IRISH IMPRESSIONS. 3. HEDGES AND FIELDS
Most of the surroundings of Cork consists of agricultural land, usually
smallish plots surrounded by a low 'wall', mainly consisting of the stones
found in the earth in the course of the years. These walls have in the
course of the years become overgrown with plants, and the older ones this
time a year glow yellow with Gorse Ulex europaeus and white with Hawthorn
Crataegus. These thorny plants, sewn together by copious brambles, also
make the hedges well-nigh impenetrable for man and beast and thus a good
'boundary fence' to keep in the many cows and sheep that graze here.
Especially near the coast there is also much plowed land with various
crops, with a lot of sugar beets, still very small now, and wheat, with
smaller amounts of various other crops.
Last Saturday (13 May) I had a long walk near the coast, once more
starting out from Ballycotton, and walking first along the cliff-path I
described earlier, and when this peetered out, along secondary roads, to
Whitehaven at the entrance to Cork Harbour, a distance of 25-30 km. This
Sunday (21 May) I varied by going into the hills from Cork, and walking
near the village of Watergrasshill (The Irish name translates to the more
logical Watercresshill, but that is not what is on the map or signs).
The main features are the same in both areas. These fields are not
particularly bird-rich, with Jackdaws and Rooks dominating, and Barn
Swallows seemingly nesting in every farmhouse and barn. In the hills I
finally also found House Martins in some numbers, often nesting under the
eaves of the larger new houses, that are being built here in some numbers.
The farms also have higher trees and often coniferous bushes in the yard,
and these house Robins, Blackbirds, Wood Pigeons, Magpies and the odd
Hooded Crow, in addition to a small colony of Rook nests in many cases;
this species is amazingly common around here.
The hedges are ofte rich in flowers. Vicia sepia (appropriately called the
hedge-vetch in Dutch) is very common, ferns are ubiquitous, and now late in
May summer flowers start to appear, while the Bluebells are fading rapidly;
Foxgloves Digitalis, Aven Geum urbanum, Scabious Knautia arvensis were
among the plants I saw in flower for the first time. The most
characteristic bird of this habitat is the Common Whitethroat; its short
enthousiastic song strophe is usually within earshot, and now and again one
sees the bird so carried away with the rites of spring, that he expands his
song into a dancing song-flight, before diving back into the hedge. There
are also Hedge Sparrows here, now and then a Song Thrush shouts its message
from far away, and the odd Chaffinch and Chiffchaff also join the chorus.
The fields themselves do not house all that many birds, and maybe less
further from the coast (although my sample is painfully small for such a
conclusion. Near the coast I regularly heard singing Skylarks and saw
parachuting Meadow Pipits, while Yellowhammers graced the telephone wires.
yesterday I missed all three, so at least they must be less common around
Watergrasshill. Pheasants are regular, but are possibly 'grown' locally and
put out, as so many places in Europe.
Yesterday I walked towards and in a commercial forest, with various
conifers (a lot of Sitka Spruce) of different ages planted on a high marshy
area, that looked 'like it could be in Norway': Myrtleberries, heather,
the spindly tall grass Molinia, the small yellow stars of Potentilla erecta
(tormentil), and aggressive Bracken Pteridium aquilinum. But the Gorse Ulex
europaeus was still dominant, and showed that instead we are in Atlantic
W.Europe here. Characteristic here were also the tall slender grass-green
fronds of the fern Blechnum spicant unrolling everywhere, both in the
hedges and in the young forest.
In the younger plantations I finally found an area with many singing
Willow Warblers (One of my favourite songsters) , while Tree Pipits scolded
with their bill full of insects---clearly they had already young here. Also
Wrens and Blackbirds were common everywhere, while the older plantations
resounded with the song of the European Robin. I also heard the
'mini-bicycle pump' of the Goldcrest here and there, but not the Woodcock
that is said the occur here too.
A final beautiful picture yielded an overgrown humid path in the forest,
where the usual yellow Tormentil and Lotus were combined with a low growing
Lousewort Pedicularis sp and wonderful gentian-blue patches of a Polygala
species (don't know the English name), an exquisite combination.
let me end with the constant last words of my booklet: Walks in the Cork
area (Which I managed to forget at home yesterday!) : 'God bless now and
take great care!'
Wim Vader, Tromsoe Museum
9037 Tromsoe, Norway
until 15 June UCC, Zoology
Lee Maltings, Prospect Row
Cork, Ireland
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