Sunday 10 July 2011

Back to St.Brendans

I'm just home after a weekend at my most favourite place,St.Brendan's island. on my way to catch the ferry in Burnside i checked an osprey nest i know about on the side of the road to see if it was still active.It was certainly active.There was a female and 2 small chicks in the nest.All the photos below were taken with an 18-55mm lens so you can imagine how close i was able to get.I made sure not to disturb the osprey and they seemed not to care that i was there.

You cant take in the fullness of the nest unless your right next to it.You can see how each stick was not just layed there but ordered into a perfect and strong clump that lasts the whole summer and years to come.
This nest was made on a radar transmitter i believe.I HOPE the workers don't destroy this nest as it has been there for many years.
There was 2 small chicks and i only seen the mother.I'm assuming the father is gone fishing for the family.















We had rushed to catch the 2:45 boat but a injector or something was being fixed.Some bran new boat ?That evening was very nice.The sun set was the first i had seen on st.Brendan's and there wasn't even any flies !


Sense getting into photography everything i look at i try to make a picture out of.As soon as we got to our summer home(The first one in the picture) i was out taking pictures.I never got any bird photos because i still don't have my lens.

The next morning i had arranged to go out and help a local fishermen and family friend haul up his lobster pots and get some pictures on the way.We could not ask for a better morning on the water...



It was hard work but it was fun hearing the stories he told and the knowledge he knew about the ocean and birds was amazing.
Its hard work having to make a living from the sea with prices on fish and other sea bounties falling unexpectedly.I realize how much stuff people take for granted.



This time around i was out in boat on the other side of the island.I seen 3 abandoned eagle nests and 1 active nest with one baby eagle about to fly in it.I also seen 3 tern nesting colonies and 1 sea pigeon nesting colony.with about 15-20 adults in the group.This picture shows the face of land they were nesting on.

The person who took me out in boat told me that terns used to nest on many small islands but for some reason stoped nesting there all together.The local fishermen of the island have never seen so many terns nesting on the main island.I thought that was an interesting detail.


I never got to look for warblers like i had hoped and i wasn't able to examine the nesting colonies for as long as i had wished but all in all it was a good trip and i will be back here again in 2 weekends time.
Here is my total of birds i seen.

100's of terns
8 eagles and 1 Baby 1 nest
4 osprey 2 babies 2 nests
many spotted sand pipers
15-20 sea pigeon's
1 gannet
1 yellow warbler
many sparrows

I also got ear of a really good spot to see boreal owls and i plan on setting up many nest boxes in that area next year.

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