A meeting was held on the 12th May to review the launch of the educational initiative which took place in April. It is decided that a mail shot be sent to all the schools in Ireland to inform of them of this initiative. Because it is so late in the academic year this will be delivered in September for the new school year.

At present greeting cards and sod cards are being prepared for the printer who was located through Klee Paper in Dublin. He will be able to supply the Trust with products that are 100% recycled and earth friendly. These will be available shortly through the website.

Sunday 13 2007

This morning at 10am, the starling zipped onto the window sill and straight up into his/the wasps box. And he stood there calmly, with his back to the hum, looking out onto the garden as if he were in a penthouse suite with loud music coming from a stereo. A minute later he was gone. Unscathed.

A good strong breeze today and the whitethorns are shaken and great flurries of fallen petals are falling across the herb beds.

They’ve been swooping over the field for the last few days, and this evening, there he was standing on the wire, just outside the shed door. The blue tit immediately skips along the wire and chases him off but the swallow returns later and the shed is thoroughly investigated by swallow and mate for the rest of the evening. I now have a full house. I can put up my ‘no vacancies’ sign.

Saturday May 12 20067

Yesterday there were 3 wasps at the door of my shed and I froze. Not my shed surely, it’s cluttered enough. It was mid-July last year when Gaynor drew my attention to the loud hum from the starlings bird box right of the door and I ignored it to my peril. So when I heard it again a week ago, I got my ladder out and my torch and my camera – and blast if the wasps haven’t started again, with a nest the size and shape of a spinning top already hanging from the roof. I suppose I’d rather them there than in the shed, but still I could do without it. Definitely that’s coming down next year, as the starlings have certainly shown an interest but haven’t nested there since I put it up. They flew in the night I came back from Clifden and there was a big fluster and fluttering around the entrance and I thought that maybe it was my return that stopped them coming again, but now I wonder if it wasn’t the wasps that had them abandon ship.

The wasps hovering around the shed seem to be a splinter group, maybe in a bit of a fluff with the main tribe and decided to start up on their own. They are trailing long jagged lines along the timber – I saw them doing it on a timber garden seat last year – of the open shed door and Mary said they’re gathering a sort of pulp that they’ll use in the building of the nest. Inside on the roof, they have constructed a little oval shape the size of a golf ball, but Tom said it’s already abandoned and even if it wasn’t, not to worry as there was a much bigger nest in his shed last year and everyone got on together no problem. Nor did he feel it’d be a problem should the swallows return and set up home again. He left me two big containers of rich organic compost for the 5 tomatoe plants I’ve just acquired.

Tuesday, May 8 2007

Recycling bags are picked up very early on Tuesday mornings. It’s a beautiful morning as I’m driving back from the village at 8 am. I park by the green road and start out on a short walk. The sun’s up, catching the many inlets of the jagged shore below and in the distance across the bay, Galway city. There are three calves resting on the warm grass in the sloping field. And three cows. Two of the calves, younger than the other, watch me with some curiosity. But my gaze is only for the older one. He’s wheat brown, with a white face and he’s head is tilted towards the sun. And his eyes are closed and the sun is hazing his whiskers and lashes. And he’s chewing. Chewing with a slow rhythm movement, with his eyes closed and his head tilted towards the warmth and light of the sun. And though he’s young and beautiful there’s something strangely old and wise about him. Perhaps for some time now he has struggled with the adult art of chewing, and on this glorious morning he had achieved perfection. And he knows it. And now he stops. But his eyes remain closed, his head still raised. Then the slow rhythmic chewing resumes, to stop and start again at regular intervals.

I resume my mountain walk with an added lightness of step.

Saturday, May 5 2007

The little blue tit is back again, in and out of his box for third year in a row. The nest is just yards from the jackdaws and an arms length from the shed. Such a no-nonsense little creature. Whether I’m standing close by or picking herbs just yards from his nest, he zips in and out without the slightest hesitancy.

The jackdaws are another matter altogether. They’ll stand warily watching me even if I am quite a distance away. They will stand on the wire fence and watch me for ever as I potter about and they’ll avoid hopping up to the nest till I go inside. It must be a relief to them when I get in the car and drive away.

Unlike last year’s occupants, they’re two very nervous birds. Always when I approach my door, or go in and out to the garden or shed, they’ll immediately struggle to extricate themselves from the box, and soar out over the field next door.

This can become quite nerve wracking after awhile, as at this point the female must be sitting on the eggs and all this continual disturbance and movement can’t be good. Because of the bad design of the box, the low ceiling and the elongated floor space, getting out can be a struggle for them. I regret I haven’t a back entrance to afford them a little peace and privacy.

On sunny days, with the door open, beating a egg, turning on the radio, clanging a saucepan will set them off instantly and then there’s the flurry of wings scraping along the edges, the frantic scuffle along the too lengthy runway and then finally the take-off into the sky. Nor do they become more relaxed and secure at night. As Jessie wants out usually at 3am, though I’m on tiptoe and she’s very quiet, it’s all in vain: we have the engines starting up, the rumbling along the tarmac and finally the lift-off, into the black night. Can birds see in the dark I wonder? Once out, do they have to wait till the dawn, to see their way back into the nest.