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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

County Louth (formerly Dundalk Bay) local patch. (5 Viewers)

Hi Dolce,

Crocuses (croci?) generally have distinctive orange stamen/carpel arrangement, like an orange tower in the middle of the flower - native irish ones flower in early spring/late winter. Autumn crocus is not an irish species (in fact its not a crocuses at all!) and have seperated loose stamens more yellow than orange.

Your camera may have a "macro" function on it, which is for closeups...
 
Hi Dolce,

Crocuses (croci?) generally have distinctive orange stamen/carpel arrangement, like an orange tower in the middle of the flower - native irish ones flower in early spring/late winter. Autumn crocus is not an irish species (in fact its not a crocuses at all!) and have seperated loose stamens more yellow than orange.

Your camera may have a "macro" function on it, which is for closeups...

That was my Nokia mobile only as Olympus have my camera at minute as it was playing up and they have offered to sort it out as still under guarantee. I have noticed those purple flowers that would remind you of a crocus but yet different here at this time of year since several years past at least and spreading. I tried to find out what they were but seemed to indicate from France or somewhere Europe and gave up. Not guilty of taking them back from Mallorca, now I had my eye on a few wild orchids many a year but I know absolutely not allowed. I finish early tomorrow so will attempt to get better photo. The stamens inside are yellow I am pretty sure and separated as was taking a good look at them yesterday though only beginning to open out.
 
Breffni ....here are a few slightly better photos from my basic Nokia mobile just. I saw them in several different places and all appeared to be growing in grass mostly with no leaves at all to help identify them. Also a tall enough flower for all the size of the main head of the flower really.
 

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My daughter photographed this bird of prey on her new lawn having just caught and digested some unfortunate small bird, still unidentified. Andy has to go out when he comes home from work and pick up remains of the poor bird she says. I think it might be a Goshawk but not sure really. A few more snaps trying to show how many stamens there are in this purple flower, the length of stalk and total absence of leaves. I am not certain if it is Meadow Safron or Naked Lady but the total absence of leaves makes me query the Nudifloras or Naked Lady flower.
 

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My daughter photographed this bird of prey on her new lawn having just caught and digested some unfortunate small bird, still unidentified. Andy has to go out when he comes home from work and pick up remains of the poor bird she says. I think it might be a Goshawk but not sure really.
Hi Dolce. Your identification skills are getting closer to the mark.:t: I am not sure which book you are using, but one with distribution maps helps narrow your options down considerably. Obviously birds do occur outside their normal range, but if your book covers the whole of Europe there could be 500 birds species in it. For the beginner this makes the task seem very daunting. However you would be very lucky to encounter 100 species from your back garden. Take into account time of year and you could probably reduce this figure by another say 30% at any given time. This (and habitat etc) will narrow your options down so much that a correct id becomes so much easier.
I know how interested you are in birds and these few hints (others may have more) should make the task of identifying a new bird so much easier.
PS If you do not have a book with range maps, you can find them here http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/g/goshawk/index.asp
PS2 There's also a bird identifier on this site that might help at times - http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdidentifier/
Derek
 
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Thanks Derek for the websites. It was an old book AA Field guide to Britain and Europe that I looked in and my daughter lives in Buckinghamshire and correct area for them as you said I am noticing. I really like Oran O'Sullivan & Jim Wilsons garden bird book as it tells you the name of the birds in gaelige as well. I only have a couple of bird books as yet but have many on wild flowers, herbs, sacred trees and folkfore etc. Having loved Biology at college I think I probably waited most of my life for Niall Mac Coitirs two books on Irish Trees and Wild plants of Ireland and folklore etc. Derek if I had far less books then I might learn one of them ............. but I am a book person. I now often listen to about a dozen of the commonest bird sounds only with earphones so that should help too. I record bird sounds in my garden on my mobile and then try to reconize them.
 
A few more snaps trying to show how many stamens there are in this purple flower, the length of stalk and total absence of leaves. I am not certain if it is Meadow Safron or Naked Lady but the total absence of leaves makes me query the Nudifloras or Naked Lady flower.

Looks like three stamens so a true crocus of some kind is my guess...
 
A merlin, 4 white wags, a dozen swallows and at least 50 skylarks and a good number of meadow pipits in today at cooley point (the merlin was there yesterday as well)
 
Kieran Campbell had 13 Brent Geese on Saturday 13th Sept and 192 on 2nd October at Laytown, Co. Meath. Would love to be out myself but not possible at the moment.
 
Looks like three stamens so a true crocus of some kind is my guess...

One article mentioned it having been introduced to somewhere in the midlands in the south of England to see if it would naturalize there. A book I peeped at in TKMax called it Colchicum autumnale (a true crocus) native to Europe and Asia and also known as Nudifloras and Meadow Safron but showed it as existing in a very small area in England. Also mentioned about it being poisonous and used in cancer research etc. Hard to pinpoint exactly which species of course but seems like one that flowers september to october as flowers in full bloom now, some even dying and give the appearance of being short lived in bloom.
I found the best information in one of my own Herb books by Roger Phillips & Nicky Foy listing Colchicum autumnale as a perennial herb native to central and south-eastern Europe which grows in damp meadows, marshes, roadsides, railway banks and woods. It was in long like bog grass on the roadside in sight of the railway banks where I found it. The whole description of it is very similar to what I photographed although does not mention the dark purple stripe in it. Another article mentioned a species with the purple stripe as being in decline in Greece and requesting people to search for it in the wild. I wonder is it another casualty of global warming and happier to grow now in wild grass in Newry, it will take the Greeks a while to find it....... Or perhaps someone grew it here once to collect the Saffron threads as it is delicious in food in the right quantities but also has many medicinal and aphrodisiac properties. Or did it always exist here until I mistakenly thought it was Breffnis cuckoo flower.
Another book on plants and flowers lists them as the genus of flowering corms native mainly to Europe and Asia but mentions again their active colchicine ingredient poisonous and used in the treatment of certain forms of cancer so that again in common. The other thing of interest is that Colchicum speciousum is very similar to meadow saffron and grown extensively in Turkey for commercial use. I doubt very much that the council here ever planted it along with Daffodils.
 
Kieran Campbell had 13 Brent Geese on Saturday 13th Sept and 192 on 2nd October at Laytown, Co. Meath. Would love to be out myself but not possible at the moment.

The brent seem to be coming in earlier and earlier! Counted 560 at rockmarshal and marsh south on the 1st October!
 
Good turnout last night for the eagles talk. For anyone who has not signed it, the petition is here: http://www.goldeneagle.ie/portal.php?z=197

Also of interest is that a pectoral sandpiper was found on the docks at Dundalk last sunday week! As far as I know this is a 2nd county record for Louth, which along with the caspian tern (as far as I know a 1st for the county), makes two good records for September...
 
I saw a Blackcap sitting on a wall for the first time (that I am certain about) near Dominic street on my split.
 
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