Butterflies and friends leaving!

David Attenborough recently remarked that we may well be moving into a post-butterfly world, which is by any standards a depressing thought from a man not normally given to unnecessary scare-mongering. True, the abysmal weather has not helped this summer, but there seems no reason to doubt that they are becoming less common. Those who focus their studies on butterflies, moths and insects are called entomologists, and they have recorded an astonishing 170,000 species of Lepidoptera around the world, about 90% of which are moths, the remainder butterflies. Butterflies are day-flying, normally brightly-coloured and with clubbed antennae, with their wings folded together over their back. Moths are more diverse, with both day and night flying species; their antennae do not have clubbed tips, but are feathered or filamentous and most have bristles at the base of their wings.

The fossil record traces butterflies back to about 40 million years ago and moths to about 100-140 million. Go back another eon to 250 million years ago and you find the emergence of the caddis fly, a winged insect very precious to the Cabragh Wetlands, and which is perhaps a link-species in the evolution of butterflies and moths.

Lepidoptera emerged alongside the first flowering plants, and many species of butterfly are still closely linked to particular plant species. At Cabragh Wetlands we are very conscious of the close association of the brimstone butterfly to the rare buckthorn tree; the female lays her eggs on the shoots of the buckthorn, and when the caterpillar emerges ten days later, it can feed on the fresh young buckthorn leaves. A month later they pupate while attached to a stem by a silk pad, and after another 14 days the new adult butterfly emerges. If the buckthorn is chopped down, the brimstone's survival is threatened. Similarly that 'unsightly' nettle patch in your garden is probably home to red admiral and peacock butterflies; the red admiral migrates from Europe in late spring and its caterpillar makes a shelter by drawing nettle leaves together with silk, eats them and moves on. The peacock lays its eggs on the underside of young stinging nettles, and its caterpillars rear up at you if you disturb them. Over-tidy your garden by spraying your nettles, and you reduce the chances of the delights of swarms of butterflies. Plant buddleia bushes (named after the collector the Rev. Adam Buddle, 1660-1715) if you want to attract in hundreds of butterflies and infuse your garden with scent and colour. It is not called the butterfly bush for nothing.

The symbiosis between butterfly and plant is crucial, and not only must the plant be present for the butterfly to flourish, it must also develop at the right moment in the year. One of the signs of climate change is that spring is coming earlier, and it is not easy for butterflies, moths and other creatures to adapt their lifecycles to a new set of man-made timings. We are interfering with natural systems that have evolved in beautiful natural harmony over millions of years. There is a web of life that links all species; all are interconnected and interdependent. Butterflies have been compared to canaries in the coalmines; when something is not quite right with the environment, they are seriously affected. We wrote recently about the serious predicament facing bees; now it is the turn of the butterfly. Man also needs a harmonious and healthy natural environment, and take time to ponder on the recent World Health Organization's prediction that by 2020 mental illness will be the most common health problem facing us. Getting back in harmony with nature and all of creation is vital for us as individuals as well as for man as a species.

Talking of entomologists, this is a sad week for Cabragh Wetlands. For four years we have relied hugely on the dedication, expertise and energy of Marlene Harney to get our educational programmes up and running, writing worksheets, collecting specimens, making displays, helping school groups, giving a wonderful lecture on pollination, pond dipping, advising on décor, and countless other contributions. She deserves a full-page spread to herself. Sadly for us the time has come for the Harney family to migrate back to South Africa. We are immensely grateful for all that she has given to the Wetlands, not least in her professionalism and scientific thoroughness, but also in terms of friendship and simple human generosity. Fair winds and bon voyage, Marlene, and we wish you, Dirk and the boys the very best for the next phase in your globe-trotting lives. Auf wiedersehen.

