A Salon of Curlews

Salon:  a gathering of people where they amuse one another and increase their knowledge through conversation, often consciously following Horace’s definition of the aims of poetry “ either to please or to educate" (Latin: aut delectare aut prodesse). Salons in the tradition of the French literary and philosophical movements of the 17th and 18th centuries were carried on until as recently as the 1920s in urban settings.


My previous blips of curlews have explored the appropriateness of their alleged collective nouns. Last time, I went with ‘curfew of curlews’ for my evening gathering along the estuary, but this group of sophisticated individuals seemed to merit something different. There they stand, prim and dapper, grouped in twos or threes, seemingly engaging in philosophical discussion, putting the world to rights in their lakeside salon. And what a joy it is to see so many of these ‘red list’ birds together in one place (best viewed large on black). 

As an extra, there’s a collage of snow-topped Carneddau views taken from the Conwy estuary.