Icy Weather

Despite a persistent feeling that this would be wonderful weather for the middle of February, we cannot avoid what Nature chooses to throw at us. Three cheers for the drivers who brave the cold weather and dangerous roads to get food, fuel, post and other necessities to us – and the binmen who take away the detritus of our seasonal excess. Where would we be without them? Meanwhile out in the non-human world, the cold and frost mean tough times for our fellow creatures, but also wonder and beauty for those who care to look.
 
At Cabragh Wetlands the landscape is draped in frost, highlighting details and perspectives hidden for most of the year. Spiders’ webs glisten from fences and foliage, each utterly unique in design, different from every one of the billions of webs around the world. In the reedbeds the stalks of last summer’s growth are brought closer to collapse and decay by the penetration and weight of the freezing frost. The cycles of life and death continue inexorably. Nature is clearing out the old and unwanted, and preparing for the new and vigorous growth of next spring.
 
Small creatures can suffer terribly at times like this. As the ground and water froze last week, so a curlew abandoned the safety of the marshland meadows to search for food in, of all places, the mud and slush which cars had heaped in ridges along the road to Holycross. With its elegantly streamlined long, downward curling beak, the curlew must have been pretty desperate to venture to such a public, dangerous place, and the poor thing looked rather pathetic as it forlornly penetrated the soft material before inevitably bashing into the unyielding tarmac beneath. This once common bird of the moors, marshes and fields is now officially classified as endangered, placed on the Red List and carefully monitored. They will be glad of a thaw, and we hope enough survive winter to breed productively in the spring.
 
The ponds are mostly covered in ice, with lines of footprints across the surface giving more evidence of the wealth of wildlife about. A few corners are ice-free so ducks and other birds can drink and clean their feathers; one author suggested that birds are more likely to die of thirst than hunger in very cold weather. They can always find something in the hedges and ditches to nibble on, especially this early in the winter, but if all sources of water are rock-hard, like the curlew pecking at the tarmac, they will be in real danger. My laziness has produced an added bonus this autumn. Hundreds of windfall apples were left lying where they fell, waiting to be raked up and composted. Now they are a wonderful source of food for the starlings, rooks and crows.
 
The sturdy pony tethered near the Cabragh Centre has done invaluable work eating down excess vegetation, manuring the ground, creating crevices with its hooves for other creatures to shelter in and opening up the tightly packed thatch of grass and weeds at the base of an overgrown fence, allowing light and space for new growth next year. In bad weather even the least becoming food source can be a lifeline for something.
 
Do not forget the CAVA (Community and Voluntary Association) meeting at Cabragh at 8.00 this Thursday (9th December).

Icy Weather

Despite a persistent feeling that this would be wonderful weather for the middle of February, we cannot avoid what Nature chooses to throw at us. Three cheers for the drivers who brave the cold weather and dangerous roads to get food, fuel, post and other necessities to us – and the binmen who take away the detritus of our seasonal excess. Where would we be without them? Meanwhile out in the non-human world, the cold and frost mean tough times for our fellow creatures, but also wonder and beauty for those who care to look.
 
At Cabragh Wetlands the landscape is draped in frost, highlighting details and perspectives hidden for most of the year. Spiders’ webs glisten from fences and foliage, each utterly unique in design, different from every one of the billions of webs around the world. In the reedbeds the stalks of last summer’s growth are brought closer to collapse and decay by the penetration and weight of the freezing frost. The cycles of life and death continue inexorably. Nature is clearing out the old and unwanted, and preparing for the new and vigorous growth of next spring.
 
Small creatures can suffer terribly at times like this. As the ground and water froze last week, so a curlew abandoned the safety of the marshland meadows to search for food in, of all places, the mud and slush which cars had heaped in ridges along the road to Holycross. With its elegantly streamlined long, downward curling beak, the curlew must have been pretty desperate to venture to such a public, dangerous place, and the poor thing looked rather pathetic as it forlornly penetrated the soft material before inevitably bashing into the unyielding tarmac beneath. This once common bird of the moors, marshes and fields is now officially classified as endangered, placed on the Red List and carefully monitored. They will be glad of a thaw, and we hope enough survive winter to breed productively in the spring.
 
