HOOK MOUNTAIN IN WEST NYACK, NY

THE 'FUN BARN' AT MARYDELL FAITH AND LIFE CENTER

West Nyack State Park on the Hudson River

Mgr. John Kane Hermitage in West Nyack-Marydell

RETREAT AT MARYDELL

Last week I made a retreat under Hook Mountain in West Nyack, NY. The place is called "Marydell Faith and Life Center". It is still a summer camp location and "used to be" an overnight camp run by the Sisters of Christian Doctrine. It is made up of lovely little cabins and cottages just under the palisade cliffs that tower above the Hudson River just above Tarrytown and just south of Ossining on the East bank of the river. The little hermitage where I stayed was the summer home of Mgr. John Kane, a diocesan priest who taught in High School for many years and was the Camp Chaplain in the summer. They tell me that he was an exceptionally simple, peaceful and good man. There are always, at all times of the year, many Turkey Vultures soaring or gliding over Hook Mountain which is an interesting vantage point during Spring and Fall migration of hawks and songbirds. The preceding posts today show you some of the great scenery of Marydell: 1. Hook Mountain 2. West Nyack State Park along the river 3. One of the cottages and 4. The Mgr. John Kane Hermitage.

MY 'CHRIST AND THE PLANET" WORSHOP YESTERDAY

whI have been in a very elated mood since yesterday. One of the biggest reasons was that I finally was able to get a nice group of 6 persons together to give the workshop on the environment on which I have worked hard for the last half year. Joan, Kevin, Francisco, Ann, Nick and Dan (my very own brother!!) spent the day from 10am till 4pm contemplating the truly wonderful immensity of this universe and our planet. We used videos, my PowerPoints which represent "lots" of work, music on ecology and the planet and some good shared reflections on how to REFLECT....CONNECT....RESPECT and.....PROTECT our gift of "Mother Earth. I plan to offer the workshop again. And....I also plan to have a complete weekend workshop during which you can stay with us three nights on our Hudson River 400 acre land of THE MOUNT, get to know, touch, identify the trees, plants, animals and habitats we have besides praying together and reflecting on those tasks I just mentioned above. I am most grateful to my brother Dan and to his friend from Puerto Rico, Tato, (Francisco) who helped me "put up the planets" and the other "visuals that i had created. Below I share a very simple YouTube video on the environment.
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RELIGION AND ECOLOGY

One of the sources I have read for my workshop on Ecology and the Environment:

CHRIST AND FALL MIGRATION

Saturday, Oct 4th

Time: 10am---3pm

Where:Mt. St Alphonsus Pastoral Center, Esopus, NY

Phone: 845-384-8052

is Mary Evelyn Tucker and her John Grim from Yale. They show how the different religious groups, for instance myself and other Roman Catholics are "coming alive in our love and desire to connect with the whole living environment"

Please enjoy this YouTube video which is "right down the alley" that I will walk with you this Saturday here at THE MOUNT.

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FACING "INCONVENIENT TRUTHS..OUR EARTH

I have been putting the "finishing touches" on my workshop on CHRIST AND FALL MIGRATION for this coming:

Saturday

Oct 24th

9am--4pm

Mt. St. Alphonsus Retreat

845-384-8000

I will be a good workshop that challenges me and you to have, as Thomas Berry always said: "a mutually enhancing with all people and life systems of our earth"

I have been selecting YouTube videos that reflect what I will share with you who come next Saturday. I like this one because it actually shows a tearful Jesus Christ looking upon what have been the "short term" and what will be the "long range effects" of global warming upon the earth: the suffering it has caused and WILL cause if not combatted bringing pain and sadness to God' s earth. (The sequences are from Al Gore's film, "An Inconvenient Truth".)

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'MERCY FOR ME"---Song of the Earth

As beautiful as you may find the pictures I put on here of Vermont in the autumn I continue to invite you to come to my CHRIST AND FALL MIGRATION one day workshop:

Saturday, Oct. 24th

from 9am till 4 pm

Mt. St. Alphonsus Retreat Center

Esopus, NY

845-384-8000

And enjoy this song about protecting the Earth, our home You can also find the written lyrics on Marvin Gaye's Lyric Page at:

http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/Mercy-Mercy-Me-The-Ecology-lyrics-Marvin-Gaye/93D3799177E4A89748256BD40012C55C

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A Nice Autumn Trip to Arlington VT--Mt. Equinox

