtime. I over-estimated how long all that would take, so I stayed on the bus as far as O'Connell Bridge, and walked back out of town along the boardwalk. It was the first sunny morning after several grey days, and I really enjoyed the walk - and all the gulls on parade (plus a pigeon!). Mostly juvenile gulls, bar one.

I also enjoyed watching some cormorants. There was one on the wall down at Heuston I could have sworn looked dead, if I hadn't seen it move. Maybe I'll get those photos edited and uploaded over the weekend since I have tomorrow off.

Whistlestop Weekend

My current header is a photo I took of a sparrowhawk down in Clare last year. We were there again last weekend. We almost didn't make it, since C has been sick and we'd already had to cancel going the previous weekend, and I was afraid we'd missed the best of the weather.
But in fact we had an absolutely glorious day on Saturday and covered loads of ground with small on-foot excursions from the car.

I'm afraid that Blogger wasn't being very cooperative in uploading the photos so I've had to snag them from my Picasa album. Rather than spend a lot of time putting them in the right order I'll just caption them.
Chronologically we went from the cottage over towards Abbey Hill and then walked along above the beach at Finvara. We saw the oystercatcher there (digital zoom, so it's a bit pixelly), and the wigeon were on the lake there.  There were very few people at the dolmen so we stopped there instead of passing by as we normally do. It seems a shame to have it roped off, but I suppose that's modern life for you. Any photos I have without the ropes and signs are definitely pre-digital.
Since we pass Dromore Woods on the way home and since it was such a gorgeous day we stopped there for a walk around the woods too. It's somewhere we often go on rainy days as the woods are quite dense and we don't get too wet walking around - so seeing it in dappled sunshine was a lovely change.

Apologies again for the jumbled order - it's hard enough just now to find time to post, never mind discovering that half my uploaded photos have gone AWOL.
I think it's lucky we went last weekend - today there has been a real nip in the air and we've had to turn the heating on for half an hour. It looks as if summer is finally over.

Blackberries by Lough Bunny

Poulnabrone Dolmen

Poulnabrone Dolmen

Dromore Castle

View over towards Galway from Abbey Hill

Wigeon and swan

Lough Bunny - it rained on Sunday!

Poulnabrone Dolmen

Wigeon

Oystercatcher

Reeds on lake

View of lake from the cottage

View from Abbey Hill

Favourite cards...

From August - before it gets to be October. I don't know where September went! It was a beautiful month, weatherwise; one brief cold spell and then an Indian summer. I was sick at the start, C is sick now, and in between we had a long weekend in Switzerland with friends. I've only edited a few photos, but I'll try to add them in a post for tomorrow if my computer doesn't keep on giving me grief.

Favourite August cards - not too many!.Since we're well over halfway through the year I'm sneaking in my favourite Christmas card of the month too.

Our little goldfinches are still flocking round, and for the first time since the summer I saw some long-tailed tits when I was out and about.
Here's a recent shot (through the still-dirty window) of two little goldfinches. The feeder used to have a base which fitted on, but at some stage the base of the feeder got broken (pigeons, I think!) and a couple of weeks back it was no longer possible to attach the base. It's a shame, because the smaller birds like the linnets, redpolls and goldfinches all loved it. I'll see if I can get another similar feeder now that autumn stocks are in. I've since pruned back the brambles, but we've had two apple and blackberry crumbles.

Growing Up Fast !

The little goldfinches are growing up fast. From the way some still have no red at all while some are breaking out into what looks like a virulent red rash, there must be at least two different families at the feeders these days. This afternoon I counted at least 7 - and since some were pecking around in the long grass for spilled seed, I wasn't even sure that I counted them all.
Sorry, again the photos are taken through the window - and after the torrential rain on Saturday it's even dirtier than it was before.

Birds...

As promised, I found a couple of photos of my hop-along gull.
He seems to show a marked preference for standing on solid ground (or at least some of the junk that litters the river bed!) and when you see the photo of the regular two-legged gull sinking into the mud it's not hard to understand why. I'm sure one leg is a lot less stable.
Also some juvenile gulls - I'm not quite sure whether they're Black-backed or Herring.

And recently I saw a juvenile goldfinch on the feeders. C asked me how I knew that was what it was. Well, when I saw one this afternoon and called him to have a look, he knew instantly what it was - even without that distinctive red head the adults have. Taken through a not very clean back window...

One last photo - when I was walking down the road the other day I saw a dead dragonfly - already attracting a lot of wasps and flies, but at least they flew off when I knelt down to take a photo. I suppose it wasn't too far away from the canal, but it was sad to see it just lying there dead on the ground. They're quite big, over two and a half inches long.  I think this is probably a female Common Hawker.