An Irish Nature Year

10th How do earthworms fare in freezing weather? The temperature below the soil surface can be several degrees warmer than the air, so often it is business as usual there. When the soil temperature falls, our largest species, the common earthworm (Lumbricus terrestris), burrows deeper, as it cannot survive at temperatures lower than minus 1°C. Russian researchers found the species overwintering at depths of 1.5 metres. Its eggs are able to tolerate minus 5°C, through a mechanism whereby they automatically dehydrate in colder temperatures. When water freezes, it expands and causes damage, so the act of dehydration keeps the eggs safe. The tiger worm (Eisenia fetida), the species often found in wormeries, is unable to tolerate freezing temperatures, either in adult or egg form. It is not a soil-dwelling worm (preferring decomposing material) and is unable to escape the cold by tunnelling downwards. Another species, the octagonal-tailed worm (Dendrobaena octaedra), increases the amount of glucose – which acts as an antifreeze, a ‘cryoprotectant’ – in its body fluids.

11th As natural foods become depleted in the countryside, certain birds begin to appear at our garden feeders. Among them are siskins, small greeny-yellow finches that until now have been feeding on conifer, birch and alder seeds in forestry and woodlands. They are much daintier than their big, burly relatives, the greenfinches, and rarely weigh more than fifteen grams. Males have black skull-caps and splashes of bright yellow on wings, rump and face. Females are hatless and less boldly marked, with some streaking. They are acrobatic birds, often hanging upside down on feeders or the ends of branches in the same way as lesser redpolls. While some of these garden-visiting siskins are Irish in origin, some have come from Britain, Scandinavia and other parts of northern Europe. They can travel great distances: individuals ringed in Britain were subsequently found in Algeria, while a bird ringed in Mount Stewart in County Down was recaptured 1,892 kilometres away in Estonia.

12th In mild areas, three-cornered leek is already in bloom, although its main flowering period is from March onwards. It is one of our two common wild garlics, growing over much of Ireland, especially in a wide band along the east and south coasts. At a glance, Allium triquetrum could be mistaken for a white bluebell, but its floppy and inelegant triangular leaves and pungent, oniony smell identify it easily. It is naturalised, but not native. The species comes from the west and central Mediterranean, and was introduced to Britain and Ireland in the mid-eighteenth century. It has escaped again and again from the gardens where it was planted, sometimes in the form of discarded material. Over the last hundred years triangular-stalked garlic, as it is also known, has become well established in many habitats, especially along paths and smaller roads. As our climate warms, it is likely to spread farther. Its march across Ireland is aided by two advantages it holds over other plants. It flowers earlier and can therefore set and distribute seed sooner, and its bulbs are long-lived and can survive out of the ground for weeks. Early bees sometimes visit the flowers, while human foragers use all parts of the plant.

13th Although we may associate fungi with late summer and autumn, there are a few mushrooms that fruit in this season. The prettiest is the scarlet elf cup, a species that inhabits damp, broadleaf woodlands. It is so radiantly coloured and perfectly named that it might have stepped out of a children’s book. It bears wide-mouthed goblets with smooth interiors of bright orange or red and with paler outsides that look as if they are coated in felt. The showy pigmentation and generous size (up to seven centimetres across) make scarlet elf cups easy to spot. Sarcoscypha austriaca grows on fallen, decomposing sticks, including alder, beech, cherry, hazel, willow and sycamore. It is usually found pushing through vibrantly green moss, making for a cheery colour combination. Appropriately, one of its other common names is moss cups. The concave surface and warm colouring of the cups help to concentrate the sun’s rays in this chilly season, thus allowing the spores to ripen and disperse. The genus name comes from the Greek words sarco meaning flesh, and skyphos, a drinking vessel. The ruby elf cup (S. coccinea) is nearly identical: a positive identification of either species needs a microscope.

