A Weighty Tome

Event poster for the Spring Day

I am sneaking this post in before the normal 'due day' (Tuesday) because a) I have plenty to say already and b) I am likely to be too busy tomorrow evening what with the arrival of our Help-X volunteer. Reason 'a' has largely to do with Elizabeth playing an absolute blinder and finding me a lovely day's entertainment on Saturday. This took the form of a day of walks and talks "celebrating Spring" based in the 'village hall' buildings of nearby Kilmovee village.

Yomping through the woods

What had caught her eye was the involvement of our main man at the National Biodiversity Database, Liam Lysaght; it turns out that his brother was setting it up. After what feels like 6 months of wet and Winter, the weather came up trumps too and the day took place in lovely warm sunshine. However, there is no point in re-inventing the wheel, so it is easiest if I just reproduce here the text of a review I offered to write for the Kilmovee website. Here it is.

Mammal Atlas (cover)

Many, many thanks today to the team at Kilmovee for organising the excellent ‘walks and talks’ event, “A Celebration of Spring”. This was a brilliantly assembled event full of interest and healthy exercise on a gorgeous Spring day which had arrived hot on the heels of a long, wet March and April – a welcome break.

Mammal Atlas (Fox pages open)

We started in the ‘classroom’, the village’s Thatch Roof Building attached to the Village Centre with fascinating presentations by Liam Lysaght of the National Biodiversity Database on the need for that resource, by Chris Huxley on bird migration and by Lynda Huxley on the conservation of swifts, swallows, house martins and sand martins.

The ever-more-massive lamb, Bábóg. Compare this pic with
the size of her 6 weeks ago.

Our first walk was down to a woodland around 20 minutes south of Kilmovee which was pure joy in the sunshine ‘armed’ with our assembled experts in many ecological areas – bird song, Summer migrant and other birds (we were quickly ‘shown’ willow warblers, swallows, blackcaps,  mistle thrushes and chiffchaffs and even a buzzard came zooming through with a hooded crow in hot pursuit), butterflies and bees, plus botanists to point out wood sorrel, anenomes, greater stitchwort, pig-nut and the not-quite-ready bluebells.

A 4th bag of Lamlac is needed.

There are some impressive ancient beeches in that wood too, which had us hankering for a local historian to tell us some of the past of this site.

We adjourned back to the thatched cottage for a superb lunch of soup, soda bread, sandwiches and biscuits plus, of course, tea and coffee.

Not the tidiest drinker. Bábóg gets sprayed liberally on at least
one side of her face with milk.

Refreshed, we were back into the ‘class room’ for a lovely, relaxing, post-prandial talk by local poet and writer, Terry McDonagh who is also an expert on local, famous, 1700s poet Anthony Raftery, blinded from age 10 by smallpox and the “last travelling bard” famous for his poems about Spring.
The final entertainment was a walk out to the local stone-built and excellently preserved ‘Cashel’ – a ring-wall 2m thick and 2.5m high on private land just outside the village.

Duck eggs in the incubator start 'pipping'

Delightfully, the village is currently host to a stone-mason training course with 8 or so lads all learning the ropes just beside the thatched building. A 1000 year old stone cashel would be right up their street, so they were invited to join us as we got a look round the place and an excellent presentation by University Historian, Dr Yvonne McDermott (GMIT). Dr McDermott had done us a brilliant job but it was nice to receive some input at the Q+A from the lads coming at it from the actual builders’ point of view.

Very recently hatched - still wet.

All together it made for a thoroughly enjoyable day and if anyone was thinking about going and then decided not to, you missed a real treat. There is talk of this possibly becoming an annual event – mark it in your diary. Thank you very, very much to the whole team at Kilmovee and to all the speakers and volunteers who made it all so good.

...and that was that.

3 out and dry, now moved to the brooder box for food, water
and the warmth of an electric 'Mum'

Friends of the Blog will know that my main involvement with Liam is through recording all my flora and fauna sightings onto the Biodiversity Database, which I have been doing now for as long as I've known it existed. They may not know that this data gets used by the team there in a whole host of ways, one of which is to produce periodic books and atlases mapping the distribution of the sightings. They had advertised that a mammal atlas was coming out in 2017 and I'd added it to my 'Dear Santa' list but we had had no luck finding a copy. The chance to actually finally MEET Liam in the flesh seemed like an equally good opportunity to obtain the book - he would surely bring me a copy down and I could pay for it there. He even autographed it for me.

It is a lovely book full of fascinating information and all that data. I get a special wee thrill when looking at the maps knowing that most of those little (10 km) squares around the north end of County Roscommon are my own data/sightings. In the back of the book is a full listing of all the 2500-odd people who contributed data and there are the names of the Woman of the House and myself.

A weighty tome. My new sheep book.