Last week my friend Norman and I went to Mt. Equinox, VT which is near Bennington Vermont. We spent some time "above the mist", but later enjoyed Shaftsbury State Park and another beautiful lake which is a reservoir along Route 7a which is the scenic route. Out on the island there were a number of large comorants drying off their wings after fishing. And, although our Canada Geese were "masters and mistresses" of the reservoir, we also saw a few Great Blue Herons. (And I "think" I saw an immature American Bald Eagle glide over me just after I took the picture of me with the light that "fortuitously came through the trees behind me". Autumn, with its splash of greens, yellows, reds and browns is a great way to say "Goodbye" to summer and a reluctant "Hello!" to winter.

Moss Covered Rock in Shaftsbury State Park, VT

Lake at Shaftsbury State Park--Bennington, VT

Hudson River Birder at in Vermont Autumn Woods

Wooden Bridge at Shaftsbury State Park, VT

Reservoir near Bennington VT

...."PEOPLE PROTECT WHAT THEY LOVE" (Jaques Costeau)

file:/ This Hudson River Birder reminds you all of my Environmental Workshop which will be here at Mt. St. Alphonsus Pastoral Center starting at 9am on Saturday, Oct. 24th, 2009. I have worked hard preparing PowerPoints on the Universe, the formation of the Universe as well as focusing on our need to respect, connect and protect Earth which is our home. Below are two videos from YouTube that articulate some of the ideas of my workshop on the environment. Please come! There will be a fine lunch. The cost is only $35. I also present this :30 sec video from Jaques Costeau who invites us to PROTECT WHAT WE LOVE. Jaques himself believed and lived what he said. Let's do it too!
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OUR ENVIRONMENT NEEDS "OUR HELP"

The last post I put had a YouTube video on Thomas Berry's ideas on how we need to have a "mutally enhancing relationship with all of Creation". This means, of course, our fellow human beings. But it includes all living things that God has placed here in our "mutual home" On Oct 24the which is a Saturday from 9am until 4 pm I invite those of you who can to come to my "Christ and Fall Migration" workshop. It costs only $35 and includes a fine lunch. In this workshop I will help us to understand our relationship to the universe and our planet earth so that we can understand what we can and need to do to connect with, reflect upon, respect and protect our home...EARTH. I invite you to see this other quite powerful video from YouTube which shows lots of both the benefits of protecting our Earth as well as the sad consequences of not doing this. Watch and reflect.
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MY OCT 24TH WORKSHOP ON THE NEW CREATION STORY

Here at The Mount I have grown in my love of what Thomas Berry and the astronomer, Brian Swimme call "The New Creation Story" On Saturday, Oct 24th from 10am till 4pm I will present what I have studied about the formation of the physical world, showing how truly gigantic and wondrous our universe truly is, and how dangerously fragile our planet earth has become. My workshop will show, as Fr. Berry, Brian Swimme and many others believe that we must do all we can, STOP doing what we should so that our relationship with our fellow human beings of all nations and our relationship with the biosystems that keep us alive....become "mutually enhancing". For me this phrase "mutually enhancing" means in plain English that, "Our wounded planet makes out and we who are here to care for it also make out".
Here below is a video clip that will give you an idea what my workshop is about. PLEASE CONSIDER COMING. The day includes a great lunch, coffee and cookies and is only $35.

NATURE'S HALF ACRE

One of the nature documentaries that I will always remember was done, I think, by the Disney people. It was called, "Nature's Half Acre" It was all about bees and bugs and worms and the creatures that are right there beneath our feet. When I was in the Bronx one of my happiest projects were three years of running Summer Day Camps. It is so great when kids can get out in the country and discover birds,flowers, fresh ponds and streams....and Yes...bugs!!!! I remember that there were some kids, mostly but not always..girls, who did not like to be near dirt and bugs, salamanders and the like. I was initially quite misunderstanding about this. But now I know that all people do not have the same sensitivity to the outdoors. But one thing that I most certainly believe that all people, like or not like dirt and bugs...is that we are "all connected". Those little critters in Nature's Half Acre all have their purpose in the web of life and it is not just to be shunned by the people they disgust or try to bite. They all are important or they would never have come into the circle of life. I say this because one of the easiest things I can do with my little digital camera is take great shots of bees, flowers and bugs. So enjoy.

