Seabank in Dundalk Bay, part 1

We had originally encountered Seabank in Dundalk Bay in early autumn 2022. Rosemary and I had just visited the small viking township of Annagassan for the first time and we decided to take the coastal route home.

The tide was almost full as we drove along the coastal road home and we could see hundreds of wading birds being forced closer up the beach alongside the road by the incoming tide.
Seabank obviously held heaps of potential for us and we made plans to return in the third quarter of winter when there would be the maximum number of over-wintering migratory waders present both in numbers and species. It was decided we would return early February and so it proved to be the case.

We arrived at Seabank early on a cold mid winter’s morning and we could see large numbers of waders, mainly Black-tailed Godwits and Light-bellied Brent Geese and once again being forced closer up the beach by a rising tide.

However, the light was not good for bird photography so we made our way down to the shoreline and waited for the light to improve.

We could see hundreds of birds while we waited patiently for the light to improve.

The worst mistake one can make in a situation like this would be to try and get close to the birds and scare them.
The tide was moving the birds closer to us and the light was improving by the minute.
All we had to do was sit tight, let the tide bring the birds closer to us and hope that no dog walkers came along the beach.

A huge flock of birds, Ireland

A flock, consisting of thousands of birds fill the air over Dundalk Bay, County Louth, Ireland.

To see a bigger image please click on the image itself.

Rosie and Tony’s New Zealand South Island Adventure: part 1

I’ve been threatening to write about Rosie and Tony’s New Zealand South Island Adventure for well over a year now.
We have been in Northern Ireland for 18 months now and I have run out of excuses to put it off.
If the truth be known, I really enjoy looking back at the images both of us took on our trip as it brings up so many great memories and emotions. So here is the first post of my new series.

Anticrepuscular rays at Flagstaff lookout.

This is a short post to let people know I intend to continue posting and writing for this blog, so this post is just to keep things rolling.
In the coming months I hope to post images of our Autumn trip around the South Island of New Zealand before we had to rush home and prepare to shift to Northern Ireland.

Anticrepuscular rays at flagstaff

Earlier this year Rosie and I experienced some amazing Anticrepuscular rays at Flagstaff lookout.

Anticrepuscular rays, or antisolar ray are meteorological optical phenomena similar to crepuscular rays, but appear opposite the Sun in the sky. Anticrepuscular rays are essentially parallel, but appear to converge toward the antisolar point, the vanishing point, due to a visual illusion from linear perspective.

Anticrepuscular rays are most frequently visible around sunrise or sunset. This is because the atmospheric light scattering that makes them visible (backscattering) is larger for low angles to the horizon than most other angles. Anticrepuscular rays are dimmer than crepuscular rays because backscattering is less than forward scattering.

Anticrepuscular rays can be continuous with crepuscular rays, curving across the whole sky in great circles.

Autumn Bird Photography at Shelling Hill Beach

We were in no hurry, the sun had risen an hour earlier, but we made our leisurely way south down the A1, across the border and into County Louth.
We had decided that we would spend a relaxing day simply exploring Templeton beach and enjoy some autumn bird photography on the Cooley Peninsula with the main purpose of our visit, to hopefully photograph wheaters.
Not having visited the area before we wanted to take our time exploring, after all you only get to enjoy an area for the first time, once.

As it turned out this would also be our first trip to Shelling Hill beach.
Our original plan was to start our adventure at Templeton Beach, but we arrived at Shelling Hill beach instead, so how did we end up there? Let me explain.
Please read the rest of this post here