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The orange tip butterfly is the one that I anxiously look out for in a small paddock near the river. It is the male only which has the beautiful orange tips to its wings. It is unmistakable, even if you are not up to speed with Ireland’s 33 or so butterfly species. The food plant of this butterfly is cuckooflower or lady’s smock. The very good laminated chart of our butterflies shows four migrants. The Ccomma, which is listed as one, is actually now resident and breeding here. This chart is obtainable from Birdwatch Ireland.
Migrant birds
How about the migrant birds returning to our shores? Obviously the swallow, house martins and sand martins are the ones to keep a “weather eye” open for. The date of return will be affected by northerly winds. Look out for them anytime from early April. Sand martins come first, followed by house martins and swallows.
The swifts arrive later and leave earlier. Look out for them from mid-May. They will have departed south again by the end of August. They are unrelated to swallows and martins.
One extraordinary thing about these birds is that they only land when nesting. They spend the rest of the year on the wing. They even sleep on the wing. Winter is spent in sub-saharan Africa in tropical regions. Swallows go the extra distance to South Africa.
Like many other birds, they are in decline. One reason is that they lose their nesting space behind the fascia and soffit of older houses. Wooden fascias and soffits are being replaced by plastic and aluminum. All are tightly sealed off. To get over this problem, a small cut out in the soffit can be left.
A very successful alternative is to put up external boxes and to play a tape or CD, which is a recording of the swift’s voices. Some commercial firms have even erected swift towers with many nesting cavities. This is a very good public relations exercise, which has a two-way benefit. It was pioneered in Northern Ireland. Special building blocks are also available and can be incorporated into new buildings.
Nesting places
If we try, we can give nature a hand so please do not shut out swallows from suitable nesting places by putting up netting wire – to exclude feral pigeons. Two of these blighters were in an open fronted shed of mine this morning and I plan to give them a feed of lead!
If there is a sandbank by a river on your farm, you could really give a boost to sand martins by taking active steps to help them. Even if you don’t have a sandbank, you can create an artificial one and I have these plans and links available to me, so please do make contact by email: wwarham@eircom.net.
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