MORE SHAUPENEAK PEAK BEE SHOTS

Shaupeneak Bee' Work is Never Done

Rambing Through Pell Farm on Labor Day

My brother Dan and I took an early walk to the Pell Farm. The Purple Beach, which is one of about four, "may or may not" be 200 years old. Many of these trees were planted by Robert Livingston Pell himself. Or they "may" have been there long before he inherited the farm. They are powerful and beautiful. There is a small cementery with what were probably Pell workers behind what seems to be a "House of Leaves". There are the name Terpenning there. There is one grave to an "AMANDA" who was born around 1732. Fr. Gene takes care of the cementery in the sense that he mows around and up to it. The cementery measures about 30 by 20 feet and has about 7 or eight gravestones, most of them now fallen.

Pell's "Barnless Silo" at Esopus

Pell Farm "House of Leaves"

My Brother Dan and 200 Year Old Purple Beach

My old friend: "Cedar Hill at Central Park"

In 1997 I was in New York City in September and October on a preaching assignment. On my "downtime" I discovered what was then a very well organized "Hawk Migration Count" which happened mostly on the top level of Belvedere Castle which is right below >"Turtle Pond"strong> and right at the beginning of "The Ramble" which is pretty much the center of Central Park. There I met many professional birders and bird photographers and naturalists as Lloyd Spytylnick, Debra Allen, "Birding Bob De Candido and many others. Today I was with two two gentlemen whom I have known since then: Bernie Nathan and Art Le Moyne. Now "Cedar Hill" which is right above what is known as the "Boating Pond" and leads up to the Boathouse where "The Ramble" begins is the best birding spot in all of Central Park, most especially for seeing warblers during this Fall and also Spring bird migration. In 1997 I spent my Thursdays during September at the morning Hawk Count. On days with a load cloud cover and good northwesterly winds one can see many hawks, falcons on there way south to winter and some to nest. It is a truly splendid sight to see an enormous "kettle" of accipiters or falcons soaring, gliding and spiralling sometimes a thousand feet up in the sky. The picture below is of Cedar Hill where today, even with the 60 degree temperature and the winds sunbathers and others enjoy these "last days of summer". I arrived at the Ramble around 11am and so there wasn't much movement of warblers, just a few Black Headed Blues, one Worm Eating Warbler, a number of Black and White Warblers and some Cedar Waxwings chewing away at the berries near Belvedere Castle. This "Hudson River Birder" began as a "Central Park Birder". I still feel a great love for the "lung of New York City" because that is what this great creation of two great arquitects: Frederick Law Olmstead and Calvert Vaux truly is.

Cedar Hill at Central Park

A Day at Shaupeneak Peak/ Lake Louise

I have been at Esopus over a year and never visited Shaupeneak Peak and Lake Louise which are just three miles from The Mount. There is a blue trail that goes around the lake, a Red Trail that goes to great views of the upper Catskills and looking due East over the Hudson. There are both black and red birch there. The land is owned by Scenic Hudson, but a West Esopus Trail group cares for the trails quite well. There are didactic plaques on the trails the help one realize how nature can be treated either with respect....or its opposite!.... For this "birder" well I need to kick myself. Because that's where the Worm Eating Warblers nest. There are Eastern Wood Pewees galore, Red Tailed Hawks, Red Eyed Vireos "invisible but vocal as always"....high in the tree tops. It is a wonderful little piece of God's own earth...and "ours too"...right under my nose. I met a very nice retired NYC Fire Captain with his two "well behaved" Irish Terriers: Molly and Kiera...

Shores of Lake Louise at Shaupeneak Peak

Maple at Shapeneak Peak-Ulster Park

Lake Louise

A "MOUNT ST. ALPHONSUS SUNRISE"

Robert Livingston Pell Fish and Trout Ponds-4

THE ROBERT LIVINGSTON PELL FISH AND TROUT PONDS

Recently I received a request from an author doing a study on the Fish, especially trout that Robert Livingston Pell imported from Europe and placed in five artificial ponds that he created on this property when it belonged to him around 1844. Reading the memoirs of the grandaughter of John Burroughs (Elizabeth Burroughs) in a piece she wrote for the Esopus Klyne Museum around 1978, Ms. Burroughs says that "three of the original ponds are still visible on our Mt.St. Alphonsus property. And so I have photographed the three that are just below the 9W entrance on the southern part of our property. Our Redemptorist cemetery is just above the first and 2nd ponds and just across the macadam road from the third. There are two more heading south towards Black Creek. But I could not ascertain if these had also been ones built and stocked by Mr. Pell.