14th It is Saint Valentine’s Day, so let’s have a bit of shameless anthropomorphising. To the back-garden birdwatcher, few birds are as romantic as the collared doves, neatly dressed in their mocha-toned plumage and dark neck bands. They are almost always seen in couples, as they form long-lasting pair bonds. When perched, they sit closely together, quietly companionable, with none of the fidgeting of other birds. The song is a soothing ‘coo-COO-coo’, repeated again and again. Often you hear them before you see them: a flight call of a rasping ‘kwaarrrr’, accompanied by whistling wingbeats. Collared doves originated in India, but have spread westwards and, in the last century, rapidly. They first bred in England in 1955 and in Ireland in 1959. A pair produces three or more broods of one or two chicks per year. The nest is a sloppily built platform: the awkward, twiggy material is collected by the male and cobbled together by the female. Construction will commence shortly.

15th Alexanders is coming into flower in warmer parts, especially by the coast. Look for it along pathways and roadsides and under hedgerows. It is a substantial plant, immediately identifiable by its ornate, dark and shiny leaves. Before they flower, the bulky buds are wrapped inside a protective skin. It is an umbellifer, a plant with parasol-like arrangements of tiny flowers, the same family as cow parsley, hogweed, fennel, carrot, angelica and some thousands of other species. The Latin family name, Apiaceae, comes from apium for celery, which in turn comes from apis for bee. Flying insects of all kinds are attracted to the clan’s accessible flowers. Alexanders is an archaeophyte: a plant that is not native to Ireland or Britain, but which was introduced before 1500. It was brought to Britain by the Romans, who used it as a spring tonic and vegetable. For centuries the entire plant was used, including the root and the young flower buds, which were pickled. It fell out of favour when celery became popular.

16th Wading birds that have overwintered in Ireland are already heading back north. We know this partly through the work of the Dublin Bay Birds Project, run by BirdWatch Ireland. The stretch of coastline between Sutton and Dún Laoghaire is one of the most important sites for wintering waterbirds, regularly supporting over thirty thousand birds of forty or more species. Since 2013, project members have been monitoring and colour-ringing birds. Re-sightings of the ringed individuals by dedicated birders reveal the birds’ breeding places and the routes they take to get there. Some of the oystercatchers, for example, will stop off in the Inner Hebrides to breed, while others will travel on to Iceland before finding a mate. Birds flying to Iceland between now and mid-May include other waders (black-tailed godwits, golden plover, redshank, snipe and whimbrel), swans, geese, ducks, gulls and songbirds. They will return to Ireland mainly in the autumn, but those that fail to breed may come back sooner, as early as the end of June.

17th Ivy plants are laden with round fruits that ripen from olive green to black. The leaves surrounding the berries are a simpler, more ovate shape than the angular and lobed leaf that we usually associate with ivy. The classic ivy leaf is found only on juvenile plants, the form that the species takes when it is clothing the ground or snaking up a wall or tree. When it reaches the top of the support, where there is more sunlight, the plant enters adulthood and is ready to reproduce. Its stems change to become thicker and self-supporting, the leaves take on a more oval profile and flowers begin to form. The berries are a nutritious food in this lean month. They are popular with many birds. The least elegant are the wood pigeons, who clumsily flap and tumble while gorging. Smaller, more delicate birds, such as blue tits, goldcrests and wrens, also bustle about in the ivy, searching deftly for the overwintering insects, eggs, larvae and spiders that are hidden there.

18th We’re entering the season when male birds start throwing themselves around in the air with great bravado and vigour. These are courtship displays, a ‘look at me!’ to the females. They demonstrate speed, strength, agility and fitness: all qualities that any hen bird would like to see in the father of her chicks. The most spectacular (and perhaps the rarest) is the ‘sky dancing’ of the hen harrier, one of our most threatened bird species. The male flies higher and higher until he turns and falls to the ground, twisting, somersaulting and careering madly as he goes. Other birds perform less breathtaking aerobatics, but are just as determined. The wood pigeon flies steeply upwards, claps his wings over his back and glides downwards, tail spread into a fan. Wing-clapping is performed by all doves and pigeons. Many other birds provide aerial performances, including ravens, skylarks, blue tits, greenfinches, woodcock and lapwings. Even the house sparrow puts on a show, bouncing up and down, like a fluffy grey-and-brown yo-yo.

