The following photos were taken at my feeders in Drimnagh.
I wish.
No, the following photos were taken at the busiest feeders I have ever seen in my life. Despite several approaches from 2 dogs wanting love and affection, a cat definitely not wanting love and affection and a 21 year old jumping up and down on a couch (revenge is sweet E), these feeders still had approx 70 birds flitting around. No wonder though, these birds are being cared for with several feeders filled with top quality seeds and nuts in an amazing location.
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| A fraction of the birds at the feeders |
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| Back detail of a Greenfinch |
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| Greenfinch profile |
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| Birdfeeder politics |
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| Great tit |
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| Goldfinch (top) with Great Tit with huge black marking onto left of it's side |
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| Goldfinches |
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| Chafffinches, Greenfinches and Goldfinches |
With all these finches around, surely, SURELY, there'll be a Brambling in the mix.
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| Female Brambling (centre) |
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| Female Brambling (left) and Male Chaffinch (right) |
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| Female Chaffinch |
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| Female Brambling |
It was great to finally catch up with a Brambling.
I'll admit, I'd really wanted to just be out and about when I first saw one, but the window for that happening was nearly up, so I was thankful to see one at Sarah's house. For all the above reasons, especially the 21 year old practicing her star jumps on the couch, the birds were very jumpy so it was difficult to get a decent long look. They'd be down for 5 seconds and up again, but I managed a look through the bins and a pic so I was happy.
After watching the birds at the feeders for a while, we drove to a spot where I thought I'd seen a Merlin making a kill. Stopping off at one of the car parks along the way we saw a sorry sight.
I'm posting these pics as a warning to other drivers to be really wary parking their cars when they go off walking. Maybe leave your glove compartment open and what's in your boot visible and you might avoid this. It happened to my car last year, they smashed in my back window when I left it to go walking in Loch Dan and unfortunately it looks like it's a growing trend. It's a very cold drive back let me tell you.
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| Back window smashed in |
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| They had pulled down the back seats and rifled through the glove compartment. Shit buzz to come back to after a lovely walk. |
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| Glenmacnass, Co. Wicklow |
We drove on to Glenmalure, heard Blue tits, Robins, saw Long tailed tits and heard Goldcrests. We also saw loads of frogspawn and a small pool with at least 3 frogs jumping around already. On the way back we saw an amazing Rook roosting session near Vartry Reservoir, I'd never seen one with so many birds, it was so noisy - and late, 6.40pm.
Great afternoon's birding.