The ponds are mostly covered in ice, with lines of footprints across the surface giving more evidence of the wealth of wildlife about. A few corners are ice-free so ducks and other birds can drink and clean their feathers; one author suggested that birds are more likely to die of thirst than hunger in very cold weather. They can always find something in the hedges and ditches to nibble on, especially this early in the winter, but if all sources of water are rock-hard, like the curlew pecking at the tarmac, they will be in real danger. My laziness has produced an added bonus this autumn. Hundreds of windfall apples were left lying where they fell, waiting to be raked up and composted. Now they are a wonderful source of food for the starlings, rooks and crows.
 
The sturdy pony tethered near the Cabragh Centre has done invaluable work eating down excess vegetation, manuring the ground, creating crevices with its hooves for other creatures to shelter in and opening up the tightly packed thatch of grass and weeds at the base of an overgrown fence, allowing light and space for new growth next year. In bad weather even the least becoming food source can be a lifeline for something.
 
Do not forget the CAVA (Community and Voluntary Association) meeting at Cabragh at 8.00 this Thursday (9th December).

Thank you to Lisheen Mines

There was very good news for Cabragh Wetlands on Monday of last week, when John Elms, the General Manager of Lisheen Mines, Terry McKenna, Human Resources Manager, and Brian Keaty, Mine Manager, met the Trust’s Committee, supported by a good turn out of members, friends and several local groups who work closely with the Wetland Trust. After an introduction and welcome by the Chairman, Tom Grace, there was a presentation by three Committee members on the development, current work and future plans of the Trust. Michael Lowry TD, spoke about his pleasure in returning to invaluable local matters at the end of a tough day dealing with the national economic and political crisis. He has long been an admirer of the work of the Trust and his commitment and energy were instrumental in drawing attention of Lisheen Mines to the value of Cabragh’s work.
 
Mr Elms spoke of his surprise at and admiration for the extent of the Trust’s activities and ambitions, and acknowledged the importance of local and community organizations. He then handed a cheque for €50,000 to the Chairman. This extraordinarily generous donation shows the commitment of Lisheen Mines to the environment, and will be put towards completing the planned extension of the Centre, which should be underway early in the New Year. With this work finished, the Wetlands Trust should be in a position to extend its conservation, educational and recreational work, with a permanent exhibition in place and other facilities to help boost both tourism and local business in North and South Tipperary.
 
At a recent dinner in Borrisoleigh, North Tipperary CAVA (Community and Voluntary Associations) held its 2010 Annual Awards Evening. Community organizations from all over North Tipperary were present, with Awards given in several categories, including Environment, Youth and Sports, Economic, Social Inclusion, Arts, Culture and Heritage and Outstanding Achievement. The prizes were spread around the county, from Ballingarry to Lorrha, and Cabragh Wetlands was very pleased to win the Community Empowerment Award, reflecting the values of cooperation and local responsibility which are so essential if communities are to deal with the range of problems facing all of us at this difficult time.
 
To build on this, the Thurles branch of CAVA will be meeting at the Cabragh Wetlands Centre on Thursday 9th December at 8.00pm, when representatives from CAVA will give a presentation on the work of the organization, highlighting what it can offer in the way of training and support to all sorts of local voluntary organizations, from soccer clubs, to groups caring for the elderly, disabled or otherwise disadvantaged, to environmental supporters like Cabragh or Tidy Towns groups. If you are not affiliated to CAVA, you really should send someone along to this meeting and find out what you could gain – and, of course, how you might give even more effectively to your local community.

Extinction

If you are free this Friday evening (26th November), then come along to an evening of Song, Music and Story at the Cabragh Wetlands Centre, starting at 8.00pm. It is so important to maintain culture and traditions in a convivial atmosphere. You will be most welcome.
 
A few weeks ago we printed a small article focusing on the good news about tiger habitats being preserved in the kingdom of Bhutan, on the southern slopes of the Himalayas. This weekend the Sunday Times brought a dose of reality with the news that the South China tiger is now functionally extinct. Surveys have found no trace of it in the wild and all 100 South China tigers in Chinese zoos have been proven by genetic testing to be cross-breeds. The genetic purity of the South China tiger, believed to be the common ancestor of all other tiger species, has been lost for ever. Within the last 30 or so years, three other species have become extinct – the Balinese, Javan and Caspian tigers have all disappeared. Those that are left (perhaps just 3200 individuals in the wild) are still subject to poaching for their fur and, most worryingly, for other body parts for use in traditional Far Eastern medicines.
 
