August 19th Walk in Carrickgolloghan Woods

On Saturday 19th August Dublin Branch member Niall Mac Coitir led a walk in Carrickgolloghan Woods near Kiltiernan in the Dublin mountains. Along the way we saw trees like birch, rowan and scots pine, and wildflowers like yarrow and St. Johns wort. The walk included a visit to the chimney of the old lead mine that used to be in the area, and a trip to the viewing point where a spectacular view of the Dublin and Wicklow mountains can be had, and also a great view north to Killiney Hill. The walk finished up just before the rain came down, so all in all a success.

Photos courtesy of Brendan

15th July - Bull Island Wildflower Walk

On Saturday 15th July Dublin Branch member Niall Mac Coitir led a walk to see the amazing wildflowers on the Bull Island. There was a good turnout and the weather was perfect for a walk - nice and warm, but not too sunny. As usual lots of flowers were seen, including four kinds of orchid - common spotted orchid, pyramidal orchid, marsh helleborine ,and twayblade. Among the other flowers spotted were restharrow, ladies bedstraw, tufted vetch, bird's foot trefoil, hare's foot trefoil, yellow rattle and eyebright. So all and all a good day!

Photos courtesy of Brendan

Ladies Bedstraw

Common Spotted Orchid

Marsh Helleborine

Twayblade has an unusual green coloured flower

Restharrow

4th July Green Drinks - Gardening for Wildlife

This month Dublin Green Drinks heard Ricky Whelan of the IWT Laois Offaly Branch give a talk on Gardening With Wildlife In Mind - in other words how to develop any space to be more friendly and inviting to wildlife and wild plants. This could involve habitat creation like having a pond in your garden, or a wild space for the nettles, or it could involve planting pollinator friendly plants, native species.

Ricky gave a very informative talk, full of amusing anecdotes, and stressed how easy it was for even the person with the least knowledge of gardening or tiniest space to contribute to wildlife. Even a window box can be a help! Hopefully  those attending were inspired to go home with a fresh enthusiasm for gardening with wildlife in mind!

Ricky Whelan also works as a Project Officer for BirdWatch Ireland and is heavily involved in the Abbeyleix Bog project in south Laois. 

Ricky showing us a bat box

2nd May Green Drinks - Raised Bog Conservation

On Tuesday 2nd May 2017 Green Drinks Dublin heard Dr Maurice Eakin, Senior Wetland Ecologist from the NPWS, talk about the ongoing efforts to maintain and restore raised bogs in Ireland. Finding a compromise between the obligations of the Habitats Directive and the rights of domestic turf-cutters was always going to be difficult, but considerable progress has been made in recent years.

Maurice is also working with Bord na Mona who are engaged in a programme of restoring some of their cutaway bogs to their previous state. This involves first and foremost blocking the drains and allowing the bogland to rewet itself, and then primarily allowing nature to take its course. Further details can be found on Bord na Mona's website:

http://www.bordnamona.ie/company/bord-na-mona-story/biodiversity/archive/

July 9th - Bull Island Wildflower walk

On Saturday 9th July, the Dublin Branch went on its by now annual walk to Bull Island to see the amazing variety of wildflowers that can be seen there at this time of year. The day was lovely and warm, and led by Niall Mac Coitir, those attending saw at least twenty different kinds of wildflowers . As well as many members of the pea family, such as restharrow, bird's foot trefoil, kidney vetch, and common vetch (which can thrive in the poor, sandy soil), and the sweet smelling ladies bedstraw, the group saw no less than five different species of orchid.

The orchids encountered were pyramidal orchid, common spotted orchid, some last surviving early purple orchid, marsh helleborine, and in a first for the Bull Island walks, - the beautiful and elusive bee orchid!

Truly a day to remember.

pyramidal orchid

Marsh helleborine

bee orchid

Yellow rattle

July 5th - Green Drinks: "What can be done to keep the bee"

This July the Dublin Branch gathered to hear Kieran Flood, IWT Conservation Officer talking about the important issue of the threats facing our pollinating insects, especially bees, and asking the question: "What can be done to keep the bee?