Livingston Pell Fish and Trout Ponds-3

PELL FISH AND TROUT POND-2

THE PELL FISH AND TROUT PONDS-1

A VISIT TO BLACK RIVER SWAMP WITH EVELYN AND TOMMIE DABBS.

In 2004 I went on a birding trip to Sumter, SC. There I met a then well known and distinguised member of South Carolina Audubon Society. He was Robin Carter and had written a very extensive, simple and practical Guide to the best birding sites in South Carolina. (Sadly Robin Carter died just last year). Besides taking me on one of his Birding Before Breakfast walks on the river in Columbia, SC, Robin told me about Evelyn Dabbs who lived on the Black River Swamp on the road from Sumter to Florence SC. Since then Evelyn and Tommie have become my friends. On at least three occasions, mostly in early May I have spent entire days roaming their meadows, forests and swamp birding. With Evelyn and Tommie I experienced true Southern Hospitality as have many groups of children, adults and university groups since the year 1976 when Evelyn began doing a study of the migration and population of birds in the Black River Swamp area. I have shared many of my photos of Evelyn and Tommie's wonderful home. Because of a most wise environmental lean on their property its beauty and the vibrant plant, bird and other wildlife will be preserved. Below is a YouTube video I just made on Evelyn and Tommie.

SHEPHERDING AND BORDER COLLIES

While my two brothers and I were in Ireland last June, we took a very enjoyable day bus trip around the "Ring of Kerry". One of the most interesting stops was up on a mountain where a professional shepherd showed us the many varieties of sheep that exist in Ireland. And he showed us how he communicates with his two feisty Border Collies. He uses, as far as we could gather, whistle signals which include a special whistle signal for each Collie and signals that tell each one exactly what to do: "Move Right!", "Move Left!" "Crouch and menace!" "Sit down" "Run up!" "Run sideways". I am pretty sure that the shepherd also uses voice signals. And I suspect that sometimes the simple movement or position of his shepherd's staff tells the collies where to go or what to do. One interesting detail was the "Crouch and Menace" signal. The sheep see what is the movement of a possible predator when the collies bend down and creep meanacingly toward them. So they move! Here I include a YouTube clip which I wish had been longer.
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KAYAKING AT 70 YEARS OF AGE

I spent about five hours on the River yesterday...celebrating my 70th birthday. Can't think of anything more enjoyable I could have done on that most pleasant (7 5 degree) day. I went "on board" the Esopus Lighthouse that is being restored and prepared to be a B & B with beautiful views of the East and West Banks and the northern and southern stretches of the Hudson.
Below is the stump of a Maple that seemed to me to be quite old. How many years do YOU think it was?---
Green Buoy #63 marks the Hudson River's channel as it curves southwest at the Esopus Meadows heading towards Esopus Island and THE MOUNT.

GUESS THE AGE OF THIS MILLS MANOR MAPLE

Mike "Visitthemount.org" at Hudson Meadow Lighthouse

Renovation at Hudson River Lighthouse

Hudson River Birder at Esopus Meadown Lighthouse

Hudson River Birder Kayaking Hudson River

Marshy Path to Acre Farm

Identify this Wildflower!!!

Beefsteak Polypure

NATURE'S "HALF ACRE"

Below you will see (for July 11th, 2009) what I have been able to capture with the "micro" part of my neat Canon Digital camera. There was a wonderful film made in the 50ties by the Disney corporation I think, which was called, "Nature's Half Acre". Because it showed the small bugs, insects, plants, aquatic as well as land, that are truly a wonderful part of God's creation. I don't think there is any harder thing to photograph than a small wind blown wildflower. But it's a challenge for me. The colors do not always turn out the way "I saw it or remembere it", but I hope you can appreciate them....
SOMETHING ABOUT SEIDO KARATE: This weekend of July 9-12 we have 90 members of the Seido Karate people. The founder of the movement whose name is, Tadashi Nakamura , restored the contemplative and virtuous dimensions of karate. The values of respect, cooperation, service and team work as well as the values of meditation, silence, discipline and a dignified life are so very apparent in the Master and the participants. And they had our many groves, mini forests, green lawns and meadows to both meditate, practice and enjoy this land of THE HUDSON RIVER BIRDER.

