Wednesday 10 July 2013
Friday 1 February 2013
Only Somewhat Wildlife Related...
Wildlife lovers are often art lovers and if you love birds and beautiful things, then you will love this!
Click the link below to be entered into a giveaway for a beautiful pendant.
http://blueeyednightowl.blogspot.ie/2013/01/giveaway-time-ruby-robin-boutique.html?showComment=1359720209927#c3658135444730993552
Click the link below to be entered into a giveaway for a beautiful pendant.
http://blueeyednightowl.blogspot.ie/2013/01/giveaway-time-ruby-robin-boutique.html?showComment=1359720209927#c3658135444730993552
Tuesday 30 October 2012
Galway City Bat Walk
On the 22nd of August myself and Mary from the Swan Rescue went on the annual Galway City Bat Walk with the Galway Bat Group, who are part of Bat Conservation Ireland.
We met up at 9 pm, when it was starting to get dark, and were given bat detectors so we could hear all the different bat calls.
We were able to detect 4 different species of bats around the city - The common pipistrelle, soprano pipistrelle, Leisler's bat and Daubenton's bat.
These are four of the 10 bat species found in Ireland, the other six being the Nathusius' Pipistrelle, the Brown Long-eared bat, the Natterer's Bat, the Whiskered Bat, the Lesser Horseshoe Bat and Brandt's Bat.
The Common and Soprano Pipistrelle are the smallest of the Irish bats (between 5 and 6 grams) and they feed on midges, mosquitoes and tiny moths.
The Leisler's is the biggest of the Irish bats and feeds on dung flies and beetles. It flies higher than the other bats and is quite rare in the rest of Europe, but is relatively common in Ireland, making the Irish population of international importance.
The Daubenton's is closely associated with water. It flies just above the surface, catching caddisflies, mayflies and midges. It may use it's large feet to catch prey and can even swim if they fall into the water.
We met up at 9 pm, when it was starting to get dark, and were given bat detectors so we could hear all the different bat calls.
We were able to detect 4 different species of bats around the city - The common pipistrelle, soprano pipistrelle, Leisler's bat and Daubenton's bat.
These are four of the 10 bat species found in Ireland, the other six being the Nathusius' Pipistrelle, the Brown Long-eared bat, the Natterer's Bat, the Whiskered Bat, the Lesser Horseshoe Bat and Brandt's Bat.
Common Pipistrelle (© Hugh Clark)
Soprano Pipistrelle (© Hugh Clark)
Leisler's (© Hugh Clark)
Daubenton's (© Hugh Clark)
The Common and Soprano Pipistrelle are the smallest of the Irish bats (between 5 and 6 grams) and they feed on midges, mosquitoes and tiny moths.
The Leisler's is the biggest of the Irish bats and feeds on dung flies and beetles. It flies higher than the other bats and is quite rare in the rest of Europe, but is relatively common in Ireland, making the Irish population of international importance.
The Daubenton's is closely associated with water. It flies just above the surface, catching caddisflies, mayflies and midges. It may use it's large feet to catch prey and can even swim if they fall into the water.
It was really exciting to be able to hear their calls through the detectors and to catch glimpses of their silhouettes as we walked along the river banks and canals. We even spotted one of the city's large herons hunting in the river.
It was a fabulous event and one which I look forward to attending next year!
For more information on bat conservation in Ireland: http://www.batconservationireland.org/
Or check them out on Facebook or Twitter.
Images courtesy of the Bat Conservation Trust UK
In the UK? Need help with a bat? Call: 0845 1300 228
For more information on bat conservation in Ireland: http://www.batconservationireland.org/
Or check them out on Facebook or Twitter.
Images courtesy of the Bat Conservation Trust UK
In the UK? Need help with a bat? Call: 0845 1300 228
Tuesday 21 August 2012
My First Case From Start To Finish
Last week, for the first time, I got to see a case through from rescue to release.
It was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.
The day I started at the Swan Rescue, I got a call from Mary who had received an emergency call from a woman in Connemara who had found an injured swan on her land.
We drove out to their farm that day (a beautiful kestrel swooped right past the windscreen! :D) to assess the situation.
It was a young female, approximately a year old - she had a grey bill and still had some grey fluff under her wings.
