The Bewicks are back

Last Monday [October 11th] was a wonderfully sunny and warm day, so much so that we spent the day driving around Connemara with the top down on the car. Our journey began that morning when we took the 9.00 am ferry from Inishbofin island back to Cleggan (a village just north of Clifden). Just outside the village is a lake, separated from the sea by a small embankment upon which there is a narrow road. It was the stillness of the lake that prompted us to stop and take a few pictures, but then I spotted a family of Bewick swans – two adults and three juveniles. I normally associate looking at Bewicks with standing at the edge of a windswept lake and shivering with the cold, so I was surprised to see them on the west coast so early in the winter. They are migrants, and according to this article in the Irish Independent, it is perhaps a very bad sign that the swans have returned to Ireland [and Britain] so early. From the article :-

According to folklore, if the Bewick’s swans arrive early then Britain could be in for a cold winter.

They touched down overnight – three weeks earlier than last year and the earliest arrival since 2003.

Whatever the winter holds, it is nice to see them back.