Tracking Nature’s Calendar brings rewards at the Bog of Allen Nature Centre. The longer days, higher temperatures and bright sunshine are all signs to inform us that summer is just around the corner. At the Bog of Allen Nature Centre in Lullymore we are tracking nature’s calendar as plants, animals and insects awake from their winter slumbers and species that left the country for the winter return.
At the Bog of Allen Nature Centre Spring arrives when staff and volunteers see the first clumps of frog spawn in the ponds of the wildlife gardens, the emerging yellow primroses on the woodland floor and the first signs of buds bursting open on the trees surrounding the centre. And this spring we have been rewarded with frog spawn and now tadpoles swimming in the gardens ponds, the bud burst of the Hawthorn and Horse Chestnut trees in our woodlands, the Marsh Fritillary caterpillars basking in the sunshine on the bog, the bright Brimstone butterfly fluttering past, the swallow’s return, life in the rookery and the sound of the Curlew crying in nearby Lodge bog.
Tracking nature can help us all identify the changing seasons but also tells us about the quality of our local environment and any changes within it. Throughout the summer the Bog of Allen Nature Centre will be taking part in the National Biodiversity Data Centre’s Butterfly monitoring scheme. Weekly from April through to the end of September volunteers and staff from the Bog of Allen Nature Centre will walk Lullymore West Nature Reserve and record the variety of butterflies found on it. The butterfly lifecycle is short and we know a lot about it. So it is a great species to inform us if there has been any change in our local environment. To date volunteers have identified the caterpillars of the Marsh Fritillary butterfly as well as adult butterflies including the Brimstone, Peacock and Small Tortoisehell on Lullymore West Nature Reserve.
You are welcome to visit the Bog of Allen Nature Centre and track nature’s calendar with us through summer by taking part in a butterfly recording session, exploring the wildlife gardens or visiting Lodge Bog and seeing can you hear the cry of the Curlew for yourself. The centre is open Monday-Friday from 10am-4pm and for special weekend openings visit www.ipcc.ie/events
You can contact the centre on 045-860133 or e-mail bogs@ipcc.ie for further information.