 Dalkey Tidy Towns |
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| Dalkey Tidy Towns |
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Wildlife
Newsletter for the Township of Dalkey June 2007 - Michael Ryan |
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SQUIRRELS AND CINDERELLA’S FOOTWEAR As I have mentioned many times before Dalkey and Killiney Hills have become a little island sanctuary (though unfortunately not ringed by an expanse of water) for our native Red Squirrel, surrounded on all sides by the alien introduced and ever increasing Grey Squirrel. Dun Laoghaire Rathdown Council Parks department, very conscious this is probably it is only the park with a population of Reds, and is dedicating time and resources towards protecting them. In Britain and Wales their native red squirrel population has disappeared in areas wherever the greys have moved in and sadly this is now being repeated over much of Ireland. The greys being bigger and having a more diverse diet out-compete the reds for food. In the autumn, squirrels can be seen gathering and storing caches of nuts and cones ready for the winter. At this time they eat as much as they can to put on fat reserves for winter (they put on about 12 per cent of their body weight in autumn, whereas a grey squirrel can put on as much as 25 per cent). The parks are working on a leaflet which will be distributed to the public and homes adjoining the parkland and trying to collect information about both species and they hope to get a post graduate student to do a study on the Red Squirrel population, their numbers and the extent of their range. As I have mentioned previously Greys started to appear in Killiney woods late last year but thankfully the Reds are still the more prominent species there and for every Grey seen up there two or three Reds can still be seen. Pine cones still seem the most desirable food but I saw some eating the newly opened flowers of Horse Chestnut trees, and in previous years have seen them eating the flowers on elm trees. A curious fact I had heard before about Red Squirrels was that they are either left or right handed when holding a pine cone and it is possible to tell from the remains of the cone which ‘hand ‘ the squirrel held it with. I came upon this fascinating bit of info as well: During the middle ages, sumptuary laws governed the way people dressed and defined social status. Wearing silk, satin, gold or silver cloth, lace, taffeta and furs was the prerogative of knights, their ladies and all who ranked above them. Those who violated the sumptuary laws could be fined, imprisoned or, in the case of the lower classes, put to death. Among the furs restricted to royalty and the nobility were ermine and lettice, the winter livery of stoats and weasels and vair. Vair was the name of red squirrel skins and was one of the two heraldic furs. If one was royal or a very noble lady, one wore slippers made of vair. Charles Perrault, the French poet, published the story of Cinderella in 1697 and in the original, Prince Charming knew the mystery girl at the ball was of equal rank to him, because the slipper she left behind was made of vair. During the translation to English in 1792, it is thought vair was miss-interpreted as verre and thereafter Cinderella’s squirrel skin slipper became glass. Two Thrushes Good to hear Song Thrushes singing in a number of locations in woodland on the hills. Over ten years ago when we used have Dawn Chorus walks on Killiney hill we were always conscious of the absence of these birds and their distinctive song only hearing them singing from adjoining gardens. I always find the advent of midsummer a bit sad since Song Thrushes will soon stop singing, no longer defending territory or trying to attract mates, instead turning their energies to rearing their young. Blackbirds will have already stopped singing and Robins will be growing quiet leaving the woodlands as a soundscape for singing summer migrants such as Chiffchaffs and Blackcaps but leaving the long summer evenings silent. Mistle Thrushes are like a scaled up version of the Song Thrush. Bigger with rounder spots rather then the elongated streaks seen on the Song Thrushes chest they have a distinctive pale underwing when they take flight and have a flight call that resembles the sound of the old fashioned football rattle. When the male Mistle Thrush sings his song in the spring it’s from the highest point available, the tallest tree or man made structure. One used sing from the top of the obelisk on Killiney Hill. Likely to be seen feeding on the ground for worms on wide open spaces like football pitches or parkland there’s usually at least one pair that nest and breed often near the car park on the Burmah Road. Song Thrushes are very wary of humans and nest furtively, usually low in hedges, whereas the Mistle Thrush has a very different attitude. You can get quite near them before they take off and they nest quite openly on branches and sometimes even on windowsills in towns and cities. Rather then conceal their nest they will aggressively defend it against magpies and other predators, though how they’d fare against Grey Squirrels I don’t know. By chance I was looking at a Mistle Thrush hopping along a branch on a oak tree in Killiney Hill wood. Raised my binoculars and saw the bird had sat into a moss covered nest built just on a fork on the branch, it’s alert head the only visible part of it. Subsequent times I saw the tail protruding from the nest and all seemed well. Then one morning I came along the path, looked for the nest, couldn’t locate it then realised why. The branch was gone! There was a tangle of wood and twigs at the base of the tree and presumably the remains of the nest as well. Why it fell I don’t know, there had been a bit of wind the previous day, though not too much, but it looked just like bad luck, the wood was probably old and not too healthy and time had taken it’s toll, unfortunately bringing the nest down with it. Hopefully the adult birds got away and may have nested again. |