Before we left home to visit Ireland, I had learned that there were no cardinals there.  The fact of different birds brought home to me that we were really going to a foreign land.  So one of the delights of our visit was to meet new birds–common birds in that place–but curious and unique to us.  Some birds aren’t easy to photograph–we never did catch a picture of the magpies, which we usually saw along the road while driving.  But here are a few that were more happy to be captured for our memories. I took the first three of these photos at Ashley Park near Nenagh.  The later ones were in the Japanese Garden restaurant where Margy and I handed the camera back and forth, and we lost track of which ones were which.

Pied Wagtail

A waterhen calling for her chicks.

This is a Robin–a totally different species than our American Robin, though I can see why the Europeans gave the name to ours.

The robins were very friendly!

So was this beautiful little bird, the Chaffinch.

This fierce looking guy is a Jackdaw.