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bitsandbirds · 21 days ago

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Got to see the rare juvi Temminck’s Stint that has been hanging around at a reservoir in my area! They were very chill around us there, allowing for some close views.

A fairly bland bird (as most Calidris waders are), but so so so cool to see, considering this is apparently the 50th Irish record and the 2nd for my county!

Also got to see my first Cuckoo too! A young one! I’ve only heard them so far! And I was the one to spot it out of the small group. I looked down to take a note of it for eBird and they were gone lol. Still got some record pics but they’re more or less blurs. :/

Oh! I also got a lifer Wall Brown butterfly and finally got to seen Emerald Spreadwing Damselflies (possibly Scarce Emerald Damsels in there…?) and a Devil’s Coach Horse Beetle!

What a day for lifer everythings!!!

#birdo rambles #it was a very gorgeous place too #but the sun was beating down

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bitsandbirds · 27 days ago

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Insane the amount of seabirds I'm seeing reports of in the past week.

#birdo rambles #theyre seeing basically every seabird in my field guides! thats so cool #even though theyre making me very jealous of the things theyre seeing lol #keep those report going!

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bitsandbirds · 2 months ago

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Saw them again, in MUCH higher numbers! I counted 123, give or take. Also got an iNat acceptable GIF to help with ID, as I honestly think the rocking see-saw flight was the best feature to help with recognizing them.

Didn't think that I would see my first Manx Shearwaters from 3km inland lol.

#birdo rambles #had to really try to get the file down as small as I could as iNat wouldn't accept it when it was larger for whatever reason #gosh they are sooooo fun to watch #such a carefree energy about them...#@ornithological i can see why you love them so much :)

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bitsandbirds · 2 months ago

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Didn't think that I would see my first Manx Shearwaters from 3km inland lol.

#birdo rambles #you thought you were gonna see them during a dedicated seawatch down by the shore?#WRONG!#see them from home during an everyday window watch?#CORRECT!#I honestly was in disbelief at first #I thought i was seeing something else like a weird house martins in flight or gulls #but nope!#unfortunately no pics #but I do have notes and sketches!#very happy to see them after studying up on pelagic species

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bitsandbirds · 4 months ago

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Just saw the cutest juvi grey wagtail. 😭 Their tail was so comically short and they still wagged it.

Also my first spotted flycatchers of the year!

#birdo rambles #still have some exams but the big ones are more or less over #such good pics of both too

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bitsandbirds · 4 months ago

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A hobby and osprey have been spotted recently around my area, AND a bee-eater just an hour drive away, ALL WHILE IT'S NICE AND SUNNY, and I have to stay at home to study for the next week of exams. The world is tormenting me. 🙃

#birdo rambles #i swear imma be out for their asses when i am done #at least i got the cetti's warbler and cattle egret that have been hanging aorund my local nature reserve #a nice break for the exam pressure about to come upon me #im sorry for the venting on here recently and lack of photos too #i need to sort through soooooo many to clear space on my laptop and to put onto my external storage #AND I have to sort through my constant backlog of pics from the past 6 months #AND the workload of college AND my other hobbies and hyperfixations

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bitsandbirds · 4 months ago

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Unfortunately, no oriole.

But! I got to see some summer razorbills, guillemots and kittiwakes! Some of the best pics of them to date! Also I only realised while going through the pics, but there was also a brindled morph among the guillemots!!! Very excited to see the eyelinered lad!!!

GOLDEN ORIOLE SPOTTED NEAR ME!!!

Imma try see him tomorrow.

#birdo rambles #there were a bunch of other birders on the walk aswell #all of them had not seen the oriole yet #so at least im not the only one lol #but honestly the fact that he managed to get me out of the house is good enough for me #i still got to see the local auk and kittiwakes #and a really good place to go during autumn for my lifer manx shearwaters #i just need to decide on which scope to buy

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bitsandbirds · 4 months ago

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You have no idea how much I love birds, oh my god.

#birdo rambles #bringing this here from my main blog cuz im feeling it again #gosh i was in a fairly nothing mood for the last couple weeks #cuz the end of term and whatnot #and i had no goals other than sort photos; study for exams; do chores all that stuff #and this golden oriole shows up and brightens my entire day #despite it being the end of it and it just being a report #and now im so excited to go out tomorrow and after tomorrow to look at birds #potentially some new lifers #and ough resurfaced my deep deep love for them yet again

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bitsandbirds · 4 months ago

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GOLDEN ORIOLE SPOTTED NEAR ME!!!

Imma try see him tomorrow.

