"How to make your home a nature reserve"

Donna Mullen – ecologist and author – gave an engaging and informative talk to the branch on Thursday 7th of November. Donna gave good mix of personal observation and scientific information about everything from birds to bats. Using a variety of props, including a badger’s jawbone, a stuffed pine marten and some toy bats, she was able to bring her subjects alive with stories. Donna revealed that unlike humans, a badger’s lower jawbone is attached to the skull, a pine marten is bigger than a stoat, and some of the bat species found in Ireland require temperatures of 30°C in order to breed. This makes the cavity space in well insulated attics an ideal nesting site! Donna emphasised the importance of providing nesting spaces for bats and how some species are more light sensitive than others, resulting in their decline in urban areas due to all the artificial light. Bats can be identified with the help of a bat detector which makes their calls audible. The frequency at which the sound can be heard as well as the habitat in which they are found help to identify the bat. In terms of monitoring small mammals, Donna advised us to be ever watchful for their scats and how different species like the fox and pine marten have distinctive droppings. She mentioned that while some people are concerned that cattle may pick up Tuberculosis from badgers, research undertaken in a bovine tuberculosis hotspot in County Down suggested otherwise. Badgers and cattle were fitted with GPS collars and the research established that they had no direct close range interactions (≤ 2 metres) during the study. Donna very kindly donated a copy of her book, “Make your home a nature reserve” to the branch. One attractive feature of the book is that after mentioning each species, a short section then explains how to attract that species to your garden and includes activities children might enjoy. This book is full of practical tips on how to make your garden/farm more environmentally friendly and would make a great Christmas present! Report by Tom Broe

Branch Outing to Dundalk Sunday 10th November

Ruff in flight.

We met outside the Spirit Store on George's Quay at 10:00am. It was a warm day reaching 15 degrees Celsius. Mudflats were exposed and the tide was going out. Spent some time there and then walked up to the Castletown River as far as the bridge on the Newry Road and then back to the docks (took approximately two hours). From the docks we visited Lurgangreen, Seabank, Annagassan and Salterstown (took approximately a further three hours) The following forty-six species were recorded: Report and photos by Tom Broe

Little Egret.

Teal.

"Make your home a nature Reserve" Presentation by Donna Mullen, Thursday 7 November at 7.30pm

Heritage Week Event: BirdWatch Ireland in association with Cavan Heritage office have organised a talk on swifts by Annie Birtwistle on Friday 23rd August at the Business Centre Bailieborough at 7.30pm ( A82 HH58) Learn some amazing facts about the life cycle of this migratory bird that returns to our towns and villages each summer to breed. Annie will also discuss the findings of the County Cavan Swift Survey that has taken place this summer throughout the county and tell us how we can help this bird that is now red listed and of high conservation concern. All welcome to this free event. (Survey funded through Cavan County Council Local Biodiversity Action Plan funding )

Goldfinch

This brightly-coloured finch which is about the same size as a robin has become a familiar sight at garden nut feeders in recent years. Striking black and yellow wings usually catch the eye first, but the scarlet red "face" and black and white head markings are equally eye catching. Younger birds lack the colourful face markings. The bird frequently calls during flight and can occur in large flocks.

Juvenile goldfinch

The best way to tell the difference between a male and a female Goldfinch is the amount of red on their head - for males, the red extends behind the eye, but for females it doesn't!

 

Goldfinches prefer to feed on fine seeds, but in summer they will eat insects and in winter they will eat peanuts at garden feeders. In the wider countryside that means the seeds from grasses, dandelions, ragwort, teasels and thistles - so that rough un-mowed patch at the back of your garden or side of your field is really valuable for them! Believe it or not, it's only in the last 30 years they've started coming to bird feeders before that they were very rare in gardens!

Goldfinch feeding on thistle seeds

“The Birds of Ireland”, in 1900 describes the goldfinch as “Resident, widely distributed. Breeds in every county, but is rare where bird-catching is rife”. Thankfully the goldfinch is still widespread and the trapping of wild birds has been illegal in Ireland since 1931.

 

Goldfinches are partial migrants - some stay in Ireland for the winter, and others fly abroad. Their movements vary year-to-year depending on conditions - so if it’s cold in the UK we might get some of their birds over here, and some of the Goldfinches from the colder parts of Ireland and the UK might move south to Spain and France. So that Goldfinch on your feeder this winter might be from the hedgerow in the field at the back of the house, but it might be from much further away too!

 

If you would like to record the birds you see in your garden this winter then why not get involved with the Garden Bird Survey organised by BirdWatch Ireland where each week over the Winter months you make note of the highest number of birds of each species that you see in your garden. 

Goldfinch feeding on nyjer seeds

Goldfinch-friendly plants for your garden include lavender, dandelions, sunflowers and teasels; and their preferred feeder food is sunflower hearts followed by nyger seeds, then sunflower seeds and then peanuts.

Post by Tom Broe  (Cavan Branch Secretary )

Photos by Liz Mc Kenna

Information on BWI Garden Bird Survey

WETLAND BIRDS OF COUNTY CAVAN ,Presentation by Niamh Fitzgerald Sunday 7th November, Killeshandra.

Niamh Fitzgerald, national co-ordinator of the Irish Wetland Bird Survey, gave a very enjoyable presentation on the birds you might find on Cavan lakes. She talked about distinguishing features of water birds – for instance the mute swan has an orange bill, while whooper swans have a yellow more wedge shaped bill. She highlighted all the striking plumages of the male ducks you might see (females are usually a variety of shades of brown to help them camouflage in the reeds during breeding season) and spoke of the different shapes of these birds as very often you might only see a silhouette in the poor Winter daytime light and being able to recognise a longer neck or a tuft of hair as in the case of the tufted duck may be the only clue to identify the bird. She also gave helpful tips on how to estimate the size of flocks as its not always easy to count individual birds and many flocks contain multiple species.

Thankfully when we got to Derrybrick Lake the sun was still out and we were able to see a wide variety of water birds including: mute swans, whooper swans, tufted ducks, mallards, wigeon, great-crested grebes, coots and canada geese. We were particularly fortunate to see a flock of lapwing land at the waters edge.

Special thanks to Niamh Fitzgerald for an excellent presentation, to Ben Malone from the Local Authority Waters Programme (LAWPRO) for coordinating the day and to Anne and Anna May for getting Killeshandra Community Hall ready and providing refreshments.

Report and Photos by Tom Broe, Branch Sec.

This event was supported by the Cavan Branch of Birdwatch Ireland and the Local Authority Waters Programme (LAWPRO).