19th Feral goats are giving birth to their kids. Mating takes place between late summer and early winter and the young are born between January and early April. Some of our better-known wild herds are at Glendalough, Dalkey Island, the Burren and on Bilberry Rock in Waterford City. The last, a herd of about two dozen animals, are said to be the descendants of goats brought to Ireland at the end of the seventeenth century by Huguenot immigrants. They have thick and luxuriant coats, and may have Cashmere or Maltese ancestry. Most feral goats, however, are mixed breeds, and their genetic makeup may include the tall, white Swiss Saanen as well as the short, robust Old Irish. Goats were first introduced three or four thousand years ago by Neolithic farmers, who brought them into Antrim from Scotland. Goat hooves are split into two toes, each with hard outer sides and rubbery pads. This structure allows the feet to adjust minutely and continually to steep and uneven terrain.

20th The great spotted woodpecker is drumming on dead wood now, beating a rapid-fire tattoo that resonates across a wide area. The full-bodied reverberations, lasting just one or two seconds, announce his territorial rights over the region. Despite the ‘great’ appellation, this woodpecker is a relatively small bird: about the same length as a blackbird and a little slimmer. It is strongly marked in black and white with a red rear; males have an obvious red patch on the nape of the neck. The species has recently colonised Ireland from Britain, breeding in County Down in 2006 and in County Wicklow in 2008. It is still rare, but its range is spreading along the east coast, where individuals sometimes visit bird feeders close to woodland or forestry. Great spotted woodpeckers have tiny pockets of air behind their bills and strengthened bone tissues that prevent them suffering brain damage from drumming.

21st Elder is pushing bright green leaves from its buds already. It is the first native species to leaf up in spring, with some plants producing new foliage as early as January. Few people plant it these days; it is an unloved and underused species that falls somewhere between a straggly tree and an overgrown shrub. Nonetheless, it persists in hedgerows and plants itself in waste ground, and on roadsides, railway embankments and woodland edges. The foliage has an unpleasant odour when bruised and is supposed to be unpalatable to browsing animals. In the past, bunches were tied to horses’ harnesses to keep flies away. Elder has countless culinary, medicinal and practical uses. Berries and flowers can be made into wine and ‘champagne’. Traditionally, the hollowed stems were used by children to make pea shooters and water pistols. In Longford, stems were filled with molten lead to make ‘a good weapon for protection on a journey or out walking at night’ according to Roy Vickery’s Oxford Dictionary of Plant-Lore. Elder is a short-lived species, often lasting only two or three decades. The young wood is soft and easily compressed, like vegetable polystyrene. The pith was once widely used in labs (and biology class) as a holding material when slicing cell-thin cross-sections of specimens for microscope slides. Pieces of pith are still sold by some laboratory supply companies.

22nd Pairs of magpies have started to build new nests and refurbish old ones in the tops of large trees. Existing nests may have been used as winter roosting places by other birds, such as hooded crows. There may be angry arguments as the rightful owners regain possession. In urban areas, magpies occasionally build nests on streetlights or electrical poles. The construction process can go on in a desultory way for weeks. Usually, the male forages for material and brings it to the female, flying determinedly in an arrow-straight path to the nest. Building material can be large and awkward, and includes long sticks, lengthier than the bird. The nest is a tall dome lined with grass, hair or fine roots and held together with mud. Five or six eggs are laid in April, and are incubated by the female. After less than three weeks the chicks hatch, and are fed by both parents. Magpies usually live about five years. The oldest recorded individual was ringed as a nestling in Coventry in 1925 and shot in 1947 at 21 years, 8 months and 23 days.

23rd It’s important to keep bird feeders topped up now, as many of the foods provided by nature are running out. Most plants, both cultivated and wild, have exhausted their berries or seeds. A few stragglers still offer pickings to small birds: the seedheads of artichokes, cardoons and mulleins are eagerly inspected for stray seeds and for the invertebrates sheltering in the dry depths. Teasel continues to attract goldfinches. Adult aphids may overwinter on plants, especially evergreen ones, where they are shielded from the worst of the elements. They are generally females, and when the weather warms up, they give birth to more aphids. On certain trees, including maple, sycamore, chestnut and various fruit trees, there are little clusters of aphid eggs around the buds. They are timed to hatch just as the buds start to unfold in spring. All these morsels of protein – the adults, the eggs and the hatchlings – provide vital nutrition for birds during this period of slim pickings.

