 We had a music from and Rita Franklin as a well on the program and I say a little prayer taking us in after the news and a bit of analysis at the top of the hour. If you are just joining us a very good afternoon to and welcome along to the program is Kevin Fury here with you on around the Northwest and I'm here with you as always until half past two joint on the program now by Angus Kennedy from nature Northwest and he's joining us on the program today. Angus very good afternoon to you Kevin, how you doing? Good to be here. Good. Good to have you with us on the program today right. So we're heading in to supposed to the end of August. We're going to talk about meadows and how to manage them and wild flowers. Yeah, it's the transition is just starting now. We're still very much in summertime and there's still all that lovely heat out there. It's very warm today. And but you can see in some of the trees, there's a wee bit of color. I'm starting to change a little bit and some of our meadows. You can see some of the grass is starting to look a little bit tired. But there's still an awful lot of wonderful wild flowers out there. And there's been a big push over the last few years for people to leave wild areas for nature. And sometimes people are wondering, well, what do you leave them forever? What should you should you do with them really? And so that was going to just talk a little bit about that. Yeah, yeah, so did from the action notice. I figure whatever day was it was a for a walk or a stray for long or something, and it did action notice the flowers and stuff, even some of the leaves as well had actually started to kind of go that autumny color basically. It's amazing. And often it's the native plants that know this time of year. They know anything can happen weather wise. And some of their season is very, very short. For instance, the aspen tree, the beautiful aspen tree, the little trembling aspen tree with its leaves that shake. They'll start to turn a bright, bright yellow now very shortly. They're pretty much the last tree to come out of its leaves in middle of May, and they're one of the first leaves to start turning. But the color they give and the reward they give for us is gorgeous. Yeah, and see the weather we've been having lately, it's been kind of, I suppose we've kind of got some out there today, I think it was like 17 and a half degrees on my car earlier. But we've had a lot of rain, I suppose too. And has that had a major impact on flowers in different wildlife? Yeah, it does. We've been lucky in the June that we had and June saved us from a wildlife point of view really. And because it was so warm in June, and that made up for quite a cold spring. I am kind of a late spring, I suppose. And that really helped an awful lot of the butterflies. And a lot of our butterflies, they lay their eggs around about June time and then they die off. And then the second generation of them starts to come around about the end of July or August. So the rain didn't necessarily affect them so much. So we're seeing an awful lot of butterflies, especially some of those big colorful ones, the small tortoise shells and the peacocks with the eyes on them. And some of them and the red admirals, those big black and orange red ones. And they've actually done quite well. But that was because of the June, not because July, so they dodged a bit of a bullet there. Yeah. Coming out into the time of year for Ling Heather, just coming into bloom now. Yeah. So I often think of this time of year as purple season. So when you when you go walking any of the any of the ditches, any of the roads at the moment, and you'll see there's a few different purple plants are really on show. And the timing of that is interesting because butterflies tend to prefer purple flowers than they do some of the other colors. They'll go to any kind of flower that has the right amount of pollen, the right amount of nectar for them. But they particularly like purple flowers. And there's the napweed, which looks very like thistles. So you'll see the damp ditches and we've plenty of them in Donegal. So it looks just like a thistle, but it's got no spikes on it. So it's a lovely thing to have around schools or even in your own garden around the ditches. And there's another amazing plant called Devil's Bit Scabius. And you'll get those a little bit higher up in the hills. They look like a blackberry, but a blue or color. But they're the shape of a blackberry. And butterflies and all sorts of other little characters love them as well. They give them reward. And it's a common header. It's often called common heat. And it's the one that turns the mountains purple at this time of year. And it's really coming into its own. Yeah, just funny just when you when you were speaking there, but this time of year, some I don't think I've actually heard this year. Maybe maybe a bit off topic here is the cuckoo. Ah, OK. With the cuckoos now are gone. They're long gone. At least the adult cuckoos are long gone. So they arrive around about April and then they're gone. So they're gone by June. Right. And the females are still laying their eggs into the meadow pippets nest because