While we are on books, I also came by a new sheep book on the recommendation of a sheep expert who I respect mightily, Tim Tyne who wrote my all time favourite sheep-for-smallholders book. When it arrived I wondered quite what I'd done. A weighty tome indeed - 690 pages hard back and weighing 1.7 kg, it looked worryingly like a medical dictionary. I spend enough time now fighting off people who think sheep are just single track animals looking for new ways to die; was I going to end up like one of those Wikipedia/Google self-diagnosers who show up at the GP claiming to have bovine tripanosomiasis? You'll be pleased to know it is a whole lot better than that and written very well to explain sheep issues to farmers who are not fully trained vets.

All 9 sheep have their noses down. Well rested grass on the
front lawn is filling up their bellies. We'll have them weaned
in no time!

Meanwhile, you will see from the pictures, that the ducklings have started to hatch. We have 3 so far from a set of 16 eggs and they are doing very well. More on them in the next post.

(Too Much) Bio-Diversity

Liz's new thermal socks. The price was only
slightly higher than the Tog rating!

Friends of the Blog will know that I am quite keen on the wildlife and a strong advocate of recording those sightings of our flora and fauna into the on-line 'National Bio-Diversity Database'. I wouldn't be surprised if I might even have a bit of a reputation for bullying everyone else to do the same. You saw a water-rail? Be sure to record that into the ......! You saw a road kill pine marten? Be sure... etc. People all around me on Twitter and Facebook are probably saying to each other, "Shhhh - Don't tell him - he'll make you enter it onto etc ..."

A very hazy sky for the Dec 3rd Full moon.

I make no apology for this and I am just as keen to submit other forms of recording to various related databases too - I do, as you may know, the Bumble bees recording through the Summer and , on Monday, I stepped out of the back door to be met by a tree creeper, who reminded me that the 2017/8 Garden Bird Survey started that day. The latter runs for 13 weeks and has you recording the highest numbers of all the garden birds seen at any one time in that week. My one tree creeper was rather outnumbered by a mini-murmuration of 55 starlings.

My friend's Sligo water-rail sighting.

The National Bio-Diversity Database has recently been improved and much easier to look at the recorded sightings. Either that or I finally worked out how it was done - it may have always been possible. This has made possible a bit of a friendly competition between counties and some target setting, encouraging, motivational comment from those in charge. Between all of the volunteer recorders, we input 10,000 sightings on each of the 4 big summer months and we have done 70,000 total so far this year. I am in a small minority in Co. Roscommon and had set myself a small personal target of getting 'us' over 800 by year end - we have just recently  completed this. What chance 900?

Fondant icing ready for the Christmas Cake

Two small personal feathers in the cap - I introduced a fellow gardener to the 'game' last month and helped them to start their own ball rolling with that water-rail  they'd found killed on the road while out walking. The bird was fairly intact and they were able to photograph it and posted it to FB, I guessed to get a confirmed ID. Water rails are very rare. There are only records for 21 across the whole country this year. Well now there is a shiny new record up on the Sligo coast and a new recorder to boot.

The only record in 2017 for Briza minor

My other, I was amused to note was that I hold the only record for Briza minor (Lesser quaking grass) for 2017. This doesn't really surprise me; I doubt many volunteers are interested in grass where as from my Uni days studying ecology, I always had a thing for grass species - that field wasn't just grass, it was a fascinating seed-hay meadow with catstail, timothy, fescues, rye grasses and the like.

I am impressed by the rainbow holograms on the new €50 note.

Some, like the quaking grasses, stuck in my mind because they have unusual flower 'panicles' (spikes). The quaking grasses have seed heads like flattened hop 'cones', so they are dead easy to ID and when I was out dog-walking at Kiltybranks and I spotted some, I just HAD to record it on the database. Only when I was in there looking around, did I learn that mine was a lonely single record. Obviously, Briza minor is not that rare, it just doesn't catch the attention of many volunteer recorders.

New signs warn verge-cutting contractors
not to cut here.

So Bio-Diversity is a good thing, yes? Well, yes, up to a point. Sometimes you can have too many species or, more specifically, unwanted species. Our lanes are suddenly well peppered with new (bi-lingual) signs warning of the presence of "Invasive Species". Readers will almost certainly know that the local environment is currently suffering from invasions of foreign 'thug' plant species - Japanese Knotweed, Himalayan Balsam and, here in the West, that much-loved 'giant rhubarb' plant, Gunnera manicata.

Feeding the Christmas Cake. 4 capfuls will do for now.

Well now the councils are fighting back armed with knowledge of how to stop the plants spreading and also how to eradicate them from existing sites and now also a PLAN. I'd seen all the notices go up and lobbed a question in to the most recent Tidy Towns meeting where one of the guys happens to be a high level Manager in the group responsible for highways maintenance, motorway signage,  procedures for road-works gangs and all that malarkey.