According to Kieran, bee numbers have been declining in Ireland, Europe and beyond, due to loss of habitat and insecticides. This is a matter of major concern as so many of our plants cannot bear fruit unless they are pollinated, including many important food crops. There is an attempt to tackle this problem with an All Ireland Pollinator Plan - an island wide plan to help protect our bees.

Kieran outlined that while the honey bee is important in pollination, the bumblebee also plays a vital role in the pollination of many wild flowers. The talk then delved a little deeper into the wonderful world of Irish bumblebees, of which there are twenty species in Ireland! Kieran went through some of the more common species, which can be distinguished by their distinctive markings - as shown in the handy diagrams below.

15 May 2016 - Ballyboughal Hedgerow Walk

Ballyboughall Hedgerow Walk (Slí na Sceacha’) 15 May 2016

Nature smiled on us in every way on our second visit to Ballyboughal, Co. Dublin.
With blue skies and beautiful sunshine our marvellous guide Ann Lynch of the local Hedgerow Society took a group of over 30 adults and children on a wonderful walk through the hedges of Ballyboughal providing us with plenty of information on what was all around us as we went along.

In true Irish fashion the walk ended at a pub, O’Connor’s (we stayed outside), where we were joined by the Mayor of Fingal David O’Connor who expressed delight at the large group and thanked Ann for hosting us.

Barbara

Ann showing us one of the many wildflowers to be seen

January 23rd - Trip to National Botanic Gardens

On Saturday January 23rd the Dublin Branch took a trip to the National Botanic Gardens in Glasnevin. Our guide Niamh was a mine of information about the many interesting things to be seen in the gardens, even in January. For example, there was already a beautiful display of snowdrops, rises and other bulbs, and Niamh showed us the shrub wintersweet, which flowers in January with a delicious, delicate fragrance. Mistletoe could also be seen growing on some of the trees, one of the few places in Ireland it can be seen. Niamh informed us however, that it is a bit of a pest and needs to be cut back regularly to avoid damaging its host tree. A tree looking beautiful at this time of year was the myrtle with its striking cinnamon coloured bark, looking a bit like a eucalyptus.

Mistletoe growing on a poplar tree

Myrtle tree

After a while Niamh took us into the warmth of the glasshouses, which was very welcome on a cold January day. There we learnt that all cacti are succulents, but not all succulents are cacti. According to Niamh, cacti are only seen in the Americas, which means you will never see them appearing in a spaghetti western! We also learnt many other interesting facts, such as teabags are made out banana leaves, and that vanilla comes from the seedpod of an orchid. Even in winter there were many orchids in flower in the orchid house, giving a gorgeous display. Finally Niamh showed us the carnivorous plants, like the pitcher plant, and our own native butterwort, which trap insects with their sticky juices, and slowly digest them. Alas there were no venus flytraps on display, as apparently people can't resist poking them to make them snap shut, and the plants become exhausted and die. Overall, the group were very happy at all that they saw, and agreed that a trip to the Botanic Gardens is highly recommended!

Learning about exotic plants in the warmth of the greenhouse

Learning about orchids

Some of the many ferns to be seen in the glasshouse

18th July - Bull Island wildflower walk

On Saturday 18th July Dublin Branch member Niall Mac Coitir led a walk on Bull Island to see some of the many beautiful wildflowers in bloom at this time of year. The group saw four orchids on the walk - common spotted orchid, pyramidal orchid, marsh helleborine and twayblade, a little green orchid with delicate pale green flowers. Also to be seen on the walk were many species of the pea family, which can grow on poor sandy soils like the Bull Island because they can make their own nitrogen from the air - flowers such as rest-harrow, birds foot trefoil, hares foot clover, and meadow vetchling. There were also many other species to be seen such as ladies bedstraw, fairy flax and centaury.  All in all a good day was had by those attending, and even though the weather was a bit blustery it stayed dry. Photos courtesy of Brendan.

