Wild at the Wetlands 2008!

A day of events at Cabragh Wetlands to celebrate Heritage Week 2008 will take place on Saturday 30th August from 1-5pm.

There will be two workshops sponsored by an Arts Grant from North Tipperary County Council to cater for adults and children. Placesf for these workshops is limited and registration is essential so please contact us using the details below if you are interested in attending the workshops to ensure that places are available.

1. The Studio, Holycross will facilitate an Art and Craft workshop for 20 children age 4 yrs and up.
Artist Mary Scott and Jackie Matthews will take you on a creative journey using clay, felt (sheep wool) and materialws from the natural environment, culminating in an Exhibition of Art With Nature. Cost of workshop is only €10

2. Philip Quinn on Stonemad, Holycross will run an introductory stone carving workshop. This is your chance to leave your mark (under expert guidance) on a large block that we hope will become the base of a permanent statue for the Wetland Centre. Places will be limited to about 6 and it will not be suitable for younger children. The cost of this workshop is also only €10

In addition to the workshops here will be an Open Afternoon, with guided walks of the education centre, bird hides and wetlands which will be suitable for all ages. The bird hide has a lift to reach it for those who are unable to use the stairs. Tea and light refreshments will be provided allowing a fun day for those of all age groups. Admission to all events apart from the workshops is free.
For further details Call 0504- 43879 ( mornings) Mobile 087-7962177 for more details or email info@cabraghwetlands.ie.

Open Day Thank You!

Last week was a very busy time at Cabragh Wetlands. Many hours of intensive preparation by a very dedicated team of volunteers lay behind the Open Day, which we think has boosted our coffers by something in the region of €5000. That will make a great difference to our annual finances, and will help us maintain the many habitats and biodiversity of this exceptional site.

It is not possible to thank everyone who helped, but it was a revelation to see how many family, friends and neighbours rallied round to ensure the success of the day. It showed that there is a real depth of community spirit alive and flourishing in the Thurles area, and reminds us of what can be achieved if we all give a few hours a year to worthy local causes. With judging approaching for our Pride of Place nomination, there was a reminder of the potential strength and achievement that is possible if groups and individuals cooperate and work together. Wouldn’t the world be a healthier place if we focused more on mutual aid rather than rivalry and competition?

The day was a reminder too of the creative talent in our midst – stone and wood carvers, artists, photographers, basket weaver, painters, gardeners, cooks and bakers all displayed their talents to good effect and contributed to the buzzing atmosphere. It was instructive to be able to see and hear about developments in greener energy and house-building, and to find out about the educational work of the Wetlands Centre and the courses at the Tipperary Institute. There were animals to see, and a chance to walk with Eanna Ni Lamhna, who offered great insights into the plants, birds and insects of the wetlands. And we must not forget our noble auctioneer, who defied the rain and some customer resistance to persuade us to open our wallets and bid for a good bargain. Thanks too to the many who donated raffle prizes, auction items and bric-a-brac; without your generosity the day would not have gone so well.

Wild at the Wetlands 2008

This is a preliminary notice of a day of events at Cabragh Wetlands to celebrate Heritage Week 2008. It will take place on Saturday 30^th August from 1-5pm.

There will be two workshops sponsored by an Arts Grant from North Tipperary County Council.

1. The Studio, Holycross will facilitate an Art and Craft workshop for 20 children age 4 yrs and up.

Artist Mary Scott and Jackie Matthews will take you on a creative journey using clay, felt (sheep wool) and materialws from the natural environment, culminating in an Exhibition of Art With Nature.

2. Philip Quinn on Stonemad, Holycross will run an introductory stone carving workshop. This is your chance to leave your mark (under expert guidance) on a large block that we hope will become the base of a permanent statue for the Wetland Centre. Places will be limited to about 6 and it will not be suitable for younger children.

A small charge will be made for these courses- details later. In addition there will be an Open Afternoon, with guided walks, tea and light refreshments and admission to this is free.

For further details Call 0504- 43879 ( mornings) Mobile 087-7962177 for more details or email info@cabraghwetlands.ie. Further details will appear soon!

Cabragh Wetlands Summer Camp

When a school trip comes to Cabragh Wetlands, we ask the children: "Are we nature too?" They pause and reflect, but eventually agree that we too are part of nature. That question and response have implications.

We exist in a communion with a wider web of life, inter-connected and inter-dependent, just like every other species. Of course we have our distinctive features, not least that we can reflect on and delight in this wonderful world, but other species have their own unique gifts as well. The fish can live underwater; the owl can hear the heartbeat of the mouse thirty feet away, and swoop and catch it with extraordinary precision. This world of ours works because everything is in balance and inter-connected, is a communion of subjects.

