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!

29th March - Walk in Knocksink Woods

Knocksink Wood: it’s a knockout

On 29 March, despite unpromising weather conditions IWT Dublin Branch  had some thirty people for our guided tour through this wonderful nature reserve set in a river valley just outside Enniskerry. Sean Meehan gave us the benefit of his expert knowledge by identifying the various trees, shrubs and wildflowers of this mixed woodland. We were thrilled to see carpets of lush green wild garlic, white-flowering wood anemones, blue violets, yellow primroses and a curious red cup fungus from which the wood fairies drink. Sean stressed the importance of this reserve both nationally and internationally. He said, “Knocksink Wood contains two priority EU habitats; alluvial woodland and petrifying streams. Covering an area of approximately 80 hectares, it is a significant stand of broadleaf woodland, an all too rare habitat type in Ireland”. It is fantastic to think that we have this on the door step of our capital city. Thank you Sean for the excellent guidance.

 

A good turnout despite the weather

Wild garlic by a woodland stream

Red cup fungus

Sean with some red cup fungus