Starlings

During the winter months starlings feed up to 30 miles from their night time roost. As evening approaches the flocks of starlings returning to the roost and begin to form into progressively larger flocks. Large pre-roost groups form in places where the birds can get one last meal before nightfall such as Cabragh Wetlands. Just before the birds settle down for the night they fly in beautiful formations, over the evening sky in one of the most beautiful natural displays to be seen in Ireland. At Cabragh Wetlands these flocks have been estimated to be tens of thousands in size. We are holding a joint event with the Tipperary branch of Bidwatch Ireland on Sunday 16^th November, when Kevin Collins will talk at 3.00 pm on the Winter Birds of the Cabragh Wetlands, followed by an evening Starling Watch (weather permitting). Come along and enjoy this wonderful sight! Videos of this sight from other locations can be viewed on Youtube - an example of what can be expected can be seen here

Winter Talks

Cabragh Wetlands series of Winter Talks gets underway this coming Wednesday (22^nd October) at 8.00pm with a talk by Catherine Keena on 'Farming and Wildlife'. Catherine works for Teagasc and is based at Kildalton, Co. Kilkenny. She is a well-known figure in environmental circles, speaking frequently to a variety of audiences and leading field trips and walks to show both farmers and the public a better way forward for environmental management. Her speciality is in Countryside Management, and only this week she has been involved in the Teagasc Biodiversity Demonstration in Bansha, focusing on native trees and hedgerows.

This talk should be of real interest to the general public and of great importance for those who are involved in land management, be it of a substantial farm or just your own garden. While the news is dominated by banking crashes and credit crunches, such stories as the report last week that up to a quarter of mammal species are threatened with extinction are largely ignored by the media, pushed to the middle pages and unnoticed by the bulk of the public. Which will seem the more important to our grandchildren – bloated bonuses to bankers, a drop in house prices and government bale-outs of banks, or the loss of habitats, destruction of biodiversity, and the reduction and elimination of a great range of our fellow species? We all need to look at what we can do at a local level to improve wildlife habitats.

So please come along to the Cabragh Wetlands next Wednesday evening, at 8.00 pm to hear about Farming and Wildlife, with, we hope, an emphasis on wetland management. We are privileged to have Catherine speak to us and we all have much to learn about best practice in managing the small pieces of the earth for which we take responsibility. Entry is free.

Cabragh Wetlands Winter Talks will continue in November with a double bill of particular interest to bird watchers. We are holding a joint event with the Tipperary branch of Bidwatch Ireland on Sunday 16^th November, when Kevin Collins will talk at 3.00 pm on the Winter Birds of the Cabragh Wetlands, followed by an evening Starling Watch (weather permitting). On Wednesday 26^th November local teacher and naturalist Tom Gallagher will give a talk at 8.00pm on 'Garden Birds, their Song, Folklore and how to attract them'. Make a note in your diaries.

Researchers Wanted

The watchwords of the Cabragh Wetlands Trust are "Conservation, Recreation, Education", core values that cement the Trust firmly at the heart of the community. Conservation speaks for itself, and with our Open Days, talks, workshops, camps and flourishing school visits, we are doing a lot to develop recreational and educational programmes. With third-level students heading back to University, it seems a good moment to raise the important issue of higher education.

The Cabragh Wetlands are a potential treasure trove for the serious student. Very little research has been carried out here, apart from some crucial work in the mid-1990's which established just how important it was to preserve the wetlands because of the rarity and diversity of species and habitats. More recently valuable work has been done on invertebrates like beetles and butterflies, but much more remains to be done. As the area has had almost no top-flight academic research, any work is almost bound to be original and ground-breaking, and hence should have a very good chance of earning high marks. Any examiner will appreciate the vibrancy of originality.

Botanists, biologists, zoologists, entomologists, hydrologists, geographers, historians, climatologists……there is something here for you. We need talented undergraduate and post-graduate students to get into the wetlands and find out just what is there, how well it is surviving, and how it can be best protected. Whether you are a student at the TI, or a native of the area who is heading to Dublin, Cork, Limerick or elsewhere to study, do bear in mind that a unique opportunity is available here in the heart of North Tipperary. We need to establish good base-line data about the flora and fauna of the Wetlands, both native and seasonal visitors, and to find out more about how the ecology of the wetlands works as a whole, from the flow and purity of the water, to the interrelationships between species in the waterways, reedbeds, watermeadows and hedgerows. There are about a dozen distinct habitats across the site, all worthy of serious study.

Any ambitious and enthusiastic student would be doing themselves a disservice if they did not consider doing their research at Cabragh, and in principle all the Trust wants in return is a copy of your research and results, and if appropriate a presentation to the committee. Bear us in mind, and pass the message on to friends and fellow students.

Apologies!

