Birds at my feet; and look at those legs! Part1.

Mute Swan

Halloween is always a troubled time for us, where we live and last year we chose to spend a night in town to escape the flour bombs, eggs and other pellets at the windows, only to return home to 5 broken windows.

So this time Francis booked us in for 3 nights, a birthday present (back in September) and for our 28th anniversary.
The hotel sits right at the harbour and from the window-floor-ceiling-you are looking down onto the local birds.
My bins and camera had plenty to do and my eyes are still not really adjusted, I think. Not in sync with my mind. We returned on Monday after the bus did not show on Sunday.
Luckily Sally, our lovely cat carer at her Kennels in Dunmanway, did not care the extra night, and she came home once we were settling in again.

Here are some Turnstones, one of my favourite birds. I love the way how they do indeed turn over the land, or in this case, the Seaweed and the mud, literary. Rooks and Hoodies do this too, yet it is the Turnstones which I love to watch and photograph.
Yet getting this chance is often more difficult than not, and this time the light was very low and I did only have the one chance.

I'm hoping that someone can tell me if the bird in the right corner is one of the Godwits?
At first I thought it would be a Redhank; the legs were not right though. They were around, but paddling and foraging elsewhere.



And here are the proper Redshank, don't you just love those legs? They are like little tubular lights walking the mud. Which is why I do not think the previous one could not have been be A Redshank.



Talking of Red legs, suddenly you start to see these everywhere of course. Birds I usually see in my Local Patch every time I go there. Talking of Oystercatchers, those birds which are able to make you think there is a fire nearby, when they start screaming at whoever happens to be in the area. I've always been amazed at their eyes; they must be related to vampires, surely? Even so, I find it incredibly diffiult to capture the red eye of the Oystercatcher. Only in one or two I managed this a little, I think. With fading light I find this not the easiest job.







A fair amount of Black headed Gulls and Mute Swans are also among the local residents, and a family of Mute Swans had four Cygnets tagging along. I love how the Swans congegrate together at certain spots. Usually they do so underneath the wall opposite the hotel, or underneath the bridge underneath the square. Here they are in front of the lodge to Bantry House. (the square building on the right is the bar of the hotel) and underneath the bridge of the square.



And from my window: