Saturday, July 2, 2011

27th June - 2nd July - Dingle Peninsula

A very enjoyable week in a beautiful part of Ireland. The countryside is very rocky, with bracken-choked gullies, grassy slopes dotted with sheep, and rocky crags. Ideal Wheatear habitat! Lots of them about, as well as scattered pockets of Ravens, Chough, Rock Pipits etc. Offshore Manx Shearwaters abounded, as well as Gannet, Fulmar and all the usual Auks and Cormorants. I spent a frustrating couple of days looking for Dipper, which were unaccountably hard to locate, though I did succeed in the end.

Gulls were plentiful, but mostly Herring Gull and Great Black-backed, with a few Common Gull on the northern side of Dingle Peninsula.










Wheatear. Very common in the hilly areas












Raven. Very impressive...
















Mistle Thrush














Pied Wagtail















Dipper. Surprisingly hard to find, considering their status in Ireland...













Willow Warbler














Herring Gull - adult















Chough













Meadow Pipit



















Sand Martin














Common Gull

4 comments:

  1. Hi Paul, I'm a keen bird photographer from Singapore and am considering a visit to Manila around mid Sept - and I may be able to spend a couple of days at Mt Makiling if the timing is good for birds. I had visited Mt Makiling late last year but on my own - mainly in the Makiling Botanical Gardens but unfortunately did not see many birds.. and the few birds I saw were very skittish and so did not get any good pics.. :(

    I was wondering when will be a good time to visit as well as any good bird guides you can recommend ? The topmost target species (for decent photographs and not just far bird sightings) for me are as follows. Thanks in advance for your help/advice. Micky

    Indigo-banded Kingfisher
    Spotted-Wood Kingfisher
    Red-crested Malkoha
    Scale-feathered Malkoha
    Philippine Falconet
    Philippine Hawk-Owl
    Philippine Scops Owl
    Guaiabero
    Balicassiao
    Stripe-headed Rhabdornis
    Philippine Pygmy Woodpecker
    Philppine Hawk-Cuckoo
    Philippine Bulbul
    Red-keeled Flowerpecker
    Barred Rail
    Plain Bush-hen

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  2. Micky,

    September can be good, but Makiling can also be a tricky place to bird. It's fairly low density, and as you've found the birds can be hard to see, and even harder to photograph. Having said that most birds on your list are gettable here. The best guide would be Nicky Icarangal, I'll post his contact details later today when I get home.

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  3. Nicky can be contacted at birdingphilippines@gmail.com

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  4. Hi Paul, many thanks for your advice and help - I'll contact Nicky and check his services out. Thanks again for Nicky's contact. :)

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