24th White-tailed eagles are courting, soaring in pairs above their eyries. The wingspan can be up to 2.4 metres, making them, along with mute swans, our ‘wingspanniest’ bird. An average human with outstretched arms falls well short of this. Sea eagles, as they are also called, were once widespread around our coast, but by the beginning of the twentieth century poisoning and shooting had wiped them out. Victorian collectors seeking eggs and skins also hastened the demise of these majestic raptors. Between 2007 and 2011, a hundred birds were reintroduced to Killarney National Park. The young birds came from wild nests in Norway. In the eagle world when two chicks are hatched, the second rarely survives, so these are the birds that are used in reintroduction programmes. By the end of 2019, Ireland’s new white-tailed eagles had raised twenty-seven young, in territories from the Beara Peninsula to Connemara. Over the coming weeks, eggs will be laid, incubated, and – it is hoped – more eaglets fledged. Sea eagles are mainly scavengers, eating dead fish and mammals. They also steal from other predators; sometimes they catch their own prey, swooping dramatically to the water to grab an unwary fish.

25th The ground in parks and gardens that was bare in winter is covered in a green haze of seedling leaves. Some of our most persistent wild plants – or weeds, to gardeners – are annuals. They die in autumn and appear anew each spring, sprouting from seeds in the soil. Cleavers (vernacularly known as sticky-backs and many other names) is one of the first to germinate. Some of its seeds bounced off the parent plant last year and are now starting new populations on the home ground. Others stuck to the fur of animals and clothes of humans, and were carried far from their origins. Chickweed, another common annual, is also enjoyed by domestic fowl – and budgerigars. It is springing up all over vegetable patches and flower beds. Ivy-leaved speedwell is also proliferating. The first leaves are neat ovals; they are followed by miniature, ivy-shaped true leaves, covered in hairs. In some ditches the leaves of wild arum are appearing, like sheaves of glossy arrowheads.

26th Bramblings are with us now, pretty finches visiting from Scandinavia and farther east. They are the same size and weight as chaffinches, but the plumage is bolder. At this time of the year, males have blackish-brown heads, rusty breasts and white bellies and rumps. Backs and wings are a scatter of brown, rust and white, like burnt toast that has been hastily scraped. Females are similar but more muted. In both sexes, the snowy rumps are noticeable when birds are in flight. Single birds, or twos and threes, may visit gardens and bird feeders – along with other finches, especially chaffinches. But they are more likely to congregate where there are beech trees; beech mast is their preferred food. In previous years flocks have gathered at Powerscourt House in Enniskerry in County Wicklow and at Curraghchase Forest Park in County Limerick, among other places. In late March, bramblings head home for the breeding season where they build nests in birch woodlands or on the edges of mixed conifer and birch forests.

27th Winter cherry (Prunus subhirtella ‘Autumnalis’) has been in flower since November or earlier. In colder years it takes a break in January and February and sets off again with a fresh blast of blossom in March and April. It is a Japanese variety, but it was introduced to western gardens by a famous Irish nursery in County Down. In 1901, Tom Smith of Daisy Hill Nursery received the first specimens in Europe in a consignment of plants from Japan. For many years this cherry was a rarity, as it must be propagated from cuttings or grafted onto the rootstock of another cherry. The pale pink, delicate blossom is visited by winter-foraging bumblebees. It never bears fruit. A related tree, also in flower now, is the cherry-plum (Prunus cerasifera), a native of southern Europe and western Asia that has been growing here for centuries. It is often used as a hedgerow plant. The white flowers with their prominent stamens are similar to those of blackthorn, but they appear some weeks earlier, and the branches are thornless. A pink-flowered form has wine-toned leaves. Both are good early bee plants. Small fruits are sometimes borne in late summer.

