> IRISH IMPRESSIONS. 1. EARLY APRIL IN CORK
>
>This spring, thanks to the University College Cork and my colleague prof.
>Alan Myers, I have the opportunity to experience spring somewhere else than
>at 70*N, something I always find utterly fascinating. The change from the 6
>ft of snow and freezing temperatures of my homeplace Tromsø to the green SW
>Irish city of Cork was dramatic : never are the differences between Tromsø
>and more southerly areas as great as in early spring. In Tromsø we had just
>welcomed the first Snow Buntings, but the first green plants were still
>many weeks away; while in Cork everything was green, and the gardens full
>of Magnolia, Ribes and already fading Forsythia, with lawns full of Crocus,
>daffodils and surprisingly often large blue Veronica (V. chamaedrys?).
>
>These first weeks I have had little time and opportunity to go birding: I
>had come here to work on amphipods, and was also too busy installing myself
>in my temporary home away from home, an apartment in downtown Cork, high
>above the river Lee that traverses and beautifies the city. My flat is down
>a short flight of stairs, looking out in front on the parking lot, and in
>the back on a neglected lawn lined with trees. So I won't build up an
>impressive yard list: as everywhere here in Cork Winter Wrens, European
>Robins, Eur. Blackbirds, Wood Pigeons, Rooks and Jackdaws are dominant,
>while Great and Blue Tits and Collared Doves also occur.
>
>Early in the morning, before first light, there is a magnificent concerto,
>dominated by the bittersweet cadences of the Robins and the stately hymns
>of the Blackbirds. Later in the day the wrens seem to be everywhere, and
>much easier to watch than e.g. in Holland (the same applies to the
>robins)--the song of the wrens is as high-spirited than in continental
>Europe, but the trills seem somehow less sharp and 'more Irish' than in
>Holland (or in the mountains of Krete, where they also dominated the bird
>chorus last week, when an amphipod conference brought me there). Also
>Chaffinches are ubiquitous and easily more common most places than the
>House Sparrows.
> Cork is a medium town (ca 250 000 inhabitants, I think) on the south coast
>of ireland, situated on a magnificent natural harbour (also not yet
>visited), The town gives the impression of newly overcome poverty: many of
>the houses are tiny (one door, one window), the streets are too narrow for
>their traffic, and the concrete sidewalks chipped and uneven---but there is
>building, repair and extension everywhere, and the general mood seems to be
>one of great optimism.
>
>It is also a spectacularly untidy town, with large amounts of litter on the
>streets, and shopping carts dumped from the bridges in the river Lee.
>Nevertheless, I still have to see my first Starlings in town, and also
>Black-headed Gulls are virtually absent on the tidal portions of the Lee,
>while the Hooded Crows and Magpies, so active in garbage scavenging in
>Tromsø, somewhat surprisingly leave this aspect here completely to the very
>numerous Jackdaws and Rooks. The latter seem thoroughly at home in town,
>and descend even into the smallest gardens---they apparently nest in a
>woodland a bit out of town. There they mix with the Jackdaws, but these
>latter probably also nest on chimneys, church towers ( always in ample
>supply in Ireland) and other buildings in town.
>
>Pigeons and doves are also common and widespread. Besides the feral pigeons
>there are everywhere Wood Pigeons and Collared Doves, both completely
>acclimatized in town, while the Stock Doves remain confined to larger
>stretches of woodland. Although the river Lee is tidal and thus
>periodically uncovers muddy banks, it does not seem to be all that
>attractive to birds, and the only birds, besides Hooded Crows and feral
>pigeons, that I have seen on these banks are Grey Wagtails. (I have also
>seen Pied Wagtails in the area, but nor as yet actually on the river
>banks). There are Mallards on the river, although not many and some with
>the unmistakable stamp of 'farmers ducks', while walks upriver have added a
>few Cormorants and the odd Oystercatcher. (Please understand that Cork has
>to offer much more to the active birder; I just have not yet been out of
>town!)
> I found it interesting to note that the local Coal Tits, in this country
>where both Willow and Marsh Tits are absent, have spread far from their (to
>my experience) native pine forests, and f.ex. can be found in the narrow
>strip of alders along the river, together with the Great Tit, also here the
>commonest of the tribe, and the Blue Tit. Long-tailed Tits are also regular
>and much darker than I know them from Norway, but these ever active bushtit
>lookalikes are as endearing as elsewhere---here they seem already to have
>paired off. Another always welcome sight are the colourful Goldfinches,
>that always sound so cosily content with their lifes.
>Strangely enough I did not hear a single warbler in the first half of
>April. Even the always so early Chiffchaff seemed absent, but yesterday (23
>April) they finally had arrived and sang their metronomic chiff chaff chiff
>chaff many places along the river and in the woodland.
>
>I walk from my flat to work at the Zoology department in about 10 minutes
>through town, or I can detour via the leafy and green UCC campus, where
>Mistle Trushes join the ubiquitous Song Trushes and Blackbirds, and where
>Greenfinches trill and rasp everywhere in the trees. Here, as so many
>places in the city, I am enthralled by the vegetation on the old walls.
>There must be chalk in the mortel here, for the flora is really very
>diverse, and I have counted as many as 7 different ferns (Asplenium spp,
>Phyllitis, Ceterach, Polypodium, Atthyrium) on one small wall, together
>with the roundish fleshy leaves of Umbilicaria, the red flowers of
>Kentranthus, and various other plants that I had not seen in years. On the
>meadows along the Lee the flora is less exotic: yellow Ficaria verna,
>pinkish Cardamine and the last white Anemone nemorosa, all very much like
>in Holland or Western Norway. In the woodlands there will be more to
>discover, but that will have to wait till coming weekends, when I've sorted
>out the bus-tables to neighbouring villages and to the outer coast some 25
>km further south.
>
>Wim Vader, Tromsø Museum
> 9037 Tromsø, Norway
>
>until 20 June: UCC, Dept of Zoology, Cork
>
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