Yet in the past one hundred years we have seen our species grow from one billion to almost seven billion, with almost every other species in decline and too many already gone into premature extinction. We have been happy to see ourselves as the crown of creation, but are perhaps slowly coming to see that we are as vulnerable and inter-dependent as every other species. The Burmese cyclone and Chinese earthquake remind us of our frailty before the forces of the natural world.

When we place a seed in the ground it grows because the micro-organisms in the soil create the conditions for the plant to grow and produce food for us. If those micro-organisms were not there to do their bit, we would have no food to eat. Soil purity is crucial for our survival. Did you know that there is more life below the surface of the earth than on it? Think about that the next time you are tempted to pour chemicals onto the earth or dump potentially toxic material onto a land fill site or discard plastic bags and sheeting which suffocate, rot and destroy the life in the ground beneath.

How do we address such challenges? Central to any corrective action must be to plant the seed of awareness in our children and communities. If you want your child to experience the joy of discovering and understanding nature, why not enrol him/her in the Detective in the Wild Summer Camp at Cabragh Wetlands from July 7th-11th 2008. Ring Seamus on 0504-23831 for further details. Last year one satisfied dad commented: “The children learnt about things that really matter.”

Cuckoo spit (or is it from a witch?)

Blobs of frothy liquid on young stems and leaves can be seen as you walk around the Wetlands. You may wonder what is in these blobs and their name does not give any more detail. They are commonly known as “Cuckoo spits” but apart from appearing about the same time as cuckoos are heard, the froth has no connection with any bird. Certainly cuckoo-spit was an important ingredient in witches' brew (as in Macbeth) and in Scandinavian countries the froth is known as 'witches' spit'! Instead it is secreted by the immature stages of sap-sucking insects known as froghoppers. The adult insects live openly on the plant and do not produce any cuckoo spit.

The froghopper is an insect, and a member of the order Homoptera. They are called froghoppers because they are able to hop significant distances when disturbed. They feed on plant sap which they extract from the leaves and stems of plants. The life-cycle of the Froghopper is in three stages: egg, nymph, and adult. In this respect it is similar to such insects as grasshoppers and dragonflies. Up to 100 eggs are laid by the adult females in the late summer into an incision made into the tissues of the host plant. The eggs hatch into nymphs the following spring.

The nymph is the sexually immature stage. It resembles the adult in shape but unlike the adult has no wings and only rudimentary legs and eyes. Crucially, it has but a thin outer body layer, or exoskeleton, which unlike the adult's is not covered by a waxy layer. For this reason it needs to protect itself from desiccation. This is achieved by surrounding itself in a frothy mass of soapy bubbles known colloquially as cuckoo-spit. The froth also helps to protect the developing nymph from predators by disguising the nymph. If determined to seek out the insect, the predator will be dissuaded by the unpalatable taste of the froth. Enclosed within this froth, the nymph moults several times before emerging as an adult in early summer. The froth is created by the insect excreting a fluid, the result of excess undigested plant sap, exuding through the anus. This sap, as it is excreted, mixes with a secretion from the abdominal glands. Air bubbles are introduced through a special valve on the abdomen which acts like a bellows, and contact with the air causes the liquid to ferment, forming the froth.

Snipes in the air!

Anyone walking through the Wetlands on these summer evenings will hear the strange sound of the snipe as it dives through the air. This sound is made by its outer tail feathers and the sound has been likened to that of a kid goat – hence its name in Irish “An Gabhairin” or the little goat. The sound is made by the male during the breeding season and the perched male shown here makes a chucka-chucka call. If you stumble across the snipe as you walk along the paths it explodes into the air in a zig-zag flight, with a rasping ‘creech’ call. Its plumage is brown, with golden-buff and black stripes on the head and back and white edges to its tail. It uses that long beak to probe in the mud for worms and invertebrates, the sensitive tip helping it feel for prey. The snipe has the extraordinary ability to open the tip of its bill while the rest remains closed. Hidden amidst vegetation the nest usually contains four eggs, olive-brown with dark blotches. After 20 days the young hatch and leave the nest almost immediately, able to fly after just two weeks and fully grown after seven. The snipe is the bird of the wetlands and the natural choice for our logo.

Open Day

The Annual Cabragh Wetlands Open Day takes place again this year on Saturday 6th July with the gates opening at 1.00p.m. A wide variety of events are planned for the day for all members of the family. There will be an exhibition of local arts and crafts and the education centre and bird hide will be open for all to see. Eanna Ni Lamhna, of RTE and An Taisce fame, will lead exciting guided walks of the wildlife of the Wetlands later in the afternoon. There will also be a raffle and auction of a variety of interesting objects. Tea and refreshments will be available and admission is free. Email info@cabraghwetlands.ie for further information