(Sun) Bathing Beauties

By a curious coincidence I just happened to have read in a book about blackbirds enjoying sunbathing. So when I saw one sprawled out on the shed roof last week, my initial thought was that it must have been injured because I hadn't noticed it till I saw it lying there, but my second thought was wondering if it was, in fact, sunbathing. It's not something I've ever seen before. But sure enough, after a while it got up and flew off, perfectly happy. What was funny was the robin joining it for a brief spell in the sun - and since I'd seen it come to look at the blackbird and then flop down, I knew perfectly well it wasn't injured.
After that I saw one in Farmleigh too - it looked like a rag on the ground from a distance. According to the RSPB the sun's warmth is important in helping dislodge feather parasites, and the ultraviolet light in sunlight helps turn birds' preening oil into Vitamin D which helps general good health and is an extra boost for their feathers.

The little coal tits are really quite unafraid at the moment. This picture is un-cropped - up close and personal. Makes for a very shallow depth of field - like a classic soft-focus portrait more than nature photography,  but I love the photo.

Birds

Today was our wedding anniversary. Next year is a big one and hopefully circumstances will permit that we can celebrate in Paris or somewhere special. Today we just went for a walk along the canal in between our main course and dessert to walk off the Procsecco and Yorkshire puddings.
 On the way back we walked part of the way along the road, and spotted this swallow, and an unusual angle on a greenfinch.

 

When we see swallows, C's reflex reaction is to start singing When the Swallows Come Back to Capistrano by the Ink Spots (one of the CDs he often listens to while doing the dishes).

The little coal tits are funny - they're happy picking away at the feeder themselves, but when an adult comes along they still like to be fed, too. The first ones in the video, with the more yellow cheeks, are the juveniles.





Rather unintelligently I totally forgot that I had made a card I intended as an anniversary card a couple of months back till after I had made two other possible cards. I decided to keep the original one for my sister later on in the month and gave C this more masculine looking one. Probably a wise decision as he says the other one is more feminine. I did suggest he could give it to me - he gave out enough about the length of time it took for him to find one he was happy to buy on Friday night when he ran out of time and energy to make one himself. But no, he wouldn't give me one of my own cards....

Clematis

Busy day, sunny day, not much time...

Eastern Blooms

Another day of hot, hot sunshine. As I wasn't working I took a trip to Farmleigh.

C is feeling - well, I don't know quite what the right word is - he says that I have seen jays there and today I saw tree-creepers and he's never seen either any time he has been. But he saw them both in St. Catherine's Park, so he shouldn't feel too deprived.

Tree-creeper

I said I'd been experimenting with red cabbage -this is my final version. It's certainly not worth using balsamic vinegar as per the more modern recipe I tried, but the cranberries seem to be much nicer than apple.

Red Cabbage with Cranberries:
For half a red cabbage I used one red onion (because I had it, although I am sure an ordinary onion would be pretty much the same),  a little oil, 2 tblsp each brown sugar and wine vinegar, a pinch of allspice and about two ounces / 50 g dried cranberries.

Heat the oil, fry the sliced onion gently for a few minutes. Add the finely sliced cabbage and fry gently for another few minutes. Add the sugar, vinegar, spice and cranberries plus a little water  - enough just to keep it moist. Cover and simmer gently for about 45 minutes, stirring a couple of times.

This would probably give about six servings as a side dish.

What a difference a day makes...

Crying to be fed: doesn't he look cute, that little head popping up out of the gutter.



Out foraging  - and not afraid to venture into the house either. In the late afternoon, unfortunately, the sun is shining towards the back door which always makes it harder to watch the birds. But since the camera was handy and he was in no hurry to take flight I just did the best I could. He's not at all fazed by the fact that C was about 4 feet away taking the rear mudguard off the motorbike.

Highlights from last June

It was very hard to pick just one photo from last June for my blog header this month.
So I decided to share all the photos that I was torn between using :D.
The Californian Poppies one is what we used on our calendar for the noticeboard in the kitchen.

And my favourite card for May.

 

It was so funny watching the little coal tits this morning. At one stage there was a pair flying in, but one seemed to be doing duty as an escort or a kind of wingman. One would land on the feeder, the second one would perch nearby, the first would grab a bit of food and then they'd both fly back together towards the trees. I haven't seen that before, but it was happening consistently over quite a period.

Mostly Kerry

Well, that was a busy weekend and then some. We went to Killarney for a funeral on Saturday. Somebody got the time wrong and we could have got up and left at 7.30 instead of 6.30, but at least it was a reasonably fine, dry day and the church was right beside Killarney National Park so we were able to enjoy a walk and stretch our legs.