The woman who found her had put her in a nice quiet space in the garage with straw and some grain based food in water and had fenced her in to protect her. She had got stuck in a fence after colliding with some over head power lines. Mary examined her and found a huge wound on her wing, with half of the bone exposed! It appeared to be a relatively old wound, though there was no sign of infection. She had some other fresh wounds on her other wing too and was extremely thin.
We thanked the family and brought her back to the sanctuary for the night.
The next day we brought her to the vet to get a full examination. She was prescribed a course of antibiotics and time to rest at the sanctuary.
She responded well to the antibiotics, which Mary administered daily, and she was eating well. She quickly recovered her strength - every morning at feeding time she would already be standing right in front of the gate waiting and giving out and would nearly snatch the food dish right out of my hand!
She stayed with us for 9 weeks and put on plenty of weight. By the time it came to release her I could barely lift her out to the van! She looked very confused - the poor thing probably thought she was getting more injections!
We brought her down to The Claddagh to be released. There are no breeding pairs there and plenty of food and an opportunity to meet a mate, so there is no aggression. Here, she will have the time to recover fully and learn to be independent again. She may never be a good flier, so we could not release her back to where she came from.
I didn't realise that I would miss her when she left, but she took up so much room in our tiny sanctuary that it felt very empty with just the 6 ducklings!
Here is the moment she became a Claddagh swan:
We rely solely on public donations. Please consider donating through Paypal
It was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.
The day I started at the Swan Rescue, I got a call from Mary who had received an emergency call from a woman in Connemara who had found an injured swan on her land.
We drove out to their farm that day (a beautiful kestrel swooped right past the windscreen! :D) to assess the situation.
It was a young female, approximately a year old - she had a grey bill and still had some grey fluff under her wings.
The woman who found her had put her in a nice quiet space in the garage with straw and some grain based food in water and had fenced her in to protect her. She had got stuck in a fence after colliding with some over head power lines. Mary examined her and found a huge wound on her wing, with half of the bone exposed! It appeared to be a relatively old wound, though there was no sign of infection. She had some other fresh wounds on her other wing too and was extremely thin.
We thanked the family and brought her back to the sanctuary for the night.
The next day we brought her to the vet to get a full examination. She was prescribed a course of antibiotics and time to rest at the sanctuary.
She responded well to the antibiotics, which Mary administered daily, and she was eating well. She quickly recovered her strength - every morning at feeding time she would already be standing right in front of the gate waiting and giving out and would nearly snatch the food dish right out of my hand!
She stayed with us for 9 weeks and put on plenty of weight. By the time it came to release her I could barely lift her out to the van! She looked very confused - the poor thing probably thought she was getting more injections!
I didn't realise that I would miss her when she left, but she took up so much room in our tiny sanctuary that it felt very empty with just the 6 ducklings!
Here is the moment she became a Claddagh swan:
Galway & Claddagh Swan Rescue
Registered Charity no: CHY 14904
Emergency Ph: 086 382 6471
Emergency Ph: 086 382 6471
We rely solely on public donations. Please consider donating through Paypal
(No account required)
Sunday 5 August 2012
Galway & Claddagh Swan Rescue
The swan rescue has been around for about a decade now. I believe it started when there was an oil spill in the harbour in Galway and a group of concerned citizens pooled together and recruited volunteers to come down to the docks and catch and clean the affected birds in a big shed on a very cold and snowy winter's night!
I was one of those volunteers.
Rubber gloves and Fairly liquid in hand, we got to work!
It was such a transformation from the dirty, black, weak, sad looking creatures to the bright-eyed, energetic, hopeful looking swans, preening and stretching their wings. Not one of them was aggressive towards the people cleaning them. Probably a combination of too weak to fight and maybe a small bit of realisation that we were no threat.
Being a 15 year old animal-crazy girl, I fell in love my swan a little bit and named her 'Misneach', which means courage as Gaeilge. I'm pretty sure I remember hugging her too...
Swans are apparently still protected in Ireland, and in Claddagh we have such a concentrated population.
But there was nothing in place to facilitate their protection.
The Swan Rescue started out as a small group of people dedicating their spare time, their own money and even their homes and back gardens to taking in injured birds and hand-rearing orphaned and abandoned cygnets.
They eventually set up as a proper charitable organisation, educated themselves on wildlife rehabilitation and got licensed by the National Parks and Wildlife Service.
Back in 2010 the City Council gave them a little patch of land, with a container in it, in one of the parks on the outskirts of the city. Then in early 2011 they were given planning permission to build a small aviary onto the side of the container. And viola! A sanctuary.
