Motorcycles and places to photograph.

June 3, 2025George McNeill 5 Comments

“I may not have a therapist, but I do have my motorcycle.”

Irish Photo Rally 2025, It’s been a couple of years since I done any of the photo points but I decided to do some of them this year. Not sure I’ll get round them all but there’s still time.

For those that do not know what the Irish Photo rally is, at it’s simplest there are 24 points across Ireland where you ride your motorcycle too and photograph it at each point. The points change each year and take you to places you would never think of going. A great way to see the Island and the diversity of the history and landscapes it offers. There is no order in which you have to follow when doing them, for me I break the points into day rides and weekend breaks. So anything north of Dublin I can cover in day rides, South of Dublin weekend breaks.

Here is a link to the Irish Photo Rally site, the map and locations. https://irishphotorally.ie

My day out covered about 270 miles/ 400km and it took in five rally points, numbers 4,6,5,7 and 8 in that order.

Number:4
Region: “Down/Armagh”
Province: Ulster
Name: Giant Sliotar
3km W of Lurgan
Coordinates:
Irish Grid : IJ 04891 58928
Degrees Minutes Seconds : N54 28’ 05″ W6 22’ 59″

Sliotar

A sliotar or Sliothar is a hard solid sphere slightly larger than a tennis ball, consisting of a cork core covered by two pieces of leather stitched together. Sometimes called a “hurling ball”, it resembles a baseball with more pronounced stitching. It is used in the Gaelic games of hurling, camogie, rounders and shinty. Wikipedia

Number:6
Region: “Fermanagh/Tyrone”
Province: Ulster
Name: The Big Lathe
Coalisland
Coordinates:
Irish Grid : IH 83780 662870
Degrees Minutes Seconds: N54 32’ 17″ W6 42’ 23″

I have included the coordinates with each photo for those that wish to see the street views on Google maps if they are available.

Number:5
Region: “Cavan/Monaghan”
Province: Ulster
Name: Derryheen Church of Ireland
2km W of Butlersbridge
Coordinates:
Irish Grid : IH 39117 09994
Degrees Minutes Seconds : N54 02’ 16″ W7 24’ 13″

I will have to remember to stop and take some photo’s from the places I pass through, I just remembered this area had beautiful country side with great views across small lakes. I do this all the time, I enjoy ride riding my bike, admiring the views but forget to record them. I’ll have to try and show more of this beautiful island I live on.

Here’s is a link to the famous ‘Myles the Slasher’ http://www.irishidentity.com/stories/myles.htm

It was a warm day and motorcycle gear is great while riding but you overheat when stopped, There was a little cloud cover where I took this photograph. I got a bottle of water from the little shop in the background and the lady serving was saying, it’s great having all these good looking bikers calling in to see her, but there was a few exceptions. Hmmm. Sure the Irish have a great sense of humour.

So it’s on to the last one of the day, this one had me looking for something I discovered does not exist anymore. But there is a sign.

Number:8
Region: “Louth/Meath”
Province: Leinster
Name: Postman’s Hut
10km west of Kells
Coordinates:
Irish Grid : IN 63627 76594
Degrees Minutes Seconds: N53 44′ 07″ W7 02′ 12″

Okay, I know I took a few more photograph’s of this site where the last postman hut stood. I can’t find them. This reminds me of standing in front of my school teacher telling her the dog eat my homework, honest Miss young it did…

There are good views of this on Google street view, I did check..

For those that have made it this far Thank you for joining me on my day out. I will try and take some non- photo rally photographs on my journey’s to other rally points.

First Posting in a couple of years.

April 18, 2025April 20, 2025George McNeill 4 Comments

There as been a few changes in my life over this last couple of years, changes where I stepped back from posting. Taking time to look after myself from the stress of my employer moving me to a different location to work. I survived and retired in December 2024.

So my first post is about volunteering with the RSPB as a Conservation Officer on The Northern Ireland Red Kite Project.

These birds were reintroduced back into the north of Ireland in 2008 with young birds from Wales. 2010 saw the First Red Kites to hatch in Northern Ireland in 200 years.