Seido Karate Weekend at The Mount

Dragonfly on Acre Pond

White Baneberry on Pell Farm--Esopus

Common Fiber Vase Fungus near River

Unidentified Acre Pond Wildflower at Esopus

Plants, Bugs and Wildflowers

I have not the photography equipment to do birds. But my little Canon Digital Camera is simply "great" for nature scenes, micro shots of butterflies, bugs and wildflower. I can't change the name of my blog. But it "could" be named from now on either: Hudson River Bugger or 2. Hudson River Wildflowerer or 3. Hudson River Tree Guy.

The fact is that I have committed myself to do two Saturday days of reflection. The first is called Christ and the Planet. I will give it here on Satuday Sept 26 from 10am till 3pm. The other is called Fall Migration and Christ. That will be on Satuday, Oct. 24th, also from 10am till 3pm. Let me give you an idea of where this came from. When I was in the Bronx my Thursday "free- day" was inevitably spent birding or just relaxing in the natural wonder that is Central Park. So when I was assigned up here at The Mount in Esopus, NY some of my friends joked, "They've sent you upstate to birdwatch!" Well yes and no! I have always loved our place at the Mount. It is, as I say above a "beautiful piece of wildlife on the Hudson River". But my joy, my "mission" as a missionary priest is to "try and show how all in the world reflects...or "should reflect" God's wonder, goodness, truth, justice and compassion. So.....with these two workshops I hope to put together...my love of nature and my mission to help make the human family precisely that..."a family". There are people who have come to or have been taught to "hate religion". Sometimes this hatred comes from the fact that people have sometimes been taught that in order to love God and be a good person one has to hate or despise themselves and either "ignore the rest of creation" or worse still, exploit it and literally "choke it to death" I DON'T BELIEVE THAT. As a young boy in Pittsburgh PA. one of my joys was finding and enjoying the many parks we had in that city. I lived in the city, but I never was a "city boy". So there is a bit of the personal history and the dream of this HUDSON RIVER BIRDER.

Bee on a Leaf at Pell Farm

Very Old Purple Beach on Pell Farm

INDIAN BURIAL MOUND

ALPHIES, A LAB THAT LOVES TO CHEW

The other day the tethered objective lense caps fell off my Pentax DCF-SP 10X43 binoculars. You see there is a center screw that keeps the two caps snug to the binoculars...But....if the screw comes loose!!! Fortunately we have Alphie a year old Black Lab that finds most things that get lost on our grounds. Well, yes she "finds things". But she also loves to "chew them". I was hoping that the former would happen without the "latter". But I had no luck. There the lens caps were in Alphie's "Lost and Chewed" section of our front lawn. I had a bit of luck. Pentax will send me new ones, including the screw....FOR FREE. Now there's a first!

Our property has a small area below where the former Robert Livingston Pell mansion used to be that contains indian artefacts. It may just have been an indian burial site. Some have noticed unusual raised sections that might have been "burial mounds". I haven't nailed down the site. When I do I will have some pictures. (The post before this which is an actual Indian Burial Mound shows me that I must "might have been walking upon the mound without seeing it". Remember when Jimmie Durante, as he is dying in the movie Mad, Mad, World tells them all to "Love under the "BIG W"???

HUDSON RIVER SUMMER

I was in Ireland from the 30th of June until June 15th. I haven't posted anything since then. The Hudson River here at Esopus is as sultry and humid as it can be. While we had sunny and bright days in Ireland rain was pouring down on the Hudson River Valley. While I was gone one or maybe two eagles fledged. I have only seen the one even way back in May when other said they saw two of them. These days I have seen just one of the scraggly little eaglets sitting "below his/or her birthplace". The Royal European Starling Airforce" as I like to call these huge swarms o light brown summer-coated birds has been eating whatever they find on our lawns. If I had to say what the order of most numerous birds here in Esopus are (AFTER the Starlings...of course!!!) I would say 2. Chipping Sparrows 3. Red Winged Blackbirds 3. Eastern Bluebirds 4. Eastern Wood Pewees 5. Phoebes 6. American Robins 7. Barn and Tree Swallows 8. American Crows and Fish Crows 9. House Finches 10.Northern Mockingbirds 11. House or Winter Wrens



As I go on I have some "doubts". I think the Mockingbirds and House Finches should be further up the line. I have just begun to see some Goldfinch.