 

Common Spotted Orchid comes in a variety of shades

Marsh Helleborine front left and Common Spotted Orchid on right

The aptly names Hares Foot Clover in centre, with yellow Ladies Bedstraw around it

7th July - Green Drinks The folklore of Irish Plants and Herbs

This month on Green Drinks Dublin Branch member Niall Mac Coitir spoke about the customs and stories about our native plants and flowers, including their herbal uses. Some of the plants he talked about included well-known 'weeds' or wild flowers such as dandelion, also known as 'piss-a-bed' because of its diuretic properties, and lesser celandine also known as 'pilewort' from the belief in its power to cure piles or haemorrhoids. Other folk uses included eating the young leaves of nettles, in broth or soup on account of their vitamins, and using the older leaves to sting those suffering from arthritis or rheumatism! Another interesting plant is meadowsweet, which was used to cure fevers, coughs and colds, and which contains salicylate, the same substance that is found in aspirin. 

A fact that emerged from the talk is that it is fair to say that practically every plant that grows wild  has some herbal use or other. A lively debate ensued, during which it was agreed that our native Irish plants a huge and nowadays neglected resource of cures and herbal remedies.

Prunella or self-heal, widely used in Irish folk medicine
to heal wounds, and in a tea as a pick-me-up

Lesser Celandine or pilewort

Meadowsweet

June 2nd Green Drinks - Pollinators - why we need them

On Tuesday June 2nd the Dublin Green Drinks talk was by Dara Stanley of TCD Botany Department about how pollination by bees, hoverflies and other insects is being increasingly recognised as a important wildlife service with real economic value. However these services are being threatened by a range of human activity. Dara is involved in the SYMBIOSYS project which is looking at all these threats in Ireland and how our changing land use is impacting on our pollinators. Dara's talk was very interesting and received an enthusiastic response and a good turnout. Dara also passed on the following links which will be of interest to those wishing to pursue the topic further:

National Biodiversity Data Centre Irish pollinator initiative

http://pollinators.biodiversityireland.ie/


All Ireland Pollinator Plan

http://pollinators.biodiversityireland.ie/home/all-ireland-pollinator-plan-2015-2020/


Bumblebee Conservation Trust

http://bumblebeeconservation.org/


Count flowers for bees

https://www.facebook.com/countflowersforbees


Limerick’s buzzing

http://www.limericksbuzzing.ie/

May 23rd Biodiversity Walk St. Anne's Park, Raheny

On Saturday May 23rd the Dublin Branch celebrated Biodiversity Week 2015 with a walk in St. Anne's Park, Raheny with Dublin Branch member Niall Mac Coitir. The weather was bright and sunny and a there was a good turnout to hear Niall talk about some of our native trees, wild plants and birds - and some creepy crawlies too! Among the plants Niall showed the group was wild garlic, lords and ladies or cuckoo's pint, (Arum maculatum),  herb robert (used as a traditional cure to stanch bleeding), primroses and wild bluebells. Trees such as the yew, beech and hawthorn were also featured.

The walk took in the old pond to look at the ducks, and followed that with a visit to a wooded part of the park to see a heronry, and hear the little egrets make their strange bubbling or 'gobbling-like-a-turkey' calls. Finally an old log was turned over to see lots of woodlice, black beetles and centipedes scurrying about - a big hit with the small kids who were present!

Wild garlic with its pungent smell

Look mammy - creepy crawlies!

April 12th - Hedgerows in Ballyboughal

At our last ‘Green Drinks’ meeting on 7 April, Lorraine Bull raised our awareness of the importance of hedgerows for the farm land, for nature conservation and for biodiversity. On Sunday 12th April we were given the opportunity of taking a close look at plenty of hedgerows in Ballyboughal, where our excellent local guide, Ann Lynch, explained how these “living boundaries” work. We visited fields and meadows protected by a lovely mixture of trees, shrubs and a wide variety of other plants. Plenty of birds and early insects were spotted and an abundance of primroses and violets.

Beautiful Primroses

Primroses and Violets

And something a little more earthy!