Wildlife Wednesday

The children and our visiting cousin from American found this little fellow by the compost heap yesterday.

Hedgehog

Excitement turned to sadness as we discovered he was injured. He was dragging one foot behind him and the other looked hurt too. He did eat some food we offered and we put him in a safe place overnight, with food and water.

You can see his leg sticking out behind him

This morning we brought him to our local vet. She told us his leg is broken and he also appears to have further internal injuries around the broken leg. She is not sure he will make it, but is keeping him till tomorrow to see if there is any hope for the poor thing. It was amazing seeing a hedgehog so close, just sad that it was not a happy, healthy one. We don’t know how it got injured. It may have got hit by a car and managed to get itself to the compost heap as it is only a few metres away from our small road.

Hedgehogs will use compost heaps to find food and also for hibernating in. They mainly eat insects including earwigs, beetles, spiders, caterpillars, slugs and earthworms. They hibernate in the winter when these animals are scarce and hard to find. As our winters are relatively mild in Ireland hedgehogs generally hibernate between October and March.

In Ireland, hedgehogs are protected under Appendix III of The Berne Convention and under the Wildlife Act (1976) and Wildlife (Amendment) Act 2000. Hedgehog populations have declined dramatically in Europe, but no research has been carried out on hedgehog populations in Ireland. Use of slug pellets, increased use of chemicals, agricultural intensification and road kills are all thought to contribute to declining numbers. For more information click here.

Lough Gill, castles and woodland

Recently we had the opportunity to visit Parkes Castle on the lake shore of Lough Gill in Co Leitrim.

Lough Gill from the Shores of Lough Gill

The castle is a restored plantation* castle from the early 17th century, though within the grounds there is evidence of an earlier 16th century Tower House.

Evidence of Tower House in foreground on right hand side of photo

The Castle is now in ownership of the Office of Public Works (OPW) and we received an excellent guided tour from one of their staff, who explained a little about the history of the castle and how it has been restored.

Parkes Castle

One of the more fascinating facts was that the castle would have been home to over one hundred people including the family, guards, and servants.

Lough Gill

Afterwards we took a drive to the other side of the lake (now in Co Sligo) where there is a lovely forest walk at Slish wood, by then the sun had come out too.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

 

Inspired by this week’s lens artist photo challenge – seascapes and or lakeshore

 

Addendum

*As Cathy noted I should have really explained the term “plantation castle”. Put in simple terms during the 16-century the English Crown was seeking to extend their control over Ireland. One of the ways they tried to do this was to confiscate land from Irish landowners (both Gaelic clans and Hiberberno-norman ones) and replace them with English or Scottish settlers. Between the 1550’s and the 1650’s Four Plantations took place in Ireland. Each plantation was the result of a rebellion by the Irish who were trying to resist the extension of English control over Ireland.

 

 

 

 

CFFC – Water

Murvagh, Co Donegal

Inspired by CFFC – Water

Wordless Wednesday

Six spot burnet moth

National Botanic Garden of Wales

On a recent visit to Wales, we visited the National Botanic Garden of Wales – always a great place to spend a few hours and marvel at the beauty of plants. It was a hot sunny day, not ideal for taking photographs so I played a bit with the pop setting on my camera, to create some more dreamy affects.

National Botanic Garden of Wales

National Botanic Garden of Wales

National Botanic Garden of Wales

 

The domed greenhouse at these gardens is particularly spectacular, but it was too hot too go in!

National Botanic Garden of Wales

 

National Botanic Garden of Wales

National Botanic Garden of Wales

National Botanic Garden of Wales

And of course when in Wales you have to be on the look out for any dreamy dragons.

dreamy dragon

 

 

Silent Sunday

 

Belmullet Peninsula, Co Mayo

Six on Saturday

In my own garden again this week. I definitely need more flowers for this time of year as the delphiniums and lupins have pretty much gone over.

1. The day lily is doing well, but I never did divide it last year so must try this year. I saw some lovely day lilies at the National Botanic Garden of Wales which I will post about soon.

Day Lily

2. This is an old heritage climbing rose (sorry did not keep the name). It has a lovely smell. It was slow to start but has a good few blooms now.

Climbing rose

3. This poppy seeds itself all over the vegetable plot, adding extra colour and food for the bees. I have scattered seed in the flower bed but for some reason they never germinate there.

poppy

4. The yellow loosestrife is getting crowded out by the day lily – another reason to divide the latter!

Yellow Loosestrife

5. In the vegetable garden the potatoes are coming on nicely despite being set late. I have always liked potato flowers.

potato

6. And the runner beans are doing their thing too.

Runner bean

You can read more Six on Saturday here. 

 

Details

Mother name it seems is partial to details. It seems a little unfair that this beautiful butterfly would be called the “common blue”. In flight it appears to be a bit of summer blue sky (particularly the males which are bluer than the females photographed below).

Common blue

But at rest you see these stunning patterns of the under wing.

Common blue

 

Silent Sunday

Cross Beach, Belmullet

Six on Saturday

Back to my own garden this week for six on Saturday. There is a lot going on so it is hard to know what to choose.

1. CLOVER: On our return from Wales the red and white clover was at it’s peak. Both are great bee food. The white clover comes up on our “lawn”, because we don’t cut it too often. It smells heavenly. Red clover is in the wildflower meadow and the gravel drive. It is particularly food this year.

Clover

Clover

Clover

Clover

 

2. RINGLET: Ringlet butterflies are also doing well this year and are loving the wildflower meadow.

Ringlet

3. WORCESTER BERRIES: It is not a great fruit year for us (we’ve no apples or plums because of late frosts) but we do have some berries. Here Worcester berries (cross between gooseberry and blackcurrant).

WORCESTER BERRIES

4. CAMPANULA. Campanula (bellflowers) are one of my favourite summer flowers. These ones grow to about  1m tall and do suffer a bit of wind damage, but always give a great display of colour.

Campanula

5. VERBENA: I grew this from seed a couple of years ago and really like the way the tall stalks rise above all the other flowers in the flower bed.

Verbena

6. BORAGE: I grow borage in the vegetable plot where it self-seeds. This is another great bee plant.

Borage