Blarney House, Swan Lake and the Colourful Showman

In Saturday’s post on Blarney House and the Secret Garden we had arrived at the door to the secret garden wondering what was on the other side of the impressive old wall. As if to tease me further, a coarse call and flurry of activity made me turn around to see a superb cock pheasant rise from the garden onto the wall.

Striding one way and then the other, the pheasant looked down on the gardens on both sides of the wall before eyeing me with cautious disdain. The light was poor and the bird largely silhouetted, so while I fired off a few shots I knew it would be largely in vain.

This bird was clearly the colourful showman of the wall and made it his intention to let all the hen birds and rival cocks know that he was the lord of the manor, as his cries rang around the estate.

Blarney House and Lake
Lord of the Manor
Cows on the Front Lawn
The Red Mask
Swan Lake at Blarney
Strutting his Stuff
Clouds Rolling In
The Colourful Showman

 

Having been royally entertained, I went on the lake walk, stopping to take the odd photograph despite the poor light. Seen from the rear of the house it almost seemed as if the cows were grazing on the front lawn, though I am sure I spied a ha-ha (no this is a proper word, try looking it up 😃).

Castle? What castle?

 

27 thoughts on “Blarney House, Swan Lake and the Colourful Showman”

  6. Great shots MM – we have lots of pheasants around us, reared for the local shoot – a strange hobby. I have to say that in my experience they are one of the dumbest birds imaginable – they still have not learnt to avoid the traffic so shooting the poor things can hardly be difficult 😉
    Have you ever seen two male pheasants facing up to each other – a very strange ritual.

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