Water and Toilets

There will be a great chance for you to fine-tune your composting skills this Saturday, 12th June, when a Home Composting Seminar will be presented in Holycross. The event will be lead by Aine Madigan, who is Education Officer for the Peat Council of Ireland. The event starts at 2.00pm, and will be in the Riverside Park, Holycross opposite the Old Abbey Inn. Following Aine’s presentation, local environmentalist and Tipperary Institute graduate, Joe Bourke, will give an overview of biodiversity.

I enjoyed the article in last week’s Star about the great work going on at the new Cabragh allotments, and in particular the launch of the new ladies’ powder room, or compost toilet to give it a more realistic name. Apparently some leading figures were asked recently on television what the most important technological advance was in the last couple of centuries, and the immediate reply was ….the flushing toilet. This was the invention of Thomas Crapper, and there’s no need to explain how his name has been immortalized. Imagine what life might be like if it were not for this simple device, so central to all our daily lives.

In a number of African counties (Uganda and Rwanda from memory) plastic bags are banned because they were being used as toilets and then flung away – locally known as flying toilets. This foul brew would lie on the ground without decomposing, the plastic stopping water and light getting through to the ground below, eventually killing off the fertility of large areas of ground as fetid, stinking, disease-infested swamps were created around human habitation. As human populations mushroom and urban areas sprawl without planning and essential infrastructure to get fresh water in and sewerage out, so there is a growing risk to human wellbeing and a threat to healthy habitats for biodiversity.

In The Humanure Handbook Joseph Jenkins makes the case for going back to composting toilets, exhaustively studying the benefits of composting rather than flushing our faeces down the loo. Water is such a precious resource. Over 95% of the Earth’s water is in the oceans; about 2.5% is fresh, and most of that is locked up as ice in Antarctica and the Arctic. About 1% of the planet’s fresh water is available for our use, which amounts to 0.01% of the world’s total water supply. And yet every day 40% of the water you and I use is simply flushed down the toilet.

What a waste of such a precious resource. Furthermore the majority of private sceptic tanks do not work properly, so that much flushed water resurfaces to contaminate ground water. Jenkins suggests that this is the biggest cause of groundwater pollution in the USA, and goes on to argue that it is possible to treat human faeces in a safe and healthy way. What has always been seen as a foul pollutant can be a resource to be cherished. Composted human waste can become a valuable fertilizer for growing more food.

I yield to none in giving thanks to Mr Crapper for his life’s work, but maybe it is time to move on to less wasteful systems of waste disposal and save more water. It takes 130 pints of water to make a pint of beer and several more to flush it away. We can do better than that.

Willow trees

At Cabragh Wetlands the mallard parents are doing their very best to keep their ducklings alive, but inevitably some predator has taken a few of the brood. The yellow flag iris is flowering, lilies are developing on the surface of the pond, tadpoles are getting ever-closer to maturity, and the welcome recent rain means that our walkways are in need of regular mowing to keep them open. Perhaps surprisingly the birds are getting quieter, but you can put this down to parental exhaustion after weeks of nest-building, egg-sitting and chick-feeding.

A stroll around those walkways will bring you to the small river from Killough Hill which feeds into Cabragh the pure water which has done so much to sustain the exceptional biodiversity of the wetland habitat. There are about 400 known species of willow, with more expected to be identified when the botanists manage to do systematic research in western China. Willows are widespread in the northern hemisphere, but very rare in the south (like oaks). Each region has developed its own subspecies, as populations of trees have evolved in relative isolation, and even for the experts identification is a real challenge. Nearly all willows have male and female as separate plants; they produce catkins and rely on the wind or insects for pollination. Seeds are tufted and float on the wind.

Few plants have been as widely used by man. Osiers (the thin twigs) have of course long been grown in wetland areas and used for basket-weaving, but also for boats like the coracle and for hurdles and walls, while larger timbers have been used in the building industry. Today it has great potential as a fuel, with many seeing it as an invaluable biomass to supply energy without worsening the problem of global warming. Willow bark also has traditional medical value; it is rich in salicin, which is the core molecule of salicylic acid, from which aspirin was developed. So from willow a painkiller and anti-inflammatory was developed, and is used today (but don’t take it without appropriate expert advice!) to reduce the risk of blood clotting and thrombosis.

With so many plants out there waiting to be researched, who knows what benefits have yet to be unearthed? All species matter.

The Burren

How nice to receive a letter from a Cabragh member who recently went on an outing to the Burren organised by Bird Watch Ireland. It was one of those lovely sunny Sundays in May and not only did they hear that rare visitor, the cuckoo, but they also saw it. A personal thrill was to come across a group of newts in a small pool. At first movement in the pond weed seemed to be caused by tadpoles, but slowly the newts ventured into clear water to feed on surface insects. What a delight it was to see a group of these beautiful creatures in a pristine habitat, simply getting on with their lives.

The number of habitats in the Burren is amazing, and they support an equally impressive variety of life. Our visitor became very aware that if we can but maintain the range of existing habitats, then the cycle of life will continue to flow quite naturally. Be it a flower, insect or bird, if there are suitable places to live, then they will find them and take occupation.