Apologies for the recent absence of the Cabragh Wetlands website from the world wide web! We are now back online and hope to update it further soon. Upcoming events include the start of the Winter Lecture Series on the 22nd October with a talk on habitat preservation by Catherine Keena of Countryside Management, Kildalton Agricultural College. Further talks will look at garden birds, evolution theory and Darwin, the history of Thurles, hunting and conservation, complexity theory and taking time to awaken your sense of interconnectedness! A wide and varied topics for all. Further details of times of the talks will be on the website soon

Taxidermists and all that!

The taxidermy industry must be very pleased with the Cabragh Wetlands, whichmay be committed to conserving life, but is not beyond making good use ofany corpses that are found in good condition. Our collection of stuffedcreatures is growing steadily, and at the time of typing this, I can see twopheasants, a shoveller duck, red squirrel, barn owl, stoat, kestrel, skuaand a splendid fox.These specimens were almost all found within or close to the wetlands; somewere road kills, though we must hope against hope that drivers mature andslow down so that the death toll on the roads is reduced. Have you everstopped to think about how many non-human lives are lost as a result of baddriving? If the global human loss to traffic accidents is around 50 million,the non-human toll must be in the billions by now. And we call it progress!Still, that fox is rather splendid. He has the softest coat of ginger-redfur, with surprisingly short black legs. The children will love the chanceto get up close to such a wild creature and even dare to put a finger in itsmouth and feel the points of his teeth. The tiny stoat has an even moreimpressive set of teeth, razor sharp and almost serrated.The skua is the odd one out, yet he really was found in the CabraghWetlands, as the Star told us in an article last autumn. Identification isstill not finalized, but it is most likely a young pomarine or arctic skua,probably bred off the west or north coast of Scotland and a summer visitorto Ireland. It perhaps lost its way in bad weather last October, came inlandand died of starvation in the Wetlands.As a frequent visitor to uninhabited Scottish islands, your correspondenthas first hand experience of being dive-bombed by arctic skuas, which areutterly fearless in defence of their nests. Skuas are guilty of robbery withviolence, harassing terns, auks and gulls until in panic they disgorge theirfood for the skua to steal. If you go near their nests, they will fly highand swoop down, often working in pairs to drive you away. And if you don'tgo, they will hit you, diving in feet first from behind and cracking you onthe head with those sharp webbed feet.We have placed our stuffed skua eight feet up a wall and you can get someidea of the thrill of him diving at you. Come and see him! And if you doencounter some poor creature on the road, stuff him in a bag, pop him in thefreezer and give us a call. Keep your local taxidermist in work!

Every little helps!

The nomination of the Cabragh Wetlands Trust for an All-Ireland Pride of Place Conservation Award is very good news both for the Trust and for the local community. North Tipperary County Council has made the nomination for a cross-border award, in conjunction with Cooperation Ireland. Whether or not we get to shake hands with the President at the autumn Awards Ceremony is perhaps immaterial….though it would be nice to win! What matters is that there is growing recognition at a national level of the key role that community groups play in preserving their local habitats.

It would be easy to leave ecological protection to government, whether at county, national or European levels, and they have vital roles to play in setting ground rules and providing expertise and watchdogs….and money. But we have to believe that we as individuals are the ultimate guardians of our own habitats. If we do not care for the health of our own piece of earth, why should anyone else? It would be good to think that it is morally uplifting for us to be involved, and certainly the best possible example and bequest to our children.

The recent death of Edward Lorenz robbed us of the man recognized as the developer of “Chaos Theory”. He once ran a weather-prediction programme on his computer and decided to double-check the results, but to save time reduced his figures from six decimal places to three, an apparently insignificant adjustment of one part in a thousand. The results were dramatically different, and the implications were developed in his 1972 talk: “Predictability: Does the Flap of a Butterfly’s Wings in Brazil set off a tornado in Texas?”

Small deviations, small actions, can have massive and unpredictable results. Chaos Theory has had a profound impact on scientific and social theory, resulting in “one of the most dramatic changes in mankind’s view of nature since …..Newton”. It’s up there with Darwin and Einstein.

We have to believe that what we do as individuals and a community matters. Who knows what difference putting a coin in a bucket might make, or teaching your child about flowers, or buying binoculars instead of an ipod, or adding your perspective, expertise and enthusiasm to the work of a local group. If we all act locally, we can make a difference globally.