In Ireland there is a beautiful Goldfinch that has at least five colors: white, tan, yellow, black and red. You can judge for yourself. The only place I saw them there was on the road from Mountcharls, Co. Donegal to Glencough which is a, as they say, townsland of Mountcharles. Here is one. It is to the upper left.

The "Birder's Shadow" and the "Shadow of Ireland's Past"--Glencough,Mountchalres-Co. Donegal

A Wonderful World of Irish Birds and Trees

These days in Ireland have been wonderful. At Glencough near Mountcharles-Co. Donegal is the place where our maternal grandfather, John McDermott, was born and raised before going to America to provide a place for us. At his grand nephew's house, Patsy McDermott, besides seeing the ivy covered remains of the family barn and home, I saw what I think were Chiff Chaffs or Willow Warblers. I also saw the most beautiful Irish Goldfinches which have a red ring on their head besides the yellow and white wing patches. The most frequent birds here are: magpies, Black Thrush, Chaffinches, European Robin, Rooks, Jackdaws, Goldcrests, Collared Doves (which some people mistake for Cuckooes because they "sound" like a cuckoo), the Swallow (which is actually what we call "Barn Swallow" elsewhere), Tree Swallow, which are quite numerous....

The smell of Ireland is like a farm. I imagine this is because of the constant dampness. I found that the turf grows only one millemeter a year and so it is not a source of heat as it was many years ago. Many people have either knocked down their ancient homes or even sold the stones to developers because of their dire economic need. The developers have then created "stylized Irish cottages" which have all the modern comforts and conveniences that the old homes, of course, never had. The most wonderful thing about Ireland is its welcoming, loving and generous spirit. While we were in Mountcharles our cousin Eileen got all the Porters, Connollys, Martins, McDermotts.....together for a wonderful party with good food, Guinness, song and laughter. While we were there the Fine Gael party had a victory parade which passed right in front of our house. The picture here is of Martha Brennan, 103 years young enjoying the parade from her window above Brennan's Supermarket.--- IN THE PICTURE I HAVE LABELLED "MY GRANDFATHER'S HARE" THERE IS ACTUALLY A HUGE RABBIT (HARE) OUT IN THE FIELD....SEE IF YOU CAN PICK HIM OR HER OUT. HE OR SHE WOULD NOT ALLOW ME ANY CLOSER..

The "Hudson River Birder's brother John at "The Slieve Cliffs"--Killybegs-Sligo-Ireland

Sheep on Cliffs of Slieve League near Killybegs-Co. Donegal

My brother Dan and cousin Philomena's old Family Home in Dromore--Mountcharles-Co. Donegal

My Grandfather's Hare in Mouncharles-Co. Donegal

Wildlife on Connemara Preserve and Aran Islands

The past few posts have been more "travelogue" than nature posts. Today I have a beautiful picture of the sandy but rough beaches on the coast of Ireland between Galway and the Irish speaking town of Spittel. I also have an interesting picture of a shepherd that I met on the so called "Ring of Kerry" last week. He could direct his two Border Collies to round up sheep far up into the hills. For this he had a whistle with a special sound that identified each of the two dogs and he also had specific whistle signals that would tell each dog things like, "Go left!" "Go right!"..."Sit down!"...."Crouch and menace the sheep!"...."Move up!"..."Move down!"...."Stop!"...."Go!.... And so on. The shepherd could also communicate with each dog with voice commands. And, though he did not say it specifically, I am sure that there were movements of his "shepherd's staff" that also communicated things to the sheep. Thank you for your patience. I will not use my blog for travelogue...But the fact is, even though I don't have photos I have seen many English birds. I am most impressed with the large menancing Hooded Crows and also with the big grey black Jackdaws that seem to have a good relationship with the sheep. They follow them everywhere. The European Robin has become my special friend. The Great Tit and the Blue and Coal Tit are very much like our American Chickadees. But they don't sound like them, nor do they act like chickadees.
My big challenge has been to try and figure out if the English Song Sparrow, which looks "a bit" like our American one, but is larger...if it is a mimic as I suspect. It seems to have about 10 or eleven calls...maybe more. The magpies are a treat. They are so big and clumsy. There are many swallows that seem like our Barn Swallows, because they have the long forked tails. But the large majority of swallows here in the south of Ireland seem like American Tree swallows.

Seals on Inishmore--Aran Islands--Ireland

Rough Sandy Shore of Connemara Coast--Ireland

Circle of Kerry Shepherd