{"id":302330,"date":"2026-01-25T02:58:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-25T02:58:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/302330\/"},"modified":"2026-01-25T02:58:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-25T02:58:17","slug":"bushy-park-duckling-photo-wins-irish-examiner-reader-photographer-competition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/302330\/","title":{"rendered":"Bushy Park duckling photo wins Irish Examiner reader photographer competition"},"content":{"rendered":"

A fluffy Tufted duckling rests on its mother\u2019s back on a summer\u2019s day in Bushy Park in the leafy suburbs of south Dublin.<\/p>\n

Mum sits with pride as she floats along the pond in the park, as passersby stop to take photographs of the cute duo.<\/p>\n

This image \u201cTufty Duck\u201d was captured on a Canon R7 with a zoom lens by Carol McCabe from nearby Rathfarnham who picked up her camera for the first time three years ago and began taking images of wildlife.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Today, she is the winner of the top prize for the reader\u2019s photographer competition in the Irish Examiner.<\/p>\n

\" Carol McCabe, with her image of a tufted duck with baby on board that she took at Bushy Park in Dublin \u2014\u00a0the overall winner in the Irish Examiner Readers Photography Competition 2025. Picture: Moya Nolan<\/p>\n

\u201cI spend a lot of time at the Dodder River down the road,” she said. “I work as a sacramental co-ordinator in the parish, and I love taking photos in my spare time\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

This particular image was taken in June 2025 after her fellow photographers spoke about the Tufty ducks in Bushy Park.<\/p>\n

\u201cI went there and saw a lot of baby ducks jumping up and down on mammy\u2019s backs\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\" Carol McCabe from Rathfarnham, Dublin, who has won the Irish Examiner Readers Photography Competition 2025. Picture: Moya Nolan<\/p>\n

\u201cI got very close to the back of the mammy and this particular little one, leaned against the mam and it stayed there for a good while, and I took the image.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought it was very cute because I loved the way he was leaning against the mother, and I felt a form of affection between the two.<\/p>\n

Carol had the image printed off and showed it to some friends who said she should enter it into a competition.<\/p>\n

\" The Irish Examiner Readers’ Photography Competition 2025 runner up: ‘On the Fly’ \u2014 a lesser house fly taking refuge on the wing of a drone fly while it fights off an unwanted March fly. Picture: Bryan Enright, Kerry<\/p>\n

\u201cI said ‘OK’, and sent it into the Irish Examiner and then I heard it was in the paper.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n To have the photograph published was absolutely overwhelming. I can\u2019t believe it.\n <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the picture editor Jim rang and said I won the competition, it was real moment for me. I still can\u2019t believe it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWith wildlife, you just never know what you are going to capture that day, so many people were out looking for the Kingfisher\u2019s that day, and I captured this. I am delighted.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Irish Examiner Readers’ Photography Competition 2025 runner up: A juvenile sand martin wondering how to catch flies all by itself. The photo was taken on the River Bride in Blackpool, Cork City. Picture: Chris Martin, Cork.<\/p>\n

Runners up include “On the Fly”, a lesser house fly takes refuge on the wing of a drone fly while it fights off an unwanted march fly by Barry Enright from Kerry.<\/p>\n

And a juvenile sand martin wondering how to catch flies all by itself by Chris Martin from Cork City, who was a previous overall winner in 2022 for the photography of three howler monkeys in Fota.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A fluffy Tufted duckling rests on its mother\u2019s back on a summer\u2019s day in Bushy Park in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":302331,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[4488,149083,18,117,19,17,1109],"class_list":{"0":"post-302330","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-irish-examiner-instagram","9":"tag-picture-galleries","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-media"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115953500736298803","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=302330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302330\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/302331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}