WEEKEND REFLECTIONS AND THE WEEKEND ROUNDUP

Time for Weekend Reflections and The Weekend Roundup and the letter L and Landscape.  On one of my early morning walks I photographed this LOVELY LILY, followed by a seat with the words LEST We Forget. Then passed the LIBRARY and down to a different LANDSCAPE by the  sea where I saw a LINNET and the LONG LINE of houses overLOOKING the LONG Hole harbour, cast a lovely LIGHT giving me my REFLECTION shot.

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I hope you enjoyed this post today. 

I appreciate your visit and comments.

THROUGH MY LENS

These are photographs of young Linnets which I saw on the National Trust Property around Kearney, East Down.

I am linking to THROUGH MY LENS.

Many thanks for visiting and also leaving comments.

SATURDAY CRITTERS - Linnet - female EXTRA

This image of a femal Linnet was photographed near the Mourne Mountain, in Northern Ireland by Danny, one of my bird group. 

 I am linking with Saturday Critters.

Sorry folks still handing trouble with laptop and my computer man is trying to sort it out.  Sometimes its on and then OFF!!!

Many thanks to Danny for sharing this image and to you for visitng and also for leaving comments.

SATURDAY CRITTERS - Rathlin Island (Part 6)

This is the penultimate post from the Rathlin Island series and in it I am showing you a variety of Critters I found that day on the island.  Below is a Linnet, followed by cows and sheep I saw from the bus on my way to The Stacks at the West Lighthouse.

There were quite a number of Meadow Pipit and this Pigeon 

below was actually at The Stacks.

The bus man was a real laugh and when we arrived at The Stacks,

he turned into a 'human' Puffin!  The 6 images below are real Puffins.

Fulmer above and Kittiwake with chicks below.

Donkeys and more cows.

This looks quite an old dog and was on the crossing back to the mainland.

I have a short video to show you.  CLICK HERE if it does not appear below. 

I hope you enjoyed this post and I thank you for visiting.

I am linking this post with SATURDAY CRITTERS.

Many thanks to all who leave comments.

WILD BIRD WEDNNESDAY -Birds around Magheroarty and Inch island, Donegal (Part 2)

These are the birds I was able to photograph from Magheroarty Pier, through the town of Dunfanaghy and over the causeway to Inch Island in Donegal.

Pied Wagtail

Meadow Pipit

I have a short video at the end of this post as I try and hold the camera steady in the high winds long enough to get some footage.

Linnet

Great Black backed Gulls.

Swans and Cygnets

Heron

One of the reason for trying to going to Tory island is to hear and/or see the Corncrakes that we no longer have in Northern Ireland.  In fact on my way where I recorded the video from yesterday, I was surprised to hear one and the next day, when the boat was cancelled, I heard 2 more near this lake above.

Oystercatcher and Curlew.

Lapwing

This is one of many Swallows that were trying to balance from the wind and the rain on a fence post however I will show you more shots and video on 
Saturday Critters.

On Inch island there is a small bay with a pier and a beach 

where this Heron was sitting.

Mallard

I have a short video which if it does not appear below,

CLICK HERE

Hope you enjoyed seeing the birds as I motored towards Buncrana in Donegal where I was fortunate to have a friend's home to stay at.

Tomorrow, I will show you through stills and video what the Fishermen were unloading on Magheroarty Pier.

I am linking this post with WILD BIRD WEDNESDAY.

Thank you for visiting and also to those who leave comments.

GOOD FENCES - Bird Group Outing and Walled Garden

Last Monday my Bird Group went birding finishing off having lunch at a restaurant called Daft Eddy’s near my old caravan.  The weather was very kind to us as were the tides enabling us to see many thousands of birds. More about that in tomorrow’s post.   For now, look at all the photos I have to show you.

We stopped on this narrow road when we saw Whooper Swans flying over.   These were the first I had seen this year.  then we noticed these 2 horses and Isa had some peppermint which they loved. 

There were 11 in our group that day and we had invited Mary, who is our U3A Chair Person and Jeff her husband to join us for this special day.  In fact it was Mary who spotted the Swans!

Please can I have one too!!

Although we only saw 6 Whooper fly over and at a distance, later on we saw 40 more flying over and then landing on Strangford Lough.

These next shots were taken the next day after I played badminton and then went into the Walled Garden.  I will be showing you more flowers from the garden next Monday however most of these shots have some kind of ‘fence’ in them.

Already they have planted up onion and garlic and 

due to the mild weather are doing very well.

These are broad beans and are already 7” high.  There were also peas however they didn’t look as far on because the Wood Pigeon love them.

The Hydrangea are still blooming.

 This beautiful gate leads from one Walled Garden to the another one.

Apart from quite a number Robin in the garden, there were some Tit, Wren, Blackbird, Rook and Wood Pigeon.  They have some bird feeders up for the birds in  the wintertime.

There was still some colour and below are Wallflowers which have still have to be planted out and really should not be blooming until the spring!

I think these are Lily bulbs having been lifted and 

are drying out in the greenhouse.

On my way home, I drove round by the coast road and saw these birds on the grass.  Someone had thrown down seed for them.  There were Rook, Herring Gull and Hooded Crow.

This is a 1st year winter Herring Gull.

This is a Black headed Gull on the grass and a Rook flying down.

There was a small party of Linnets that were always quite a distance from me, even though I was photographing all these birds from the car so I have cropped some shots so you could see them a bit better although the quality is not great then.

I hoped you enjoyed this post.  

I am linking this post with GOOD FENCES.

Thank you for visiting and also

 many thanks to all those who leave comments.