As much as I love my course, while in England I frequently have feelings of homesickness. Now I have a few months of summer in Ireland to look forward to. Last week I took a walk around the shores of the largest lake in the UK- Lough Neagh. It is a haven for wildlife, and the amount I seen in only a few hours has made me very excited for the rest of the summer.
I seen this Irish Hare in a field not too far from the shore.
Swallow having a scratch.
Juvenile Pied Wagtail
I seen quite a few grey herons on the shore of the Lough.
Shelduck
I counted at least 3 pairs of Great Crested Grebes.
Black-headed gull.
Grey Squirrel
Moorhen
Black-headed gull taking flight.
Swallow on the line is my favourite :)
ReplyDeleteI was reading an article about brown hare being a more dominant species than the irish hare. Populations of brown hare have pushed mountain hare out in other parts of Europe. Scientists believe the introduced brown hare population will do the same to the irish hare, particularly as there's no mountains for them to run too in Ireland. What do you think?
ReplyDeleteAlso out of interest do you know of any pockets of strange examples of introduced species in Ireland?
We have quite a few mountains in Ireland, if this were to unfortunately happen I'd say there would be some strongholds for the Irish Hare for example the Mournes and the Sperrins in the North and the Wicklow and Kerry mountains in the South.
ReplyDeleteI did read a while back on the Ulster Wildlife Trust site about fears of introduced browns interbreeding with native hares, which would result in the loss of their unique characteristics. Have you read any examples of this happening anywhere?
I'm not too sure about pockets of introduced species, but from talking to people there seems to be a lot of mink sightings in and around my local area.