Wild About Wildlife: Discovering nature in Limerick wetlands

THE WEATHER was very cold and a dusting of ice was covering the car in the morning. Even though it was still dark I could just make out hungry shapes queuing up for their turn on the nut feeder.

Today I was heading out on a nature walk with the busy students of the Salesian NS. Thankfully they have the amazing Wesfields wetland reserve right on their doorstep and it only takes two minutes to get there from the school. The classes regularly visit the wetland and we were going to be discovering the trees and birds that inhabit this habitat.

Our first surprise was as we waited to cross the road. There were two rooks on the tall holm oak tree. We noticed that they were pecking off the acorns and dropping them onto the busy road.

The traffic then broke the acorns open and the rooks could hop down at their leisure and feed on the sugar rich interior. I had read about this behaviour before but never seen it in action and it was a real thrill.

Just at the entrance to the wetland there was an elderberry tree growing inside the fence. The soft berries had been stripped from the tree by hungry birds. A few weeks ago in my own garden I was entertained by several blackbirds who would arrive each morning. They spent most of their time and energy not eating but jostling each other for the best position.

Out on the lake we saw lots of shrieking black headed gulls. They come to the lake to roost on tall posts that must have been the remains of an ancient fence. The large pond is been slowly swallowed by encroaching reeds although I have heard reports that the situation will be addressed in the coming months.

In the remaining clear water we saw mallard with their faded bottle green heads, coots and moorhens that could run on water when they were startled.

Back to the trees and our next species was the sycamore. This has leaves shaped like your hand and the winter buds are green. Buds are a great way to identify trees when the leaves are gone. They come in all different colours from the sooty black of the ash to the large brown sticky buds of the horsechestnut.

If you look closely you will also notice that they are also arranged differently on the twigs. The sycamore buds are in pairs or opposite each other while the willow are like steps on the stairs.

Another wetland tree is the alder. Its bark is rough and this is one of the best trees for lichens and mosses. The buds are purple and already there were long catkins growing from the twigs. Alder also has cones and these are full of tiny papery seeds that feed hungry flocks of redpolls and siskins.

We also looked at the holly and the bramble. There were tiny white flowers on the holly but no berries. We did find some blotches on the leaves and these are caused by a tiny fly that mines the leaves ad eats that energy rich starches produced by the leaf.

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As we reached the end of our walk we met a family of swans. The parents were resting on the path with several of this year’s cygnets. They were shedding their brown feather and getting their snow white plumage. Some were much bigger than their siblings and perhaps it is a two year development to getting full adult feathers.

As we watched an elderly lady came along and fed the swans porridge. She comes nearly every day and the swans really appreciate her kindness and the feeding of appropriate and healthy food.

Our last tree was a crab apple and a teacher recently told me that she has woodpigeons in her garden and they hand upside down from the branches and try and eat the crab apples.

Out of the shade of the trees the sun felt warm and we spent a few precious moment basking in the heat before returning to the classroom.

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albert.nolan@rocketmail.com or 089 4230502.