IF Dúlra was in a pantomime, they’d be screaming “It’s behind you!”
Here he is in the Waterworks this week trying to spot house martins – right beside that brilliant new mural which adorns the side of a stand at Cliftonville’s Solitude ground.
If you want to see Ireland’s four species of insect-eating aerial birds, this is the place to be. There aren’t many places where you can spot the swift, swallow, house martin and sand martin at the same time – but Belfast’s Waterworks is one such place.
The house martins that adorn the Solitude stand are, appropriately, the most common of the four in these parts. Many older North Belfast homes have overhanging eaves that house martins love, although we still don’t really know what attracts them to one house rather than another. The Hawthorn estate on Hannahstown Hill became house martin central as soon as it was built 25 years ago; we’ll have to wait a while to find out if the new Glenmona urban village will be as attractive to this fabulous bird.
The Solitude mural is more than a picture – if you look closely at the woman’s hand, she’s actually holding nest cups designed for house martins, which hopefully will find residents next spring.
It’s a stunning way to mix art and nature.
Over the years Dúlra has twice seen householders using brushes to knock down house martin nests, thankfully during the winter, although doing that at any time is so selfish. Anyone who has a house martin nesting at their home is truly blessed as there are few creatures more graceful on God’s earth. You might have some bird dropping under the nest, but that's a small price to pay for such glorious company each summer.
This year for the first time, Dúlra played a mixture of house martin and swift calls from his home in a bid to attract them to his own nest cups. It didn’t work, although some did show an interest. He’ll go at it again next April and is more confident of success.
At the Waterworks this week, Dúlra was lucky to spot a jet-black swift – most have already left for Africa, having been here not much more than a 100 days.
The swallow, fáinleog in Irish, took a bit longer to spot with its longer forked tail, but it arrived after 20 minutes to feed on the clouds of insects that emerge from the lakes here every evening. We know it as a bird of the countryside, but it will nest anywhere that performs like a traditional barn – including sporting stands. A pair once nested inside the giant B&Q warehouse on Boucher Road. The half dozen pairs that nested under the Casement stand and used to fly among the players’ feet on match days have been ejected and they’ve probably retreated to the countryside once more. Maybe the designers of the new Casement could woo them back?
The last of our four avian wonders, the sand martin – gabhlán gainimh in Irish – is the rarest. That’s hardly a surprise when you need sandbanks to build a nest in, of course.
But this bird is as versatile as its cousins – in May Dúlra watched them in the famous Thompson Dock where the Titanic was built, where they are nesting in cavities that the floodlight cables pass through.
This week Dúlra scanned the skies for an hour before he spotted one – it could well be one of those Titanic birds coming here for its evening dinner.
So well done, Cliftonville – the mural looks brilliant, and what’s even better is that you can see the real things in the adjoining Waterworks.
• If you’ve seen or photographed anything interesting, or have any nature questions, you can text Dúlra on 07801 414804.