They are monitored most of the year, Winter means being out in all weathers till dark doing Roost counts. These birds like some other birds of prey are social and roost in groups, first we need to find the roosting sites. Then count how many are there, This information is relayed back from all the volunteers from different roosts. it gives an indication of how many are in the area.

Red Kites hunting for food.

You can see in the above photos wing tags on some of the birds, brown tags on the left wing means it a Northern Ireland bird. The colour tag on the right wing gives the birth year, there are numbers and letters on the tags which help in with nest and year information. Also you can see the forked tail from which it gets it name.

Next comes Spring and nest building time. Red kites mate for life and will reuse the same nest if they were successful in rearing a family in it the previous year. But if unsuccessful will move to a new nest site. This becomes race to find them before the trees get their leaf covering. Plus we get help from the public who report possible nest sites. We monitor the nest for the sight of chicks, when they are five to six weeks old the identification tags are fitted to the wings and leg. you have to be licensed to handle and tag these birds.

Young Red Kite waiting to be tagged While in the other photo it’s getting a leg ring fitted. Notice the young birds just stay still, they play dead.

I will give some measurements and weight for adult birds .

Length: 60-66cm or 23-26 inches

Wingspan: 154-170cm or 60-67 inches

Weight: 750-1600g or 1.6-3.5 pounds

We watch the young Kites getting stronger by the week as they lose their down for full feathers, flapping their wings to build strength for flight. Once flying juveniles move on after four weeks.

Its at this time we get a short break before autumn arrives and the dark evenings. Time to warp up warm and look forward to roost counting season.

I’ll leave you with a few photographs of this beautiful bird and thank you stopping by.

Stay safe,

George.

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4 responses to “First Posting in a couple of years.”

doerfpub

April 19, 2025

First off, congratulations on the retirement. I can definitely say I never looked back after making that call. Now the Red Kite…wow, that is a cool bird. We have the White tailed variety over here to enjoy, but I do really like your resident variety. Thanks for introducing me to this species!

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1. George McNeill
  
  April 19, 2025
  
  Thank you for your comment, yes retirement is a great gift to ones self. More time to spend in nature.
  
  LikeLiked by 1 person
A Curious Introvert

April 20, 2025

Welcome back and you’ve been missed!! Congratulations on your retirement and new volunteer opportunity! Looking forward to seeing some of your wonderful photos as you enjoy less stressful times.🙂

LikeLiked by 1 person
Janet

June 29, 2025

Happy retirement George, and what a great way to volunteer! Love the shots of it in flight.

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52 Week:Black and White

March 7, 2022March 7, 2022George McNeill 2 Comments

Week 2

This weeks image is of moss covered in raindrops. Taken on my Sony mobile phone and edited in Snapseed.

Sun hitting a patch of rain covered moss.

Black & White Wednesday

May 27, 2020May 26, 2020George McNeill 2 Comments

Welcome to another B&W Wednesday, the photograph this week of a Cabbage White butterfly. It was taken with a 150-600 mm telephoto lens. Using a telephoto lens allows you to stand well back from your subject, less chance of spooking them.

Shot in raw format and edited in LR with the final edit in Nik Silver Efex Pro.

Photographed using a Nikon D7200,

Sigma 150-600 mm lens.

ISO: 400, f8 , 1/800 sec. Lens focal length 550 mm.

Thank you for visiting and stay safe.

George.

Black & White Wednesday

May 20, 2020May 19, 2020George McNeill Leave a comment

My image this week is part of a Hawthorn tree. It was growing near the top of a hill and the rising sun was back lighting the young leaves. It makes a good colour image but my thoughts were the tones it would show in B&W. I’ll leave you to judge the image for yourself.

Covir-1-129

Nikon D7200 with a Sigma C 150-600 mm lens.

Shot at f5 using the 150mm setting on the lens and ISO 800.

Feedback always welcome.

Stay safe.

George

Black & White Wednesday.

May 13, 2020May 12, 2020George McNeill 5 Comments

Welcome to B & W Wednesday where I post a B&W photograph taken some time in the last month. This weeks image was picked because I loved the texture of the hair and the light reflecting in the eye.

It is the face of a cow, we came face to face at the top of a hill. Well not this close, She started to approach me and I shot a few images. This was edited in Lightroom and finished in Nik Silver Efex Pro, my favorite for black and white finishing.

