Sunday, October 09, 2016

Irish Birds, Mostly Common Ones

From our trip to Ireland: members of the crow family.
Ireland is home to quite a few members of the crow, or corvid, family, including crows, ravens, rooks, jackdaws, magpies, and choughs. We saw them in many environments: by the sea, on rooftops in town, and on lawns and even on a golf course. We spent lots of time looking at birds during our recent trip -- a pleasure for me even when we see only the fairly common ones.

A European robin sang his wonderful song on a tree near the water in Galway. 
Shorebirds -- and even gulls -- are a pleasure to watch!

A cormorant and a gull near Galway harbor.
A heron.
We often saw swans. The rarer variety had not arrived from migration yet.

Many wagtails were on roofs, walls, headstones, and lawns  at
Clonmacnoise National Historic Site and the nearby wildlife preserve. 
"The Curious Curlew" is the name of a bar,
 suggesting that Irish people love the shorebirds too.

1 comment:

Jeanie said...

I'm inclined to think shore birds and water-oriented birds are my favorites (and then I think of dozens of exceptions!). Common they may be, but beautiful nonetheless. Fabulous swan photos!