We can only give our best wishes to the international conferences and organizations that are working heroically to save the remaining tigers. Like every other living species, tigers have taken about 4,000,000,000 (four billion) years to evolve – the same time as you and me. Indeed we are related to them. If you go back enough generations, humans share common ancestors with the tiger, just as surely as about 7,000,000 years ago there were creatures living, some of whose children became humans while others became chimpanzees and others gorillas.
 
Man emerged just 2,500,000 years ago – that is 100,000 generations of identifiable humans (about one generation every 25 years, for argument’s sake). Why do we believe that the values and lifestyle we have developed within the last mere 15 generations are so important and so right, that it is acceptable to destroy the natural environment that has produced and sustained so many different yet closely connected and interlinked forms of life over so many billions of years?
 
We live in an era of extraordinary technology and wonderful cultural and scientific achievements. Yet for every gain, there are losses. Yes, it is great to combat disease and extend human life, but the consequence is more people, more environmental degradation and more species lost. With each lost species, the fragile web that binds all life is stretched and damaged. The losses cannot be replaced. We need a bit more Socrates – logical questioning and answering to probe far more deeply into the consequences and implications of how we are living. Should our schools teach a bit more about how ideas and values are created and a little less about economic growth and technological wizardry? Should we spend more time thinking about balance and sustainability and a bit less about job creation and economic ‘progress’?

Robins

With Christmas approaching, one bird immediately comes to mind – the little robin redbreast. Robins cling to their territory and seem to form a uniquely close relationship with humans who share their area. One of the most rewarding aspects of working in the garden on cold winter days is the constant companionship of a robin, which follows you around taking advantage of your digging and clearing to help itself to a meal of freshly turned worms, millipedes and other tasty insects.
 
Legend has it that the robin got its redbreast because it was pricked by Christ’s crown of thorns and the flow of blood stained his chest feathers, and because of this and its constancy during the long winter months, the robin has become a favourite on Christmas cards and decoration. Traditions also go back many centuries about how bad luck will come to anyone harming a robin - “Who killed Cock Robin?”
 
Before man chopped down and built over so much of the natural landscape over the last mere 5000 years, robins would have been forest dwellers, pecking around in the leaf litter on the floor of oak forests and ancient woodlands to find beetles and grubs. David Lack in his wonderful book “The Life of the Robin” noted how robins take advantage of the heavy work done by stronger species like pheasants which disturb the ground more effectively, especially during freezing winters which kill a very high proportion of robins. Next time you are digging your vegetable patch and a robin is lurking a yard or two away, ready to leap in if you move away for a few seconds, bear in mind that he probably sees you as a variant of badger, pig or wild boar, which its ancestors will have followed as faithfully as today he sits by you. Lack even saw a robin waiting where a mole was tunnelling, ready to grab a turned up worm before the hard-working mole could get its reward.
 
Adult robins pair off as early as January, though the female will suffer a sustained torrent of territorial aggression for hours, perhaps days, as her persistence steadily wears down the male’s resistance; he will fight males that come too close. That chirpy male song is as much warning as attraction. Pair-bonding will continue until nest-building begins in spring. Nests are clearly very common, but notoriously difficult to find – adults will not want to show you where they have hidden it. They are inventive and opportunistic in their choice of site, though feminists will not be surprised to learn that only the female builds. In the natural world they favour hollows in banks or on the ground, using moss, hair and leaves to line it.
 
Man’s influence cannot be by-passed. Apart from bird-boxes (available shortly from Cabragh Wetlands) they have been known to use jam jars, a boot, a drawer in the garden shed and a human skull. Lack records a gardener hanging his coat in the tool shed at 9.15; when he took it down at 1.00 to go for dinner, a nest was almost complete in the pocket. One pair nested in a horse-drawn cart, which then set off on a 200-mile round trip after the eggs had hatched. Catastrophe? No. The loyal, hard-working parents flew with the cart, collecting food to feed their young on the journey and keeping them alive until they all got back to their precious home territory.
 
Enjoy your robins this winter, and do your bit to give them food, shelter and open water. They are as tame a wild creature as you will find.

Happenings

There has been some serious renovation work at Cabragh Wetlands over the last few weeks. Walkways have been strengthened, with renewal of wooden sections over ditches and boggy footpaths, and many barrow loads of stone flattened down to make wandering around the wetlands both safer and drier. Many thanks to those who gave up their time to help get the work completed.

