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| First frosty morning in Dublin, Phoenix Park Nov 6th 2011. Car said 4ºC and 3° on Knockmaroon Hill. |
It was a chilly one last night and this morning.
The coldest its been.
But this morning, like yesterday morning was absolutely stunning so off I headed to Phoenix Park because Surely by now there should be flocks of Redwing/ Fieldfare about.
After about 2 hours wandering round the park, I'd covered the areas I'd seen plenty of Fieldfare/ Redwing in last year, but berry tree after berry tree was empty and motionless, except for the odd pair of Blackbirds or single Mistle Thrush.
Giving up, I settled myself into the cold morning shade of the woods to try and get decent shots of the 4 Jays which were flitting around.
I had just missed an amazing, close up shot of a Jay when I finally saw movement in some Hawthorn.
The strong supercilium and size of these birds made me hopeful these were finally Redwings.
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| Bang in middle of the picture you can just see the Redwing |
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| Cropped and lightened you can see 2 Redwings. |
Very cool to see.
They were the only Redwings I saw all morning, even a trip to the berry ladden Irish War memorial Park and the grounds of IMMA resulted in the usual suspects, but no Scandinavian visitors.
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| One of many berry laden trees, Irish War Memorial Park, Dublin. I know it's not Hawthorn but I've seen Fieldfare eating berries other than Hawthorn/ Rowan. The berries from Yew trees seem to be a favourite too. |
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| Tree Creeper, IWMP.There were 2 Treecreepers on this tree, quite a treecreeper wknd for me. Now if they'd just show themselves in ucd for my list! |
It was a lovely morning in both parks and around IMMA.
I have an irk though.
An irk which has been irking me for some time but I've never mentioned but it because it seemed too mean spirited - but this morning the irk nearly sent me looking up anger management classes - so I need to vent.
Remote Controlled planes in Phoenix Park are driving me bonkers!
The constant loud noise from these planes people seem so keen to constantly fly in the 15 acre field is like having a bluebottle stuck in your ear for 3 hours.
There's no escape, which seems such a shame when I go to Phoenix Park to try and enjoy the open space and queitness .
Each to their own and everything, but sitting in the woods, the noise of the planes was so loud and so constant that my nerves were nearly shot.
It's a public park and everyone needs space for their hobbies etc, and maybe I wouldn't mind so much but I have an obvious concern about how much the noise and sight of these planes might be deterring birds who would otherwise settle/ breed in the woods.
The planes fly right over the trees and I'm sure would be very intimidating to birds in these woods, but who knows - maybe the birds aren't bothered by the planes at all and its just grumpies like me who are.
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| Watch out deer, those planes often crash and you could end up with one sticking out of your head. Why deer, thankyou for the warning, I think they're simply horrid and I hate the sound of them. |
I was going to record the loudness of the planes from the woods today using my camera- because they seemed SO loud this morning, I'm not talking small little remote controlled glider noise - these planes have mini engine tanks and have the loudeness of mopeds along with smoke fumes and everything - but felt that was crossing a line and getting into definite grumpy territory, so didn't.
But these guys seem to be in the 15 acre park all the time and there seems no way of escaping them.
Guess I just have to find a way of not being so bothered by them.
