Ring-necked Duck

A rare visitor from North America, the Ring-necked Duck can be found on freshwater lakes and ponds often associating with the very similar looking Tufted Duck.  You can check out my previous post on Tufted Ducks for comparison, it was published in March 2014.

This particular bird was found on the UCD campus and hung around for quite some time (not sure if it's still present).  This bird is a male,  typical of most duck species the female would be an altogether browner looking quite dull bird and not so photogenic

Herring Gull

The Herring Gull is a common resident breeding bird in Ireland.  It can be found almost anywhere there is food to be scavenged, be that in ports like Howth where the following shots were taken yesterday, or further inland living off the waste that humans provide in landfill sites and on the general litter and waste that is to be found just about anywhere humans inhabit.

The Herring Gull is a particularly striking bird, the first thing you notice is the sheer size of the bird, they grow to be very large adults, sitting somewhere between the GBB Gull and the LBB Gull in size.  Luckily there are an abundance of them in and around the Dublin coast so I was able to get some different age groups for comparison.

adult Herring Gull

1st Winter Herring Gull

adult Herring Gull