#birdo rambles #a 1st yr male too #bless him he's very lost #i was literally jumping up and down in my seat when i saw the report #both on irishbirding and ebird #theres been a cattle egret around my local nature reserve as well as a hoopoe off in dublin too #i'll try the cattle egret but maybe the hoopoe is getting to the end of their stay here #plus there's cetti's and grasshopper warblers around too #spring migration making me work lol

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bitsandbirds · 5 months ago

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aaaah! The swallows are nearly here!!!!

#birdo rambles #the reports of sand martins and swallows are going up by the day #I can feel it... they are just around the corner #in other news: I got a new lens now with 500mm focal length rather than 300mm like what I had before #if that means anything to you photography nerds out there #been playing around with it and ough im liking the results

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bitsandbirds · 7 months ago

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Seems like my luck is running out for lifers. :/

It was bound to happen.

#birdo rambles #went to see the red necked grebe that is nearby aswell as perchance a slavonian/horned grebe #and saw none #later got a alert that the red neck was there but out on the sea #🙃 ok #couple weeks ago #went to see little gulls that were basically in my patch #but they werent there either #at least i got the brambling at my local nature reserve!#and some nice shots and views of birds i didnt have any of before!

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bitsandbirds · 7 months ago

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He and his comfy flower. :)

Male Spotted Thintail (Meliscaeva auricollis), Ireland

#bugs #bugblr #insects #spotted thintail #meliscaeva auricollis #meliscaeva #hoverflies #hoverfly #syrphidae #flies #diptera #animals #photography #wildlife photography

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bitsandbirds · 7 months ago

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This moth in particular has caught my heart. Something about the pattern is just so pretty. Like layers. I cannot get enough of them.

Yellow Shell Moth (Camptogramma bilineata), Ireland

#bugs #bugblr #insects #yellow shell moth #camptogramma bilineata #camptogramma #geometer moths #geometridae #moths #lepidoptera #animals #photography #wildlife photography

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bitsandbirds · 7 months ago

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The sheer difference in the size to voice ratio in wrens is my favourite thing about them. How do you fit so much volume into a tiny little body?

Eurasian Wren (Troglodytes troglodytes), Ireland

#birds #birdblr #eurasian wren #troglodytes troglodytes #troglodytes #troglodytidae #wrens #passeriformes #perching birds #animals #photography #wildlife photography

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bitsandbirds · 8 months ago

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What a day of birding!

Went down to Dublin Bay again, this time with the intention of seeing the black-throated diver. Saw the alerts yesterday and was like 👀. They are rare on this side of Ireland, normally they would be West type birds.

Anyway, got down there, first thing I see is red-breasted mergansers and common scoters! Lifers! Honestly I forgot about the mergs but I said to myself that scoters would be a plus to this trip.

Little more out, was the diver! Luckily there was already a bunch of people with their scopes on it up by the pier. It gave gorgeous views, even if it was 100m or so out on the water. At a point, they just chilled there, turning their belly to the side on the crystal smooth water.

Later, he went around the bay area I was looking when I first came down here and disappeared, until 30 odd mins later, when it was relocated further down the pier. Chased it down there, and a couple of people were watching it, along with some winter plumage black guillemots. I myself left to walk down the pier to clock up some more species for the day.

Heading back, the diver came in real close, and me and another lad got some banger pics! (although he had a much better camera), compared to when it was way out at the start. That's what happens when you stay for 4 hours to bird! Patience does it!

#birdo rambles #gosh this was such a cool outing #came back hella exhausted tho #but very very happy #apparently there was horned grebes in the area too #but I got the alert when I was already home #I'll leave those for another time tho

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bitsandbirds · 8 months ago

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Saw my first redwings of the year today (and in a long time.) and of course I didn’t have my camera and had to take the worst digiscoped pics I have ever seen 🙃. Guess I’ll have to draw what I saw to prove it was them.

#birdo rambles #and it was at my local cemetery. it has this big mown patch of lawn #and alot of birds were having a buffet #blackbirds; song thrushes; woodpigeons #honesty i dont mind drawing them #i have taken it up to keep a birding journal #cuz those field sketches just really inspired me #i LOVE the practical aesthetic of them #and it records your encounters in a way that can be quite sentimental #ever since inat i have taken up taking record pics of the bugs and birds that are around me #and before that did some field sketches #i missed doing that

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bitsandbirds · 8 months ago

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My lifer black redstart! Such a charming little lady.

Female Black Redstart (Phoenicurus ochruros), Ireland

#birds #birdblr #black redstart #phoenicurus ochruros #phoenicurus #redstarts #muscicapidae #perching birds #passeriformes #animals #photography #wildlife photography

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