In conversation on the bus, a fellow traveller pointed out that while he has installed a solid fuel stove in his house, he tries to avoid burning turf. You would think that he laudably wanted to reduce his CO2 emissions, but he went on to explain that when the bog is stripped for turf cutting we destroy valuable habitat. There it is again. We don’t need to teach survival skills to the birds and the bees, but we should leave them a place to live.

This beautiful Earth of ours has worked out many difficulties over eons of time. It has created numerous communities of life which inter-connect and inter-depend in extraordinary ways. We too exist within this precious web, and are invited to play our part.

Come out to Cabragh Wetlands, where the walkways are drying out, the ducklings and young swans are enjoying their first dabblings in the ponds, the shimmering blue of the dragonflies can be seen darting over the water and in the reeds, and the summer snowflake will still be looking magnificent for a few more days in this wonderful spell of weather. We won’t claim to match the Burren, but there are many wonderful things to see right on the edge of Thurles

Marsh Harrier Returns to the Wetlands

Word spread quickly last week that a rare visitor was spending a day at Cabragh Wetlands. The Eurasian marsh harrier was once a very familiar sight in Ireland and Britain, with the Victorian folk lore writer Charles Swainson reporting an old story that considerable numbers of harriers would land on the Wiltshire downs before heavy rain. Victorian hunters, egg and skin collectors raided nests and shot them out of the sky. Agro-chemicals and drainage of fenland habitat caused more problems, with organochloride pesticides wrecking attempts to re-establish numbers in the 1950’s and 60’s. By the 1970’s there was just one breeding pair in the west of Britain and one at the great Suffolk nature reserve at Minsmere, which is perfect harrier reedbed habitat. Many books published before the end of the millennium did not even record the marsh harrier as a resident of or visitor to Ireland.



Reduction in chemical use allowed numbers to grow at about 20% per year, and by 2000 there were 206 breeeding females spread from Kent to the Orkneys, with individuals crossing the Irish Sea. With luck a success story is developing.



Marsh harriers are the biggest and heaviest of the harriers, with the male about 50cm long and the female larger. She has a brown body and wings with a pale yellowish head, throat and forewing. It was a male that visited Cabragh, magnificently photographed by Eamonn Brennan, who captured its pale body, head and wings as it spent some time investigating our owl box atop a telephone pole. Most impressive were the great reddish-brown shadings on his wings. Old Irish names include Duck Hawk and Snipe Hawk, which reflect the lifestyle of the marsh harrier as he glides over reedbeds and wetlands searching for prey.



The marsh harrier is not a fast-flying hunter. In fact he is master of slow flight, gliding silently over reedbeds at barely 10mph, giving himself every chance to spot mice, frogs, reptiles, eggs, nestlings and rodents that make up its varied diet. Like the owl, marsh harriers have keen hearing, with facial feathers hiding large ear openings which help it to funnel sound and improve ability to detect prey in thick reedbeds. Nests are a mass of reeds and willow twigs, lined with grass and containing four or five eggs, which the female incubates for 36 days, with the male feeding them for another 40 before the young fly. Resident harriers spend winters in communal roosts on wetland sites.



It was a real pleasure to have a migratory marsh harrier at Cabragh for a day. Perhaps they will nest here in the future, though our ducks, snipe, frogs and mice will have to be on their guard.

Swallows

All members of Cabragh Wetlands Trust are reminded that the AGM will take place at the Wetlands Centre this coming Tuesday, May 4th, starting promptly at 8.00pm. As always, this is a very important time for communication between the Committee and the membership, and as a local community-based organization, the Trust welcomes the chance to update members on the plans to renovate the Centre and the ever-growing education programme, as well as our core work of conservation of habitat and bio-diversity.



With spring well on the way, the rain over the weekend was very welcome, easing the task of digging the vegetable patch and watering the new crops. Gardeners at the newly inaugurated Cabragh organic allotments have been out in force preparing the ground for their first growing season. The sight of swallows arriving has certainly gladdened the hearts of many of us – is there a more graceful sight in nature than the gliding-swooping flight of the swallow? One almost feels that telegraph wires were made for them to sit and survey the world beneath.



After wintering in southern Africa, the swallows have flown 6,000 miles or more to return to their breeding grounds. Most adults will go to the same locality year after year, so you really are welcoming back old friends. They tend to build their nests on ledges on top of walls or against roof beams, and may well use exactly the same nest for many years, upgrading it with fresh mud and straw so that it is secured with architectural precision. Ornithologists conclude that swallows were originally cave nesters, and began to move to man-made structures when human construction began in the Tigris-Euphrates valleys some 10,000 years ago. They love to nest under bridges, recreating their ancestral caving instinct, and nests have been found several metres underground in old mine shafts. Last week Kevin Collins showed us a remarkable picture of a swallow’s nest at his house that contained 17 tiny wrens, crammed into it for shelter on one of the coldest nights of the recent freezing winter.



