SOUTHSIDERS HAVE MORE OFFSPRING
Buddleias are considered one of the best plants to attract insects, especially butterflies which accounts for their common name of ‘The Butterfly bush’. In previous summers I’ve often seen one of these bushes in the garden with nearly every one of its abundant flowers hosting a feeding butterfly. Small Tortoiseshell, Red Admiral, Peacock and Speckled Wood would all be frequent visitors. Not this year. At one stage during summer this year I realised that most days I had more Buddleia bushes in the garden then I had actual butterflies. It had started off well in April and May with elegant little Holly Blue butterflies flitting around the garden. They survive on a cycle of eggs being laid on ivy and hatching after winter to feed on the
flowers of holly trees. Apparently Holly Blues around Dublin are subject to a Northsider and Southsider divide. Holly Blues north of Dublin will only have a single brood which will then lay their eggs at the base of holly flowers which will then feed their caterpillars when they hatch the following spring. But apparently the Holly Blue Southsiders have two broods, the second one being laid on ivy and the developing caterpillars then feeding on ivy flowers and fruit before emerging as butterflies in late summer. Evidently the Holly Blues that appear in my garden are typical Southsiders because they did reappear in the garden in late July. Their caterpillars wouldn’t have been too put out by the bad weather but for adult butterflies of other species, which don’t fly when it’s raining; the last two summers have been disastrous. Although the buddleias have remained mostly untouched by butterflies their flowers still attract dozens of bumble bees. They’re great bushes for birds as well with Blue Tits, Coal Tits and Great Tits constantly combing them plucking spiders and other small insects from the leaves and flowers so at least they’re serving a purpose other then looking pretty and smelling good.

BAD WEATHER FOR EVERYTHING
A mild winter and good weather in the spring meant many birds nested early when the weather was good and hopefully their offspring were able to survive when the weather turned cool and wet but many birds that nested later weren’t so lucky.
Although official figures haven’t been released yet it will almost certainly have been a disastrous year for ground nesting birds whose nests, eggs and sometimes chicks will have been drowned or waterlogged under the deluges of rain that fell. Corncrakes often nest in meadows which in the past would have been prone to flooding in the winter but in far too many recent years are just as likely to have been flooded in the summer. For a species already in serious decline the combination of cold wet summers would have spelt disaster for them and their long term survival. We were near Portumna for a few days in early July and one day visited a lovely little wood outside Woodford. With a mix of commercially grown conifers and some ancient native woodland I always try and visit this wood when in the locality. Many years ago while walking along a path in this wood we suddenly saw a Pine Marten, one of Ireland’s most secretive mammals, walking down the path towards us. Very elegant in its luxuriant brown coat with a snow white patch of fur on the breast it looked at us for a few seconds before diving into the undergrowth. With lots of birdlife in the woods, sometimes Cuckoos calling and plenty of
Red Squirrels, a favoured prey species of the Pine Marten, it’s a very pleasant wood for a ramble. This time we heard a unfamiliar call from some nearby trees and on further investigation saw a pair of Spotted Flycatchers. After a while we saw
the female go into a nest cleverly positioned in a thick ivy strand which was curling up around a conifer trunk. We could see her head peeking out of the nest while a male bird flew up from a nearby branch to catch flying insects. These birds are in decline in the UK and in Ireland so it was heartening to see it nesting (they have nested on Killiney hill but I haven’t seen them in recent years). The following day we toured all around the Burren and it was lovely, sun shining all day, people sitting
out eating and drinking giving a holiday feeling everywhere. The following day started well and we were optimistic heading down to the great expanse of Portumna Forest Park which runs down to the banks of Lough Derg. At the lakeside we watched a family of swans and a pair of Great Crested Grebes but approaching across the water was a sheer curtain of rain. It reached us soon and within minutes we were soaked. Thinking it was a passing shower that might soon pass we stood under some trees but after a while gave up and headed back a mile or so to the car park through rain that drummed down
like a tropical monsoon. Thoroughly soaked by the time we reached the car we sat awhile hardly able to see through the windscreen. When it eased off we set off to our holiday accommodation the car creating bow waves through the flooded road which in places was exacerbated by rivers overflowing on to the road. Anyhow the following day we went back to see the Spotted Flycatchers. The nest was empty with not a sign of the birds. Whether the floor of the nest had collapsed under the downpour or whether the adult bird had got too wet they had deserted the nest site and were gone so it wasn’t just
the ground nesting birds that had suffered from another disastrous summer.

FEEDING GARDEN BIRDS
It’s never too early to start feeding birds and if you only feed them in the winter you should leave out feeders before the weather turns cold so the birds will be familiar with the food source. I feed birds all the year round and had as many birds coming to the feeders during the summer months as I had during the winter. It used be said you should only feed birds in the winter but many long term studies have shown that year round feeding is beneficial to adults and young. A quote from the R.S.P.B.’s information leaflet ‘Feeding Garden Birds’: “The value of winter feeding has been known for a long time, but in recent years it has become apparent that many birds are struggling to survive during the breeding season because of the fluctuations in weather, intensive farming and greater tidiness in gardens and all built up areas. By feeding year round we are giving birds a better chance to survive the periods of food shortage whenever they may occur”.
Information on feeding wild birds can be found on the BirdWatch Ireland South Dublin Branch   http://www.birdweb.net