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.

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.

BIRD PHOTOGRAPHY IN JULY AT CARLINGFORD LOUGH

In our last post, we shared our walk around the coastal town of Carlingford. However, the main purpose of our visit was to do some bird photography in July at Carlingford lough. The shoreline of the lough near to Carlingford village is designated as both a Special Area of Conservation under the EU Habitats Directive and an EU Special Protection Area that safeguards and maintains the habitats of migratory birds. It is part of the Natura 2000 network of protected areas and listed under the Ramsar Wetlands of International Importance.

For me this puts Carlingford on a par with my beloved Manawatu Estuary back home in New Zealand.

Read more

The First Day of Spring

This is the first post for my new series What has Boney Whitefoot been up to lately?
I will try and post in my blog more regularly and hopefully those that read my posts will continue to enjoy reading about our photographic adventures in Northern Ireland.

Last Wednesday morning, the first official day of spring, Rosie and I woke to a wonderfully fine day and decided to explore a stretch of river in our local area in County Armagh.
We had not visited this spot before, but we had studied the area online and we anticipated an exciting day ahead of us.
We packed our lunch, leapt into the car, zoomed off heading north and 20minutes later we arrived at our destination.

I have started a new blog with Rosie so hop on over to out new blog and sign up to follow our latest adventures here and to read the rest of this post here.