Swallows play a major role in keeping insect populations under control, catching them in flight. Often they live around busy farms and are known to follow farm machinery, no doubt because the activity will disturb insects like aphids, flies and bluebottles, driving them into the air for the swallows to seize. Their natural habitat is that invisible space hanging over the earth up to about 500 feet in height; as they fly lower than house martins and swifts, swallows are more susceptible to pollution and pesticides and are consequently declining in numbers compared to their close cousins. They will often drink on the wing, gliding open-beaked over a pond and swooping low to scoop up a mouthful of refreshment. In late summer and autumn places like Cabragh Wetlands provide reedbed roosts where hundreds of swallows may gather before migrating in mid-September.



The good news is that Ireland’s population of swallows is holding up better than most, largely because of the relatively low use of pesticides and the preservation of a lot of ruined buildings. One man’s ruin is someone else’s niche habitat.

Starlings

At Cabragh Wetlands we love the autumnal appearances of those huge flocks of hundreds of thousands of starlings, which swirl and sweep across the evening sky in massive grey-black clouds before settling into the reedbeds to roost for the night. But at this time of year we see a different side of this little fellow, as they busily set about nesting and breeding.



They love to build their nests in the eaves of our houses, landing on the guttering and finding gaps up into the roof space through which they can squeeze. For weeks now our garden has been festooned with little yellow tufts of soft material, like cotton wool. This is (or was) our precious roof insulation, dragged out and casually tossed away by the fussy starlings, who work very hard to clear out unwanted debris and create a nest as soft and clean as they can manage. A few days ago a skeleton appeared on the lawn, the dessicated remains of one of last year’s brood that did not survive infancy. Thrown out of the nest to create space for the class of 2010 and stripped of everything unpleasant, the bones now make an interesting exhibit for children to study on visits to Cabragh.



With its speckled feathers glinting in the sun, the starling is a truly beautiful bird. In summer and autumn a purple plumage on the chest makes him even more impressive, especially if you can put up with the noise. Almost from hatching they hold forth with a variety of indescribable noises, clicking, gurgling and whistling but never managing the mellifluous sounds of the blackbird or thrush. They are also great mimics, not least of human sounds. They have been known to imitate cats, frogs, owls and chickens; at least one dog has been driven mad as it dutifully tried to respond to its owner’s whistle, and people have rushed indoors to answer phones that weren’t ringing. Nowadays mobile ring tones are a favourite. Mozart’s pet starling is supposed to have inspired his G-major Piano Concerto, and certainly Mozart and the starling share a reputation for being brash, aggressive and generally obnoxious.



They are considered dirty and unhealthy (she-who-has-to-clean-the-windows would agree), but are good friends of sheep, pecking off ovine ticks in their fleece. The sites where they roost in the autumn can be devastated, vegetation broken down and killed by acidic guano from vast numbers of individuals answering the call of nature; in such death and decay mould and fungi flourish. Introduced to North America in the 1890’s, they are regarded there as a serious and invasive pest, with millions of dollars spent trying to eradicate them from Alaska to Mexico. In contrast the Russians love them, seeing them as a friend of the farmer (think of the number of insects a large flock will eat) and the harbinger of spring. Under the communists, the state provided 22.5 million nestboxes to encourage starlings, with children given school projects to record their usage.



The collective noun for a flock of starlings is a “murmuration”, which memorably evokes the sweeping rhythm of a million starlings on the wing, but certainly not the raucous cacophony coming from our roof spaces at this time of year.

Frogs

A year ago the papers were publishing alarming stories about the plight of the world’s frog populations, reporting that many species were under threat and not producing enough healthy young to guarantee their long term viability. That may still be the case, but it is great to report that here at Cabragh Wetlands our frogs seem to be in very robust and noisy good health.



Our artist-in-residence, Eamonn Brennan, has produced more wonderful pictures of frogs doing what comes naturally in late March as the weather warms up and spring gets underway. The females are laying huge quantities of eggs, and the males are busy fertilizing them at extraordinary rates – up to 4,000 each. Areas of the wetlands are alive with small bodies piled on top of each other, with pools of frogspawn spreading around. The air is filled with a cacophony of croaking as the males try to find a female partner.



This of course is one the best known signs of spring, and most of us will remember as children collecting frogspawn in a jam jar and studying the life-cycle of the frog by watching the eggs turn into wriggly tadpoles. It can almost be seen as one of those childhood rites of passage, an event which takes us out of the narrow cocoon of the family and introduces us to the wonder, beauty and variety of the natural world. How many of you remember that the frog begins as a fish-like creature, breathing through gills in its tadpole stage, before growing a tail and legs? In an amazing transformation it then abandons its gills by growing lungs and breathing like a land-based animal before emerging tailless as a fully mature frog.



Here at Cabragh Wetlands we are in a great position to give children the chance to study this sort of process at first hand, rather than from an indoor textbook lesson, computer screen or newspaper article. Children will love learning out in the middle of nature. If you can, get in touch and arrange a visit for your school or group. We can be contacted on 050443879 (mornings) or via e-mail at cabraghwetlands@eircom.net. Give the kids a chance to experience those tadpoles and frogs in their natural environment.