"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