Mid Summer Eve’s Visitor

A Fox Cub! Small enough to sit in the bird feeder.

Summer Solstice Grasses 2019

Summer Solstice Grasses

Now to learn their names!

First baby swallows have fledged 18th June

Blue Bells

The first plant we noticed once the sheep were gone, was the re-emergence of the

 Wild Irish Bluebells (Hyacinthoides non-scripta Coinnle corra) 

They reappeared in the East and West hedgerows.

This is one of my favourite spots in the wild garden.

Irish Bat - a Soprano Pipistrelle?

I opened the window this morning and was greeted by this face crawling from the window reveal! I managed to take this picture before it soundlessly took flight. Looking at my Batalas 2020 Identification Card from Bat Conservation Ireland - I think it’s a Soprano Pipistrelle? I’ve sent the picture onto Bat Conservation Ireland and await their reply.

The Swallows have returned!

The Swallows have returned!
While the Swallows were holidaying in Africa, the little Wren has built its nest using the Swallows' mud nest as a base. We've put up a new platorm under the eaves for future nests - but will the Swallows & Wrens co-habit?!

Re-wilding of 'an Speir', 3acres of land, with a Passive House, in County Kikenny

On this last day of January 2019,

 I am making the first blog entry of the documentation of a decade long project :

The Re-Wilding of 'an Speir'

We are taking part in 'We are the Ark Project' Project of re-wilding Ireland

www.wearetheark.org

 by

Mary Reynolds : Nature Activist and Reformed Landscaper

www.marymary.ie

Artwork by Ruth Evans Art

An Speir - Mid-Summer and Mid-Winter - West Elevation 2018

Best Wishes for 2019!

Snowberries (Symphoricarpos albus)

 picked from the surrounding hedgerows

Blackthorn - Sloe Blossom

Marsh Woundwort at the Base of the Hedgerows

Used in herbal medicine as a antiseptic and antispasmodic since the sixteenth century, the leaves were also used to help staunch bleeding and healing wounds.

Wildflowers of Ireland

This plant mainly differs from Hedge Woundwort in its colouring and also in that is has only a very faint aroma. The beautiful, individual flowers are pale pinkish purple or mauve, and are slightly smaller (12-15mm) than its cousin.  It is an elegant, robust and erect plant with oblong, short-stalked or unstalkedleaves.  It flowers from June to September, attracting bees into its tube shaped corolla.  Mainly found in the vicinity of damp arable land, its fruits are nutlets.  This is a native plant and belongs to the family Lamiaceae.

This plant was first identified by me in Gibletstown, Co Wexford in 2006 and was photographed at that time.

If you are satisfied you have correctly identifie

Happy August Bank Holiday!

Bright Yellow Ragwort flowering in the Wildflower Meadow at the bottom of the site...

At least 30 insect species (and 14 fungi species) are entirely reliant on Ragwort, and about a third of the insects are scarce or rare. Ragwort is also an important nectar source for hundreds of species of butterflies, bees, moths, flies and other invertebrates, helping to support populations in the UK countryside.
Although Ragwort (Senecio jacobaea) can be a problem for some horses and their owners, it is an extremely important plant in the British countryside and on urban waste ground for the number of insect species it supports. At least 77 invertebrate species have been recorded eating Ragwort leaves, or living in the stems and flowers. About 52 of these are known to regularly feed on Ragwort and, more importantly, 30 species are entirely dependant on Ragwort, the Cinnabar moth for example, a beautiful macro moth. About a third of these 30 species are scarce or rare.
Ragwort is also an important nectar source for over one hundred species (117, says English Nature) of butterflies (Small copper is just one), bees, moths, flies and other invertebrates, helping to maintain insect populations generally in the UK countryside.

Text by Buglife UK

Follow this link for more interested facts about Ragwort

Ragwort : weed or wildflower?

Ragwort is poisonous to horses, damaging the liver when eaten. The toxic effect builds up over time, causing irreparable damage. This means that your horse will get just as ill from eating small amounts of ragwort over a long period of time as it would do from eating a large quantity in one go. 

Visit : World Horse Welfare

Honeysuckle

The Honeysuckle is now flowering in the hedgerows

and with the warm 25degrees the air is filled with Honeysuckle scent...

Ceramic imprint of Flowering Honeysuckle

Visit : Irish Wildlife Trust

 for great info on Honeysuckle

SPECIES OF THE WEEK
Irish Wildlife Trust
Honeysuckle
Lonicera periclymenum
Feithleann

Honeysuckle also know as Woodbine is a native, vigorous, deciduous climbing shrub that twines itself over other shrubs and through hedgerows, growing to more than 7m in height. It is found in woodland, hedgerows or scrubland.

The 3-5cm long flowers are tubular, two-lipped and arranged in a whorl on woody stems and are creamy white or yellowish in flower, pink in bud, with an intense fragrance especially at night. Honeysuckle is pollinated by bees by day and at night moths are attracted by the heavenly scent, the Elephant Hawkmoth regularly visits in search of nectar. In autumn the flowers are followed by clusters of scarlet berries that attract birds such as coal tits.

Honeysuckle or woodbine was mentioned by Shakespere:

“I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,
Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,
Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,
With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine”

Long ago it was believed that if honeysuckle grew around the entrance to the home it prevented a witch from entering. In other places it's believed that grown around the doors it will bring good luck. If it grows well in your garden, then you will be protected from evil. In Ireland honeysuckle was believed to have a power against bad spirits, and it was used in a drink to cure the effects of the evil eye. Bringing the flowers into the house will bring money with them.

Tufted Vetch growing in the Hedgerows on the Site

Visit : Wild Flowers of Ireland

Meadow Brown Irish Butterfly

The tall grass in the bottom field has become a breeding ground for the Meadow Brown Butterfly. A walk through the grass disperses clouds of the butterflies...

In the meadow grass

In the blackthorn and blackberry bushes in the hedgerow

Snowdrops at the Base of the Trees

While the set of tender/construction drawings for the Passive New Build are near completion the snowdrops are flowering at the base of the trees ....

Late Summer/Early Autumn Thistles at the Bottom of the Garden....