Some pictures I took recently

Bonedigger

On my way to Wicklow this afternoon, I spotted a confrontation between a Buzzard and Hooded Crow. The Hooded Crow was initially pestering the Buzzard, as is their wont, but the Buzzard soon turned the tables!

keps

Back garden - evening sun

Starling

Nightforce 65X55

I found this unusual fungus growth on a tree stump today , I have never seen one like it before ......

Nightforce 65X55

This was growing on a Live gorse bush.....

Bonedigger

@Nightforce

The yellow-coloured fungus is the very common Yellow Brain Fungus.
The other fungi growing on the stump is a species of polypore (bracket fungus), but I wouldn't even try to guess what species it is because there are so many.

Nightforce 65X55

Bonedigger wrote: »

@Nightforce

The yellow-coloured fungus is the very common Yellow Brain Fungus.
The other fungi growing on the stump is a species of polypore (bracket fungus), but I wouldn't even try to guess what species it is because there are so many.

Thanks Bonedigger , the Yellow one or more Orange than yellow , I have seen quite a few times and mostly growing on Gorse branches , it must be a favorite plant to grow on .
The other ones were new to me , Some of them on the Side of the stump looked like Horses Hoof Fungus , or the begining of it , but I had never seen the one on the top of the Stump , it had a velvety look to it but a very nice collection of Fungi on the Stump anyway...

keps

Back garden

chaffinch

_Tombstone_

Mod Edit: Comment removed. I know the comment was obviously made in jest, but at the same time we're not even going to joke about advising people to eat any kind of mushroom or fungus they're not sure about.

Eyepatch

_Tombstone_ wrote: »

Comment removed.

Could this post be linked in any way to your user name, Tombstone! :P

ThunderCat

tricky D wrote: »

Around my area which is beside the sea, we see this very often, sometimes more than daily. I often hear them stuff dropping onto our roof and rolling off onto the driveway or path. There's usually a bunch of broken mussel shells, crab/prawn claws and small bones littering two spots around our house.

The behaviour can also often be seen along Strand Road, Baldoyle and along the Bull Island seafront.

Just wanted to echo this. Only last Sunday I observed a hooded crow dropping some kind of snail onto the rocks next to Howth pier, observe it and then drop down to retrieve it and have another go as it didn't smash first time.
Also my cousin last year told me she saw a rook perched atop a set of traffic lights drop a nut down onto the path where she was walking past with the pram. She thought it was attacking them until I told her it was the rooks way of getting the nut open.

Bonedigger

The Meadow Pipit below was bringing insects and worms back to its young which were nesting in an area of long grass on the Curragh racecourse this summer. Two weeks later the long grass was mowed to the ground!:mad: The racecourse management wanted the grounds looking pristine for the upcoming Derby no doubt. I suspect the young of ground nesting birds fledge sooner than most other birds, so chances are the Meadow Pipit's young had already fledged and were not mown to death.



Meadow Pipit hovering over its nest:




A spider and its quarry




Housemartins




White-lipped snail

Nightforce 65X55

Velvet shank

Nightforce 65X55 wrote: »

I found this unusual fungus growth on a tree stump today , I have never seen one like it before ......



most of that is Bjerkandera adusta - the smoky bracket.....may be some turkeytail (Trametes versicolor) there as well

Nightforce 65X55

savagethegoat

one of a long series of pictures in the pouring rain.... 7 feeding positions and nearly 20 Goldfinches results in a bit of aerial dogfighting

savagethegoat

Nightforce 65X55

I thought I would only get photos of the Rain today but this Blackbird arrived ..

keps

Back garden 2day ( what a miserable day it is!)


Male Chaffinch




Female Chaffinch

savagethegoat

some lovely crisp pictures Lads...I'm going to have to up my game! (ANy tips welcome)

keps

savagethegoat wrote: »

some lovely crisp pictures Lads...I'm going to have to up my game! (ANy tips welcome)

With the light being so poor today I used a tripod just inside the open kitchen door & zapped the ISO up to 1600( you can see the grain). I also waited for the bird to settle for a sec. I think the rain enhanced some feather colours!

Blue Tit

Bonedigger

Eristalis pertinax Hoverfly




Common Blue Polyommatus icarus




A very tattered looking Small Copper Lycaena phlaeas




Emerald Damselfly Lestes sponsa




A young rabbit with Myxomatosis






Red Squirrel Sciurus vulgaris




Yellow Stagshorn fungus Calocera viscosa

Nightforce 65X55

Nightforce 65X55

_Tombstone_

six years and 720,000 exposures, but Scottish wildlife photographer Alan McFayden finally got his bird. He captured this stunning image of a female kingfisher in a rare mid-dive, perfectly mirrored in the water below.

http://gizmodo.com/a-photographer-toiled-for-six-years-to-capture-this-kin-1745105835

TopTec

What an incredible picture. Presumably it is not tech assisted?

TT

Nightforce 65X55

_Tombstone_ wrote: »

He was certainly dedicated , the shot is incredible , to catch the Kingfisher just as he enters the water. If you have ever tried to photograph one of these birds you will know just how fast they are , fair play to him .

keps

Storm Clodagh ruffles a few feathers

keps

Ok, I've started counting for the Garden Survey:)


I am happy that this is a collared dove





But am not so sure about this one .... ?



Both are regular visitors to mop up the seeds left behind by the smaller birds

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Second one is a Juvenile Collared Dove.

savagethegoat

Snatched this shot in the pouring rain....poor little soul looks fed up



Feeder virtually empty....guess who will be getting wet shortly!