28th Buff-tailed bumblebee queens – and workers, in mild areas – have been around all winter. Young queens of other species are beginning to emerge from hibernation. Each one mated last summer and stored the sperm inside her body. As soon as she wakes in early spring, she seeks out flowers such as deadnettle, winter heather, lesser celandine, crocus and rosemary. She needs pollen and nectar to restore her body fats and develop her ovaries. If you see a large bee buzzing along at ground level rather than visiting flowers, it is a queen looking for somewhere to make her nest. This may be an old mouse hole, a deep crevice in a wall or the hollow space at the base of a plant or clump of grass. When she finds her ideal spot, she may rearrange leaves and other debris for insulation. Before laying eggs, she makes a wax pot and fills it with nectar, to supply her with sustenance during the incubation period. She lays her eggs on top of a ball of pollen and keeps them warm under her furry abdomen until they hatch.

29th As winter progresses, the leafier, softer parts of seaweed scattered on the beach are worn away by the action of waves against sand and pebble. The stipes (stems) of kelp are more durable and remain strewn about like rubbery brown sticks. At the base of some, the holdfast remains, a formation like a many-fingered fist. The fingers, known as haptera, colonise microscopic crevices on rock surfaces underwater and secrete a waterproof glue. This keeps the seaweed securely fastened in place through months or years of continual movement. The space within the haptera offers a habitat to dozens of tiny creatures, including crustaceans, tubeworms and molluscs. It is worth looking closely at the fresher holdfasts you find on the beach to see what is living within the space enclosed by the haptera. One resident is the blue-rayed limpet, a small shell (less than two centimetres) with shimmering turquoise bands painted across its domed surface. It carves out a niche in the seaweed’s fabric that can weaken the holdfast’s bond, causing it to become dislodged and washed ashore.

1st It is Saint David’s day, the patron saint of Wales. The sixth-century Welsh bishop is also revered in parts of Ireland: there is a holy well dedicated to him at Ballynaslaney in County Wexford. David’s emblem is the leek. In the Irish flora, the nearest thing is Babington’s leek (Allium babingtonii), a plant that may be an archaeophyte – a relict of cultivation prior to 1500 CE. It is perennial, growing wild in sandy and poorish soil. It is most frequent along the west coast, from southwest Clare to south Donegal; there are also numerous records of it in County Wexford. It is locally common on the Aran Islands where it was used in the same way as garlic. The strappy new leaves have been coming up for some weeks. By the time the plant blooms in late summer (on stems that may be nearly two metres), the foliage has withered and disappeared. The flower heads are a mix of tiny mauve florets and tightly packed bulbils. In traditional veterinary medicine, blackleg, a disease of cattle, was supposed to be cured by putting half a bulbil into a slit in a calf’s tail. The plant was named after an English botanist and archaeologist, Charles Cardale Babington, by his friend and fellow botanist, William Borrer.

2nd Although it may look like spring in some parts of Ireland, it’s important to keep feeding the birds. Last year’s wild crop of seeds, fruits and nuts is almost spent, and this season’s first generation of insects is barely getting started. Small birds can lose 20 per cent of their body weight keeping warm on a harsh night: they need to eat constantly during daylight if they are to survive. Garden feeding stations with energy-rich seeds, sunflower hearts and suet are life savers. Blackcaps and other territorial species may protect some food sources and drive off all comers, so more birds have a chance if there are several feeders. Snow sometimes hits in March or April; food should definitely be supplied then. Birds also require water to avoid dehydration. Eating snow is not a realistic option as melting it saps a huge amount of a bird’s energy. During cold snaps in Europe, continental birds such as redwings, fieldfares and waxwings come to Ireland looking for sustenance, and may visit gardens.

3rd Some biennial plants (those that flower in their second year of growth) spend the winter as rosettes: neat ground-hugging clusters of leaves. One of the most common is mullein, with its unmistakable clumps of grey-green, felted leaves. In early morning the furry surfaces are silvered with tiny dew drops. While this effect looks pretty to our eyes, it is a mechanism that many rosette-formers use to collect moisture. Other such plants are foxglove, spear thistle, marsh thistle, teasel and weld or dyer’s rocket. All these biennials need ‘vernalisation’ in order to recommence growth in spring. This means that their systems require a period of cold before they can respond to stimuli such as lengthening days and rising temperatures. The cold triggers the plant to switch from a vegetative mode (growing leaves) to a reproductive one (producing flowers). As spring advances, flower stems will begin to emerge from the rosettes, lengthening gradually until they bloom.