Babies that have to be hand-reared and any other birds that require 24 hour supervision are still kept in members' homes until they are ready to be kept at the sanctuary, which is tended to once or twice a day.
They are a very busy organisation in the spring and summer and they are on hand 24 hours a day, 365 days a year on their helpline to give advice or to take in a rescue case.
The new Twitter page
The Facebook page
Mary's Blog - A great resource for information on swans, ducks, seagulls and how to care for them. Also, all you need to know about the organisation, including registered charity number.
For info on the Claddagh:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claddagh
http://ilovegalway.com/claddagh.html
Please consider making a donation:
(Registered charity no: 14904)
I was one of those volunteers.
Rubber gloves and Fairly liquid in hand, we got to work!
It was such a transformation from the dirty, black, weak, sad looking creatures to the bright-eyed, energetic, hopeful looking swans, preening and stretching their wings. Not one of them was aggressive towards the people cleaning them. Probably a combination of too weak to fight and maybe a small bit of realisation that we were no threat.
Being a 15 year old animal-crazy girl, I fell in love my swan a little bit and named her 'Misneach', which means courage as Gaeilge. I'm pretty sure I remember hugging her too...
Swans are apparently still protected in Ireland, and in Claddagh we have such a concentrated population.
But there was nothing in place to facilitate their protection.
The Swan Rescue started out as a small group of people dedicating their spare time, their own money and even their homes and back gardens to taking in injured birds and hand-rearing orphaned and abandoned cygnets.
They eventually set up as a proper charitable organisation, educated themselves on wildlife rehabilitation and got licensed by the National Parks and Wildlife Service.
Back in 2010 the City Council gave them a little patch of land, with a container in it, in one of the parks on the outskirts of the city. Then in early 2011 they were given planning permission to build a small aviary onto the side of the container. And viola! A sanctuary.
Babies that have to be hand-reared and any other birds that require 24 hour supervision are still kept in members' homes until they are ready to be kept at the sanctuary, which is tended to once or twice a day.
They are a very busy organisation in the spring and summer and they are on hand 24 hours a day, 365 days a year on their helpline to give advice or to take in a rescue case.
The new Twitter page
The Facebook page
Mary's Blog - A great resource for information on swans, ducks, seagulls and how to care for them. Also, all you need to know about the organisation, including registered charity number.
For info on the Claddagh:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claddagh
http://ilovegalway.com/claddagh.html
Please consider making a donation:
(Registered charity no: 14904)
Wednesday 25 July 2012
Intro
My good blogger/photographer friend suggested I write a blog to keep track of my wildlife adventures... And here it is!
I haven't kept a blog in years so I've kind of forgotten what it's all about...
My last blog was just a short travel blog to document my travels from a trip I took in 2009, which would begin this lifetime commitment to wildlife I decided to make. I had done one of those expensive volunteer abroad programmes in Costa Rica, usually directed towards gap year students and the like. Unfortunately I did find myself surrounded by silly English and American gap year students, most of whom had no real interest in actual wildlife conservation.
After that, I decided to do it a bit differently. I had fallen in love with Costa Rica and wanted to return and to see some of the surrounding countries too. During my trip I wanted to do a bit of volunteering, but I wanted to do work that was really needed and that I would be good at.
I worked at Rainsong Wildlife Sanctuary for 2 weeks caring for and rehabilitating injured and orphaned wild animals. I organised my stay directly with the owner, so none of my limited funds were going to some 'middle-man' agency and I was free to negotiate my own affairs.
All that was asked of me was a very small fee for the family run guesthouse I stayed in and a small donation to the sanctuary to help with the running costs.
After my work at the sanctuary and my travels around Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico I figured out who I was and what was most important to me. I knew what I had to do.
And so my return to education after a lengthy break began.
Here I am, a foundation year and 2 years of my degree completed (Plymouth, UK), and before I start my terrifying final year and all the horrendous anxiety, blood, sweat, tears and hard work that it brings, I will be spending a whole year in my home land getting some practical experience in the field!
This summer is my 3 months with the Galway & Claddagh Swan Rescue, rescuing and rehabilitating wild birds. I started on the 18th of June and will be helping out at least until the end of September.
Rainsong Wildlife Sanctuary Costa Rica
Petition to protect Costa Rican wildlife from electrocution
University of Plymouth, UK
Galway & Claddagh Swan Rescue on Facebook
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