Of greater importance to the natural habitat has been the start of a programme to clear excess silt out of the pond and to get more oxygen and life back into this very important habitat. The easiest way to capture the interest of young children visiting the wetlands is perhaps to trawl a net through the bottom of the pond and tip the captured species into a tank for detailed closer inspection. The appearance of water boatmen, pond skaters, leeches, caddis fly larvae with their extraordinary cases, backswimmers and so on, will evince both shrieks of surprised delight and sudden silence which shows that the attention of the child has been caught and that for once they are really thinking about the implications of what they have encountered. That is education.

What is hidden is always so much more intriguing than what we can see. Most plants, birds, mammals and insects are familiar and in danger of being boringly mundane to many. What we drag from the dark depths of the water, be it pond, river or sea, is very often exotic and strange. Its features are new - frightening to the young, yet compelling to those prepared to study and compare it with what they already know. It’s all about the wonder and awe of nature, and dissemination of that is a large part of the educational role of the Cabragh Wetlands Trust.

So let us give more thought to what which we cannot see and do not experience. There have been a number of important global research projects recently which have focussed on trying to find, identify and catalogue the many species that are as yet unknown to western science. In the dense forests of Papua New Guinea, species have been able to evolve in small isolated communities cut off in steep-sided valleys. In a two month survey in 2009 over 200 new plants and animals were found, including 24 frogs, nine plants, 100 spiders and almost 100 other insects. The white-tailed mouse, orange frog, the tube-nosed fruit bat and a white flowered rhododendron are among many species entirely new to us.

It would have been awful if we had wiped them out before we had found them. Now we know they exist, let us hope that something can be done to save them. That means reducing our pollution, controlling tourism and construction, preserving forests and other habitats, keeping the growth of human populations under control, and learning to think differently about the natural world and the place of humankind on the planet, living by models other than the profit motive and accumulation of monetary wealth.

Tipperary Biodiversity

We have an exciting new venture that we hope will attract a lot of public use. To help you enjoy and understand the wealth of biodiversity around us, a website has been set up that will help us all to recognise and appreciate the species we encounter. Over time the natural biodiversity of our landscape is changing, and we want to keep track of what is happening. We would like to receive pictures and news of what you have seen, where and when you saw it, what it was doing, what it was feeding on, and so on.



If you go to our website (www.cabraghwetlands.ie) you will find a link to Tipperary Biodiversity. Alternatively try tipperarybiodiversity.blogspot.com/. There you will be invited to download your pictures of animals, plants, insects and birds, and if you have no picture, then leave a comment about what you have seen or want to find out. This is a great way to get help from other users to identify what you cannot recognize, or ask questions on the blog which someone out there in the cyberworld will surely be able to answer.



It is early days, but the site already contains more information and pictures on the marsh fritillary butterfly which we wrote about two weeks ago. There is a request to identify an unusual spider that someone found on the wall of their house, and an answer. A hairy white caterpillar has been photographed, posted on the blog and identified as a Pale Tussock moth larva (there’s a new one to most of us).



Most interesting of all, a Vapourer moth has been pictured. The comments tell us that it has to be a male, because the female is wingless. Our writer tells us that he found a colourful and distinctive Vapourer caterpillar feeding on willow late in September, took it home to show the children, and then, when going to release it, found that it had begun the next stage of its lifecycle – the cocoon phase. Leaving it where it was, he awaited its hatching. This Sunday (10/10), a wingless adult female Vapourer emerged.



She can scarely move, swollen with eggs and waiting for a male to fertilize her. She appears to have no function other than to produce eggs and propagate the species, and as she has no wings, she hardly has an independent life. Using the scent of pheromones, she can attract males, so smell can be seen as a language, a means of communication. After her eggs are laid, she will die. The eggs will overwinter before hatching in batches from March onwards. As the female cannot fly or move more than a few centimetres, the dispersal of the species and the joining of different clusters to ensure genetic diversity are entirely dependent on how far the caterpillar can walk from the pupating site. Not surprisingly it is very localised and relies on its habitat suffering no sudden changes of the type that man in his wisdom is wont to cause. Birds and other predators will give wingless moths and fragile caterpillars a hard enough struggle to survive without human damage to their habitat.



Use the new blog to post pictures, ask and answer questions, add comments and advice, and give extraordinary creatures like the Vapourer moth a little more chance to survive.