Whistlestop Weekend

My current header is a photo I took of a sparrowhawk down in Clare last year. We were there again last weekend. We almost didn't make it, since C has been sick and we'd already had to cancel going the previous weekend, and I was afraid we'd missed the best of the weather.
But in fact we had an absolutely glorious day on Saturday and covered loads of ground with small on-foot excursions from the car.

I'm afraid that Blogger wasn't being very cooperative in uploading the photos so I've had to snag them from my Picasa album. Rather than spend a lot of time putting them in the right order I'll just caption them.
Chronologically we went from the cottage over towards Abbey Hill and then walked along above the beach at Finvara. We saw the oystercatcher there (digital zoom, so it's a bit pixelly), and the wigeon were on the lake there.  There were very few people at the dolmen so we stopped there instead of passing by as we normally do. It seems a shame to have it roped off, but I suppose that's modern life for you. Any photos I have without the ropes and signs are definitely pre-digital.
Since we pass Dromore Woods on the way home and since it was such a gorgeous day we stopped there for a walk around the woods too. It's somewhere we often go on rainy days as the woods are quite dense and we don't get too wet walking around - so seeing it in dappled sunshine was a lovely change.

Apologies again for the jumbled order - it's hard enough just now to find time to post, never mind discovering that half my uploaded photos have gone AWOL.
I think it's lucky we went last weekend - today there has been a real nip in the air and we've had to turn the heating on for half an hour. It looks as if summer is finally over.

Blackberries by Lough Bunny

Poulnabrone Dolmen

Poulnabrone Dolmen

Dromore Castle

View over towards Galway from Abbey Hill

Wigeon and swan

Lough Bunny - it rained on Sunday!

Poulnabrone Dolmen

Wigeon

Oystercatcher

Reeds on lake

View of lake from the cottage

View from Abbey Hill