As I promised in my final submit, my spouse and I have been in Dublin, Eire, when that submit went on-line. Yearly we spend a number of weeks working within the excessive south of Spain, and yearly we attempt to spend a couple of days someplace new in Europe, on our manner there. This permits us to begin adjusting to the 7-8 hour time distinction earlier than we begin our work actions. This 12 months it was Dublin’s flip.
Eire is a kind of locations that I really feel ought to actually be skilled within the countryside, not within the metropolis. However 4 days will not be a lot time to take action, and jet lag didn’t assist both. So any birding I might handle needed to occur within the common downtown space wherein we stayed. A fast look on the metropolis’s eBird hotspots prompt that my most suitable choice can be St. Stephen’s Park, as this medium-sized city park was solely a 25 minute stroll from our resort, and in contrast to different city parks, it sports activities a small lake.
I attempted to move out on the first light, which in Dublin in October, is round 7 a.m. Sadly, I had forgotten that with out an Irish SIM card on my cell phone (I waited till Spain to purchase a kind of), I might solely obtain Merlin’s British Isles pack wherever I might plug into somebody’s web. That delayed my departure from the resort for a couple of minutes. Then I arrived on the park, and realized that I had the identical drawback with my eBird app.
So off I went once more, trying to find one other enterprise that will let me use their web. Would you consider that Irish Starbucks don’t open till 8 a.m.?
Lengthy story brief, my outing to the park didn’t actually get going till about 8:15. However I had polished off a continental breakfast.
It didn’t take lengthy to find out which species dominate the St. Stephen’s ecosystem. Herring Gulls have been in all places, particularly flying overhead. Numerous Hooded Crows stored them firm, however curiously, there have been no different corvid species current (like Jackdaws or Rooks, frequent in different European parks). Many European Magpies could possibly be seen on the bottom and within the timber, which was a pleasure. I’m a giant fan. Many, many Rock Pigeons wheeled round, in addition to a considerably smaller amount of Frequent Wooden-Pigeons.
These Magpies have been seen flying round ramparts close to the park.
Wooden-Pigeons look very like Rock Pigeons, however have made the good PR transfer of not carrying out their welcome worldwide.
Rock Pigeons, carrying out their welcome.
The lake had fairly a inhabitants of Mallards, amazingly tame Mute Swans, and Tufted Geese. Seeing the latter was a deal with for me.
Very tame
A male Gadwall ultimately turned up. He apparently shouldn’t be present in Dublin, however has lengthy been in residence within the park, and is kind of the superstar amongst native birders. He clearly has an in depth relationship with a sure feminine Mallard. Who am I to evaluate?
There have been additionally a number of Frequent Moorhens, together with one grownup accompanying an surprising October juvenile. And one Nice Cormorant flew all the way down to the lakeside, to strike a dramatic pose. A single Gray Heron did the identical.
Within the timber, one might hear Eurasian Wrens, European Robins, and Nice Tits. I finally managed to see all however the latter.
Later within the day, whereas strolling alongside Dublin’s Liffey River, I regarded overhead and clearly noticed a raptor wheeling among the many many Herring Gulls. Sadly, my data of European birds of prey remains to be questionable, and once I downloaded the Merlin for Eire earlier within the day, it failed to show up with images. So I rapidly marked it as a Black Kite, largely as a placeholder till I might appropriate my ID once we obtained again to our resort. Inside minutes, I had an e-mail from the native eBird reviewer informing me that Black Kites are extraordinarily uncommon, and that the one raptor prone to be seen within the Dublin space is the Frequent Buzzard. Which in fact, as soon as I might evaluate my not-terrible photograph with my rebooted Merlin, it was.
This was not a nasty factor, as I ended up having a really good back-and-forth with the eBird reviewer. He’s the one which knowledgeable me of the Gadwall’s superstar standing. He informed me he was completely happy that I had gotten to see it. (Gadwalls are fairly frequent close to Morelia within the winter, however I felt particular, anyway.) He additionally stated that whereas Frequent Buzzards are the largely possible chicken of prey in Eire, it was nonetheless uncommon to see one proper over the guts of Dublin. I felt much more particular.
My birding day ended with a really shut encounter with a number of European Starlings. In North America, I may need felt irritated to see this wildly invasive chicken. However in Europe, the place they belong, its all the time a pleasure to see what good-looking creatures they’re.
