Wild About Wildlife: Getting into the spooky season in Limerick

I HAD taken the morning off work as I had some family business to sort out. I arrived early and had around half hour to spare and ended up exploring the ground of the local church. These often contain old and interesting trees that sometimes even predate the church building.
A beautiful row of tall horse chestnut trees bordered the entrance to the church. The trees were just starting to get their autumn colour as the horse chestnut is one of the first trees to lose its summer leaves. Many of the remaining leaves on the trees were covered in pale blotches. These are caused by the lava of leaf miners that spend part of their short lives eating the sugary tissue of the leaves. When they are fully grown they hatch out into flying adults
While not a native species the horse chestnut has been around for over eight centuries and it widely planted in towns and parks but in my experience does not naturalized very easily. There are two main species of horse chestnut trees. One has mainly white/pinkish flowers that are held in candle like structures.
There is also a beautiful red variety and both are excellent for bees and other pollinating insects.
On the path beneath the trees there were lots of squashed conkers. I hoped that the remaining ones had been stuffed into pockets and school bags by the passing students as they headed off for another day at school.
Conkers are one of the easiest seeds to sow. I remember a former tutor telling us that they would grow under your bed if left there. Mine don’t go under the bed but into a mixture of compost and sand and are left outdoors in a sheltered spot for planting the following spring. I usually only sow one per a pot as the roots have a habit of knitting together and this makes it nearly impossible to separate out for planting.

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A noisy flock of rooks and jackdaws had settled on the branches of the trees. There was still just enough cover to keep the birds hidden from view. Earlier in the year there was a least a 150 nests in one of the largest urban rookery I have recorded.
In the large sheltered garden growing up against the boundary wall of the church there was still plenty of life despite the chillness in the night-time air. The garden was surrounded by a tall metal fence but there was plenty of room to peak between the bars.
A fuchsia shrub was full of purple flowers and even for a distance it brightened up the street. Late flying wasps on their last journey for nectar and pollen will often visit the fuchsia to feast on its abundant energy.
Buddleia long spikes of flowers are excellent for butterflies and there was still a few blooms left on this shrub. The last few weeks of fine weather have brought a welcome flush of butterflies. I have seen lots of small tortoiseshells, red admirals and even a few painted ladies.
The later species is a migrant all the way from Africa and there are a fairly common visitor to Ireland. Some years they arrive in their thousands but this summer I have only seen a handful.
This butterfly was the offspring of parents that first crossed into Europe and with each successive generation they advanced a little further across the continent.

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albert.nolan@rocketmail.com or 089 4230502.