WATERWORKS gardener Liam Mac Alasdair has just started a course in amateur photography – but he’s already bagged what should be a prize-winner.
He took this picture of a heron taking off amid the backdrop of autumn leaves – and it’s so crisp it looks like a sculpture. Liam is doing a ten-week Open University photography course and it’s already paying dividends. Dúlra could certainly do with a few tips from him!
Liam has what Dúlra would reckon is the dream job and is in the perfect place to snap birds and animals because the Waterworks is hiving with nature even though it’s in the middle of the city.
Liam says his degree in design and innovation encouraged his interest in photography.
“I saw the heron earlier in the day so I brought my camera out with me and was really lucky to get so close to it for a picture,” he said.
“I was planting plants at the back of the Waterworks and a hooded crow was chasing it and it made me look up and there it was. It was like something from Star Wars!”
Herons – corr réisc in Irish, or crane of the bog – gather in the Waterworks because there’s plenty of food there – from fish to frogs to anything small that moves, really.
And while so many of Ireland’s bigger birds like eagles and cranes were persecuted into extinction, the heron somehow held on – and their population has been growing recently because of our milder winters.
When you see one flying overhead it’s a stop-you-in-your-tracks moment, like you’ve just seen the last of the pterosaur dinosaurs. Indeed, with Liam’s picture, you’d think the dinosaurs were back living in the Waterworks!
Another reader sends in an intriguing picture of a butterfly they happened upon on a wicker basket in a house. It looks like a particularly plain butterfly – but that’s what it wants us to think. This butterfly wants to be taken as another fallen leaf so it can survive our winter and emerge in spring to breed. Hungry blue tits are its greatest enemy – so it hopes to fool them.
COMMA CHAMELEON: The comma butterfly is staging a comeback in Ireland
But if you look closely, a small white comma-like curve gives it away – and also gives it its name. The comma butterfly – camóg in Irish – is stunning when it opens its wings – not that Dúlra has ever witnessed it. But there is hope yet, because this rare butterfly seems to be conquering Ireland from south to north.
It’s fond of garden plants like buddleia and wild ones like dandelions and nettles. It feeds alone and will stay in a garden for a few days until it has extracted all the nectar.
So while specialist butterflies that rely on a single plant are in decline from our crazed devotion to agriculture, generalist species like the comma are benefiting from climate change, nudging ever northwards.
One Irish butterfly book on Dúlra's shelf says there were just two reports of it appearing in the North in the late 1990s, both in the Portaferry area. But there have been a few sightings recently in Fermanagh – Dúlra even considered making the long drive there to tick it off his bucket list.
There are 32 species of butterflies in Ireland – how convenient is that? – and three migrants. Dúlra has spotted about half of them.
But rather than travel to see one, he might just wait. Unfortunately the Belfast reader who sent in the pic of the comma saw it while staying in a house in Dublin – so no cause to celebrate just yet. But there's no doubt about it, the beautiful comma is on its way north. The comma is coming – full stop!
• If you’ve seen or photographed anything interesting, or have any nature questions, you can text Dúlra on 07801 414804.