Camera Nikon D7200 with a Sigma 150-600 lens. Shot at f5.6, 1/640 sec, ISO400 at 185mm focal length.

Feel free to comment, like or dislike.

Thank you for visiting. Stay safe.

George.

Black and White Wednesday

April 29, 2020April 28, 2020George McNeill 2 Comments

Been a while since I posted a Black and white photo on B&W Wednesday. So time to get started again.

A Hover fly shot in the evening light with a Nikon D7200 and a Sigma 105mm macro lens.

Thank you for visiting

George.

Early Mornings

April 28, 2020April 28, 2020George McNeill 5 Comments

My how life has changed for most of us, restrictions, work closures and social distancing to name a few. So for the last six weeks I’ve been at home, fuel prices are down the weather is great but I can’t go anywhere. Travel restrictions are in force so traveling to the coast is not going to happen. I have been walking in my local area and get out for sunrise most morning. I walk in a local wood for a few hours and explore trails that take me away from the beaten path. I don’t carry my camera every morning but will use my mobile/cell to photograph sunrise’s and landscapes in the woods. I post to Instagram most days, link at the bottom of the page. So any photos on this blog are taken with my Nikon DSLR. The following where taken over a period of time.

This shot is across County Down with the Mourne mountains in the back ground.

The remains of a small hill farm for days long gone.

Been trying to find out more about this Cross on a distance hill. (most of this photos are shot with a telephoto lens which creates a compressed perspective). I have been told it was a site of a Mass rock. Link: Mass rock

Will be finding out more about this cross and I have to find if there is public access to it.

A cool frosty morning in this shot with frost lying on the fields in the foreground and the hills on the other side of Belfast in the background. A view around 25 miles away. The next shot is to the west and is of Scrabo Tower above the town of Newtownards in County Down. Again this would be around 25 mile away. Link: Scrabo

Given the warm weather we have been having and the cold nights we get the valley’s full with mist early morning and late evening.

Where I grew up in Ireland these mists were known has ghost mists due to the distortion effect on objects around you. If you saw somebody walk into the mist you would understand why….

Going to finish the landscape side with another old hill farm shot, this you can just see through a gap in the trees.

Next a few of the wild life I have managed to photograph on my walks.

A one legged Mistle Thrush. Link : Mistle Thrush

Dunnock: Dunnock

Chaffinch: Link Chaffinch

A young buck and doe deer.

These photographs are of Roe deer. I was lucky to get these shots has the first sight or smell of humans and they disappear . I still had my camera in hand has I make my out of the woods, just rounding a bend I spotted them feeding. I slowly pushed into the foliage beside me and stood still. Having a 150 – 600mm lens on the camera helped me get these shots.

I have a list of the birds and animals still to photograph, so my early morning walks will continue while work is suspended.

Thank you for joining me on my walk.

Stay safe and well.

George.

What’s happening on this site.

March 14, 2020George McNeill 9 Comments

Here we are in March 2020 and I’m writing the first blog post of the year. It’s been a busy couple of years here in my world. Had and have some plans for the site for the start of the year but I’m a little behind, now we have the Coronavirus ( COIID-19) spreading across the world. With every aspect of life effected some of my projects might have to be sidelined for awhile depending on travel restrictions.

So I have been out a few times with the camera around the coast here in Northern Ireland, so below are some for the birds wintering here.

Ringed plover.

Black headed Gull

Barred tailed Godwits

Little Egret

Brent Geese

These were all taken at Strangford lough. Here

Thank you for visiting and hope you enjoyed my images, please comment on this post.

George

Mud Walker and Thank you..

December 22, 2019George McNeill 9 Comments

Hello my friends, well the rain stopped and the sun make a weak showing. So nipped down to the County down coast which is a half hour drive from home. The tide was out and there where plenty on bird life around. but it was to far out on the mudflats for photography. Would have waited for the incoming tide to push them back to the shore but the light drops here around 3.30pm (2.45pm when I got there) and will be dark an hour later.

There were just a few Redshank’s close to the shore, feeding on whatever lives under this liquid mud. So without boring you I’ll post a few photos of these small waders.