Birding and art in Ireland
My husband and I recently went on a nine day trip through parts of Ireland, and one of the absolute highlights was staying at the Dromoland Castle in Newmarket-on-Fergus and participating in a private falconry walk. David Atkinson runs the Dromoland School of Falconry, and has an amazing array of birds of prey available for walks, educational talks and more. More can be learned about it at: Dromoland School of Falconry. These photos show the castle, David walking through the grounds with Bruce, and Bruce the Harris Hawk standing on my gloved hand. It was such a thrill to have Bruce alight on the glove. David would make sure to put a chicken leg on the glove (or some other poultry body part) and Bruce would eat the tidbit the moment he landed. He was so quick I never got to see him actually eat it. We also got to see several Peregrine Falcons, a Great Gray Owl, a Barn Owl and a Long Eared Owl.
We spent the last three days of our trip in Dublin, which is a wonderful city and easy to walk around. One afternoon we came across this store, Read’s, and since they have colored pencils prominently displayed in their street window, we decided to take a look inside. Wasn’t it a thrill to find the Derwent Graphite Soft tin with my drawing on it sitting the shelves. Please indulge me, it’s quite a hoot to see a little bit of one’s artwork in a foreign country!