He told us that a lot of the 'stopping the spread' is about care in mowing the verges. The seeds (and other grow-able parts) are carried along on the mowing machines (or strimmers)  so they needed to tell the contractors to stop cutting where there was a patch and thoroughly clean down the machine between sections. One species (I think the knotweed) must not be cut at all - there is a laborious process of moving through the patch on foot using a hypodermic to inject each intact stem with a systemic chemical which will be taken down into the roots. That process has to be repeated 3 years running to finally stop the weed in its tracks. Good luck with that one lads. Others have to be cut before seed is ripe, like the very allergenic ragweed (Ambrosia artemisiifolia). Sounds obvious but this weed is a real problem in places like Hungary where it gets into the maize and sunflower crops and ripens before they do.

Our garden makes the Roscommon Herald.

Finally, while I'm still on plants, the Roscommon Herald have now printed that article by garden writer Paul Kirwan - the edition which came out today. Fame at last? It is a very flattering and generous piece (must have been Liz's chocolate cake!), with a couple of good pictures in it. Thank you very much the newspaper and, in particular Paul Kirwan. You are welcome back any time.

Not Safe in Taxis

Bird survey form (top section only).

Regular readers will know that I spend some of my time out observing local wildlife and I am quite keen to add any observations to the National Biodiversity Database. As part of this I count the birds on this 'farm' through the winter months and survey bumble bees on three walk-routes in the summer. This week is change-over week, when the birds finish (the survey only wants winter residents) and the bees start.

Last year's bee survey map. My three 'transepts'
are arrowed. I have to walk these three walks
at least once a month from March to October.

As well as these formal multi-month surveys, I also record any mammals I see (including road-kill), any birds and amphibians anywhere in my travels and input these to the database(s). I enjoy doing this 'observing' anyway (always have been a bit of a naturalist) and the database thing gives it an extra flavour of usefulness.

The sheep are currently on the front lawn - they have almost
eaten the East Field bare. This is Myfanwy. 

We have 'breaking news' in the pig department, though no photo's so you will have to put up with some wet sheep. Our breeder (Adrian) had a bit of a set back when one of the sows (Plum), who was due to 'farrow' in January failed to do so. She was last heard of being shipped back to Wicklow to be put back with the boar to either accept him (a sure sign that she was not pregnant) or to farrow a bit later than planned (just wrong dates recorded back in October). These things happen and it is always "in the lap of the gods".

(L to R) Rosy, Polly and Lily NOT enjoying the constant rain.

We (and Sue and Rob, who are also in the market for piglets) had to stand down and wait for the 2nd sow (Iris) which was due in March. Well, better news this time, says Adrian - Iris is due on 5th March (tomorrow) after her 3 months, 3 weeks and 3 days and she is showing all the signs, restless nest-building, full of milk etc. Nobody count any 'chickens' just yet as nothing is certain but we MIGHT, just might, get word and a photo soon and then a collection date for our gilts at the end of April. Woop woop!

Polly is unimpressed by the rain. The ewes are on the front
 lawn for the grass but there is no shelter-building for them
to retreat into. 

Meanwhile, Friends of the Blog will know that I had been trying to introduce our three young ducks to the established adult pair, who happen to be their biological Mum and Dad. I gave them a couple of hours (loosely) supervised a couple of days ago while Liz was at work and the drake (William (of Orange)) spent as much of it as possible chasing his 'children' around intent on mounting them and giving them the benefit of his amorous appetites.

Puddle Central here at present. 

When I reported this to Liz via text, she clocked the fact that the youngsters are probably not just his children but also his DAUGHTERS, so he is something of a wicked aul' pervert and, as she phrased it, "Not safe in taxis". We'll get round it. New animals always get chased around by your existing adults just as part of establishing dominance and 'pecking orders' and the drake will, in the end, accept the new-comers into his harem. Ducks are known for being a bit boisterous and drakes in particular can be bullies and rapists. It's all part of being a duck. I've not seen any attacks with intent to wound in these encounters.

Slicing up the fallen tree. 

Finally, a 'schoolboy error' with which I have confused Vendor Anna. The tree blown down here by Storm Doris had been cleared from the drive and I have sliced up that section for logs but the top 55 feet or so is still lying on the lawn with its nice cut end looking at you as you walk down the drive. I didn't think, and counted the tree rings on this end before reporting the age of the tree as 53 years. Anna was rapidly back on saying that this must be wrong as her father (TK Max on this blog) planted no trees at any time around 1961, so this must be a self-seed. Unlikely for a black spruce.

The base of your tree is a much more sensible place to count
growth-rings. 

I realised that this cut I was looking at was made 10-12 feet up the tree and would include no rings created when the tree had not yet reached this height. Ooops. Having dropped the tall stump and being able to now see the cut surface of the base, the growth rings are less clear but there are more like 65-70 giving the tree an start date around 1946. That might fit better with Anna's memories of her father's tree planting projects.

That is probably enough for this post. I am sure you do not want to hear about our rain, rain and more rain.