Damien Enright: ‘How enchanting for humanity that we have birds’

A Courtmacsherry neighbour, Kathy Gannon tells me that when the tide is out, the vast acres of clean, grey mud of the bay reflect the sun in splendour in the clear, sharp air.

Sea birds, in flocks and flights, rest in the channels, teal, widgeon, mallard, roosting white egrets or grey herons, heads under wing or preening their feathers, pass hours in the silent glory of the day.