On April 6th 2000 we went on a field trip back to the Garbhinch, near the Shannon, to go bird watching with a man called Jimmy. He said that the wind had changed to a southerly direction and as it was warm we would see a lot of birds feeding.

Before we started our walk we heard a blackbird singing loudly in the hedge. Jimmy said that the female blackbird was on her eggs and the male blackbird was in the bush protecting her.  When we got to the Garbhinch we did see a lot of birds.

The heron

 We saw a heron and it looked lovely with its long wings.

A bit further on we saw a bird of prey, the kestrel which is the smallest hawk. He had a small bird in his mouth and it was screeching.  We could not see with our own eyes so Jimmy let us use his binoculars.

the cormorant

We saw birds such as the golden plover, curlew, tufted duck, and the cormorant

 We were told that the tufted duck and the lapwing have both got curls on their heads.

  We saw a moorhen it had red on its face.  We wouldn’t have seen them if Jimmy didn’t know a lot about birds and if he didn’t have his binoculars.