Good Friday swans

Despite all the dire weather warning for the Easter weekend, I woke to blue sky and bright sunshine. I'd resigned myself last night to blipping some hot-cross buns, but now that was no longer necessary, so after a quick bowl of Ready Brek I decided to make a withdrawal from the Blip bank and return to a spot where I'd unsuccessfully tried for a blip before -- the Estuary, between Swords and Malahide in North Dublin.

I did a bit better this time than I did before, and took several shots -- but still the last word remains to be spoken about this extraordinary spot. The Estuary is home to a large colony of swans, and has been for as long as I can remember (certainly going back thirty-five years or so). It's become such a popular spot, especially for families with small children, that the swans are very tame, and well accustomed to human contact. Indeed, motorists are very much also-rans when it comes to the right of way.

This shot shows just a part of the total swan population (what's the correct collective noun for lots of swans, I wonder). They do well out of human contact, of course, and are fully aware that those strange upright beings represent a guaranteed food supply -- something which the seagulls also realise.

It's difficult to photograph individual creatures because of the closely-packed numbers which swarm around most of the time, so it took some judicious cropping to end up with these next few shots. It's a lot easier to pick out one or two interesting groups from among the crowd.

In the heel of the hunt, though, I was left with three final candidates for today's blip. I finally settled for the one I've uploaded because I liked the arrangement of the individual swans within the group (and the water sparkles and reflections in the foreground had something to do with the choice too). Others short-listed were this swan-jam, and what looks to me a bit like a dancing lesson. Any of them is a definite improvement on the hot-cross buns which I thought you'd be looking at today -- even out of the water, swans are a good deal more camera-worthy than that.

Happy Easter everyone!