The Twa Corbies

As I was walking all alane,
I heard twa corbies making a mane;
The tane unto the t'other say,
'Where sall we gang and dine to-day,
Where sall we gang and dine to-day?

No, I wasn't touring Scotland (and I certainly wasn't "all alane"), but this old ballad seems appropriate enough. I took a drive to Bray Co. Wicklow, to the little harbour near The Harbour Bar. There's a tiny stretch of sandy beach, ruled by swans. I wanted to get an interesting photograph of them, and the way people were interacting with them (a fancy term for feeding them). The place smelled like a zoo. Everyone - kids, adults, old folk - seemed to come equipped with a large white pan. The swans waddled around, stuffing their faces. Other birds also: pigeons, crows, gulls... There were so many shed white feathers that children were using them like shells to decorate their sandcastles. Hardly ideal for the wildlife, but who am I to judge? I didn't see any swans with placards saying KEEP YOUR CRAP FOOD or STUFF IT DOWN YOUR SHORT THICK NECKS!!!

I got a few fairly interesting shots, but then I noticed the crows. There were about four or five, gazing down from a telephone wire near the harbour. Unlike the swans, they were wary of me, even though the wire was high enough. As I approached with my camera they shifted and two began to take off just as I focused and shot the above.