In the town:

In the park - it was wonderful watching the swallows swooping and diving over the long meadow grass.

We stayed the night in Tralee, with the bonus of rabbit-watching. As long as I can remember there have been rabbits along the driveway of the house behind where we stay.

On to Kenmare on Sunday to visit my dad and cook dinner.  When we left I managed to leave behind not only my good loaf tin which had had a fruit-cake I had baked for him, but also a spare punnet of strawberries which was not intended for him, as I'd already left some mixed strawberries, raspberries and blueberries. Oh well...

Bridge at Kenmare

Dewy spider's web

Back home, and then up to the North on Monday, for a total of over 700 miles. This was a rainbow I photographed through the car window on our way back home last night.

These days I try to cook in advance when we visit my dad, and bring stuff that really just needs heating and a carbohydrate and vegetables to go with it. But since we were leaving home early on Saturday, with no idea when I'd have access to a fridge, that wasn't practical this time. I thought if I did a stir-fry I could have the vegetables with me, and the sauce ingredients mixed, and we could just buy some chicken down there.

This is what I cooked:

Chicken and Cashew Nuts (serves 4)

12 oz chicken breast, sliced into 1" pieces and tossed in 1 tblsp cornflour (cornstarch )

Seasoning: 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp toasted sesame oil, 1 tblsp light soy sauce, 1/2 tsp sugar.

1 cup cashew nuts

2 green onions / spring onions, chopped

1 small onion peeled and cut into chunks

1" fresh ginger root, peeled and thinly sliced

2 cloves garlic, sliced thinly

3 oz snow peas, sugar snaps or mangetout

2 oz bamboo shoots, thinly sliced

Oil for frying.

Sauce: 2 tsp cornflour, 1 tblsp Hoisin sauce, 3/4 cup chicken stock.

Mix the seasoning ingredients together, pour over the chicken and leave for ten minutes.

Fry the cashew nuts till golden brown, and drain on paper towel.

Heat 2 tbslp of oil and fry the onions, ginger and garlic for 2-3 minutes. Add the peas and bamboo shoots and fry for another 3 minutes.  

Remove from pan, clean the pan and heat another tablespoon of oil. Fry the chicken for 3-4 minutes, till cooked. Add the vegetables back into the pan, along with the spring onions. Mix together the sauce ingredients, add to the pan and cook till heated and thick.

C being fussy about whole garlic I used crushed garlic rather than slices.

Although the recipe called for bamboo shoots, the photograph in the book showed beansprouts, and since I was able to get them in Tralee that is, in fact, what I used. I also added some pineapple chunks.

Windows on the World

The current photo challenge on SCS is windows. These are some of the shots I took....

The Law Society

Boston College, Stephen's Green

Steven's Hospital

Corner of Dame Street and Trinity Street

Queen Street (I think!)

Plenty of potential for lots more photos for this subject. I always like to look up above ground level and see what's on view along the streets.

Baby, Maybe Baby

I went out to bring the sheets in from the line before it started to rain, and was rewarded with one of the more daring baby robins. When I consider all the different places I hear their insistent "Feed me" cheeping from, and see all the directions the parents fly off in, it must be quite a stressful time for the parents. Especially with those magpies around!

Feed Me

Feeding looks to be a bit of a hit and miss affair still!!

Definitely a baby sparrow

This little coalie is so scruffy that I wonder is it a juvenile. Either that or moulting, because this was not any time after a rain shower.

Likewise this little blue with his Gary Rhodes spiky hairdo...

...or maybe in his case it was just the wind!!

Raiders of the back porch. Not a great shot, but in their endeavour to keep those little beaks fed, the robins aren't afraid to come into the back porch. They obviously sussed out where the worms come from.

Goldfinches

 in the garden this morning...
I had to shoot through the back window because I didn't want to scare them off (and you can see them take flight when a leaf lands on the feeder, although a pigeon passing overhead didn't seem to bother them). And of course it had to be the long side panel beside the door; I cleaned the door itself just last week. So the colour and the sounds are just slightly muted.
I was really watching out because I'd caught a fleeting glimpse of a baby robin, but I wasn't lucky enough to see it again today. Just the parents at their endless task of feeding themselves and their brood.

I'm trying to find a way to link to YouTube that doesn't offer a choice of videos at the end. What that does is seem to make the embedded video bigger so in the preview mode it looks as if you only see one half of it. Bear with me while I work this out! In any case, clicking on it will bring up the full view - which is worth it because there was a pair of birds. And I do think they're a pair - apparently the red patch protrudes just slightly more over the eye in the male, and there's a definite difference between these two.