Why photographing must be so hard? 28.8.2012

I was thinking why taking photos is so hard. I have shot maybe 80000 photos in my life and maybe 80 has been really good. So one in a 1000! That´s crazy! Why we even do this?
Here is my top7 of failures. There could be more but i did not had energy to check all my files.
Enjoy:

Night Heron eating huge fish.

Bee-eater flight.

Sooty Shearwater.

Graceful Prinia in flight.

Yellow-broved Warbler.

Indian Roller. 

And finally my masterpiece:

Perfect position, light, sharp, everything. Imperial Eagle.

So, it´s hard sometimes. Luckily there is always others with same problems :)
Or is it just me?
If i just don´t have those skills.

Best.

-tired Tomppa-

Last day in Ireland. 27.8.2012

Last day and i checked out from window. Rain again... At that moment, it was good idea to continue sleep.
Jände went to the Bridges of Ross and there was nice sunny morning with average migration!
Around 9 i woke up and after long breakfast we packed our bags and gave up our rooms.
Jände told that some guys had Ring-billed Gull in Doonbeg! We went there first but no American gull there...
Only normal Dunlins and Sanderlings. Only new birds were 9 Sandwich Terns.

Linnets.

Common ringed Plover.

Today´s main target was Shannon airport lagoon. We arrived there about 1:30pm and first we had little problems to find the right place where most of the birds were.
First new Irish tick was Little Egret (4), then we noticed huge flock of waders.
We were in wrong place :)
Quick transition and right place found.

Black-tailed Godwits!

Huge flock of Black-tailed Godwits, many Dunlins and Redshanks.
We started to scan the flock and i found Spotted Redshank with Redshanks.
Of course we tried to find some rare wader from America but there were none.
Here is some numbers:
Redshank 40
Spotted Redshank 1
Dunlin 150
Black-tailed Godwit 650!
Little Egret 4
Lapwing 6
I have never seen such a flock of Godwits. Wow, really.
That was actually our last real bird place.. We had quick watch in Dublin after that and we saw Little Egret there also but that was the end...

This was nice experience for me, i got many new species of course (7).
I´d like to thank Niall Keogh, Lee Gregory and other guys who had time in Bridges of Ross.
Special thanks for Tuukka, Jände and Esko, without you i would have been in many troubles.
I can fully recommend Hotel Lighthouse Inn for every one. Staff is nice and helpful. Im definitely going back some day.
If you want to check what is going to happen in Bridges of Ross, read here: http://seabirdwatchireland.blogspot.ie/

Best.

-Tomppa-

A day off, 26.8.2012

This was really day off... I woke up at 9:am and after long nice breakfast i decided to walk around little bit.
There was bad weather, windy and all that shit.
I got some photos of Grey Heron, Common ringed Plover and landscapes.
When i came back, Jände and Esko wanted to drive around. I jumped in the car and my first notice was that we are almost out of gasoline.
We drove to the normal gas-station but it was closed.. Same time our car told that we are really close to empty gas tank. We decided to drove to Kilkee and we were sure that there is open station.
Well, there was not... We asked from several people and then we got this info that in Kilrush is open station. 8miles drive and we didn´t know our gas situation. "Refuel" light were blinking!
But like in many stories, we had our happy ending.
What a story... We saw few Starling flock from the car and we had Nialls Buff-breasted Sandpiper place where i saw two Red-billed Coughs, no Sandpipers!
We came back and when others wanted to sleep, me and Tuukka went to a little walk and check the gardens near by.

Heron with something eatable. 

Red Bill!

Common Plover.

Ugly young Robin.

We had many Robins, Wrens, Great and Blue Tits and flock of Common Snipes! Great.
Tomorrow, i hope is better day.
Thanks and good night.

best.

-Tomppa-

Little bit better in Ireland, 25.8.2012

We started again from Bridges of Ross. Migration was better than yesterday but not great as some people expected.
I counted Kittiwakes today and i got almost as big number as Niall and other pro observers.
We had 2 hours in the BOR and then we had to go to eat some breakfast. We actually took it long way beacause we were back in the BOR at 10:00. Kittiwake migration was still strong and other birds we seen also.
After Sea-watch, we drove along the coastal road and there was species like Great Tit and Goldcreast so Great! After driving we landed to Doonbeg where we tried to find rare waders again..
Surprisingly we did not find any of those American waders..

Daily Gannet.

Arctic Skua.

3cy Kittiwake.

Rock Pipit in Carrigaholt.

After empty wader try, we came back to the Bridges of Ross. Many Skuas were migrate at the evening and one Great Skua or Bonxie like locals call it flew very near of us.
Best sighting was Balearic Shearwater witch was lifer for me! Bird was with one Manx Shearwater and luckily it was quite near so we had  chance to ID it!
Reat of the wvenign we tried to photo birds and watch little bit of the migration.
Here is some numbers and photo from the day.

Bonxie!

Kittiwake 195
Puffin 14
Arctic Skua 9
Great Skua 8
Pomarine Skua 3

and other bullshit :)

Best.

-Tomppa-