7th July - Bull Island Wildflower Walk

Dublin Branch held its annual Bull Island wildflower walk led by Niall Mac Coitir of IWT Dublin Branch. This was a particularly good year, with an amazing variety of wildflowers to be seen, including six species of orchid! The six species were early purple orchid, common spotted orchid, pyramidal orchid, marsh helleborine, twayblade, and the elusive bee orchid. Other wild flowers seen were lady's bedstraw, restharrow, wild violets, hares foot clover, bird's foot trefoil, centaury and eyebright. It is not an exaggeration to say that the display rivals anything that can be seen in the Burren.

Common Spotted Orchid

Another common spotted

- they come in a variety of colours

Twayblade orchid with its green flowers

Wild Violet or pansy

Marsh Helleborine

Pyramidal orchid

Green Drinks 7th May - Field of Dreams

This month Bob Salisbury told of how he and his wife Rosemary transformed a barren corner of County Tyrone into a wildlife haven. When they took over the land it was a sterile landscape for wildlife, with open boggy fields that had been let go fallow. However Bob and Rosemary began a programme of tree planting and they created a series of ponds to drain off the flooded land, which led to a resurgence of wildlife.

Their renowned wildlife garden is now home to hares, owls, hawks, otters, woodcock, bats and many other species that hadn’t been seen in the area for years. It has become what Bob calls his FoD - 'Field of Dreams' and he has published a book about his experience https://blackstaffpress.com/…/field-of-dreams-how-we-trans…/

2nd April - People for Bees

This month's Green Drinks is about the IWT People for Bees programme. The alarming decline of our bees and other insects is clear, but what can you do about it? The People for Bees programme aims to support communities and individuals in Ireland to take action to help fight bee decline. IWT Coordinator Kieran Flood provided an update on our People for Bees plans for 2019 to let you what you can do to help out, including making your gardens and green spaces more pollinator friendly. Volunteers can also learn field skills like bee identification, bumblebee monitoring and biodiversity record taking. The project is aimed at community groups and members of the public in every province of Ireland.

You can learn more about this important initiative on the IWT website: https://iwt.ie/people-for-bees/

Kieran at a bee identification workshop

17th February - St. Catherines Park, Lucan Liffey Walk

This month we were fortunate to have the wonderful Tim Clabon, who led us along the Liffey in St Catherine's Park. There was a good turnout and the weather was gloriously sunny. The park is home to a wide variety of flora and fauna. As well as mature trees of oak, beech and willow, the park contains rare wild plants such as Hairy St. John’s Wort (Hypericum hirsutum), Yellow Archangel (Lamiastrum galeobdelon)  and Green Figwort (Scrophularia umbrosa).

The park also has the usual variety of mammals such as grey squirrels, bats, foxes and badgers, and birds such as herons, kingfishers and little egrets. A wide variety of fish can also be found in the river, including trout, salmon and pike, and other aquatic creatures such as freshwater mussels. All in all, Tim provided the group with an enjoyable and informative day.

December 16th Botanic Gardens

The December outing of the Dublin Branch was a trip to the Botanic Gardens to see what they are like in winter. Our guide for the day, Glynn Anderson showed us that there was still plenty to see, from mistletoe in the branches of a poplar tree, to the beauty of the evergreen yew trees with their attractive reddish bark. After a tour of the grounds, it was welcome to get out of the cold by stepping into the warmth of the tropical glasshouses. Glynn told us all about the tropical trees there from many kinds of palm trees to bananas. The trip showed that the Botanic Gardens are well worth a visit at any time of year!

Balls of Mistletoe growing on a poplar tree

An avenue of yew trees 

Green Drinks Tues 4th Sept - Bees and other pollinators, a vital role

Orla ní Dhúill of the Irish Wildlife Trust and DCU gave a talk on the role bees and other pollinators play in maintaining a healthy environment around us. The declining numbers of bees internationally has starting to break into mainstream news stories, but many people do not know much about the various species of bees and pollinators that are effected or what's causing these declines. This is of vital importance to us humans, as most of the plants we grow for food rely on bees to pollinate them.

Orla talked more about what's going wrong and what can be done to help. Habitat loss is a major factor, and we can all do our part. First we can grow lots of flowers that bees like, but also we can preserve habitat for our bumblebees who are all under pressure. Leaving a grassy bank or piece of earthen bank free for the bumblebees to make their nests would be a great help. Having things too tidy leaves no room for our bumbles!

Know your bumblebees: the following diagrams can help you to identify them.

Bull Island Wildflower Walk - July 8th

The Dublin Branch held its annual Bull Island Wildflower Walk on July 8th led by branch member Niall Mac Coitir. The walk was very successful despite the drought, and as usual lots of wildflowers were seen. The elusive bee orchid evaded us this year as well, but several other species of orchid were spotted. Thanks to Brendan for the photos.

Marsh Helleborine

Common Spotted Orchid

Meadowsweet

White Pyramidal Orchid

Haresfoot clover with its fluffy flowers

May 26th Biodiversity Walk on Grand Canal

The Dublin Branch went on a Biodiversity walk on the Grand Canal with Larry Gordon, of the Grand Canal Biodiversity and Cleanup Group  The Grand Canal is a wonderful artery of wildlife from central Ireland right into our capital city, and Larry explained the flow of biodiversity traffic along it. For decades bats, birds, otter and fish have all use the Grand Canal to find food and navigate within our urban landscape. The group have been given charge of a section of the canal to manage it organically for wildlife with the result that it hosts a wide variety of wild plants and flowers. The walk was very successful with about 40 people attending and everyone learned a lot about the beauty and diversity of the canal. 

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/