they don't use their own nest, of course. Yeah. And they lay into the meadow pippets, the little meadow pippets nest, and then they're gone. And there's a wonderful website which has put some, well, some of the great people working for it have put some trackers onto cuckoos. And they've put trackers onto Irish cuckoos down in County Clare. And I think there's another one called PTO Cuckoo Tracking. And if you pop that into Google next time you're on the computer and it'll bring up a web page and it brings up a live map. And you can see the Irish cuckoos and it shows you where they've come from and where they're going to and they will have left quite a while ago at this stage and be heading back to Africa. Meanwhile, the chicks, they'll be emerging now this time of year and amazingly, those chicks are able to make their way back to Africa. No map, no mom and dad to show them, no iPhone in the pocket, in the brain. And it's one of those fascinating things that scientists are still trying to get their head around. How is it they're able to find their way all the way down to the Congo? Right down to the middle of Africa on their own. Would they leave in June every year or does it kind of depend on the weather and the sort of climate that we have? The males will leave very early. All right, yeah. So once they've had their breeding and then they're gone. So once they've successfully bred they'll leave early June really. And then they're gone by the end of June to straight back to Africa. They literally just do their breeding or lay their eggs and then that's it. They take no further part which is very unusual of course for a bird. Yeah. So long-eared owl chicks they can be heard buzzing at the moment. They can. I'm going to play a little sound to them and we'll see if this comes across now. But the juveniles are out because of course owls you don't hear and normally birds are prey. They're hunters so they don't like to give away their presence. But at this time of year you'll hear this kind of squeaky gate sound. It sounds like a rusty gate opening and see if you can hear that coming across there now. That little squeaky rusty gate if you think of it opening up there and that especially in dusk dusk and dawn or sometimes right through the night. That's the juveniles. They're quite a big birds. They're fed for a few weeks after they've hatched and they'll be moving around from tree to tree calling, calling, calling and in the next few weeks they'll go quiet. Mum and Dad will stop feeding them and they'll have to try and find their own way. Right. Also too if you want to text in or any questions as well for Angus well 08 660 25,000 a texter said tell Angus for the first time in years. We heard the Curlew last night near Ballandritt. Ah the Curlew gorgeous. Okay brilliant. Yeah and the Curlew it's interesting the Curlew is a breeding bird in our mountains and still breed up amongst the Ling Heather and the other things and those wildflowers are so important because the few Curlew that we have left that breed in the mountains they're relying on the insects that are up there and they're relying on the cover the cover of all those kind of bushy shrubs that you get up in the hills to keep them safe from the fox or the crow or the eagle or whatever it is but unfortunately most of our Curlews most of our breeding Curlews are now gone and there is a project working on them and trying to identify them which is super but from this time year onwards we start seeing the Curlews that breed north of here in Scandinavia and they come back to Donegal because they find Donegal a safe place and they tend to feed along the shores but I've been hearing them for the last few days as well flying over at night time flying over our garden in Remelton flying over the fields the farms that are there and I'm very lucky where I am the farms are looked after they're well for nature as well as been busy farms they've got great productive hedgerows they've left some tree lines and it means there's lots of shelter there's lots of lots of insects and what's not when they've completed their long flight yeah we've got three events that are upcoming as well that you want to talk to us about yes we do indeed tomorrow is an exciting event if you're an in a show-in or even if you're not an in a show-in you feel like a little trip tomorrow I come up to the Colgan Hall in Carendona Carendona is a gorgeous town to visit anyway and at 12.30 in the Colgan Hall the in a show-in development partnership are hosting a celebration of people that are doing various different things for biodiversity and for sustainability so there's a whole bunch of different local businesses local organisations local groups that will be showcasing their wares I'm going to be giving a short talk a short talk on some of the nature that's lost in in a show-in in Donegal but some of the nature that's there as well and we still have so many fantastic habitats that it's on us to protect really I think on all of us and then we're going to have a panel discussion we've got some very interesting panellists we have Carmel Doherty from the Barrack Hill Community Centre or Barrack Hill Community Gardens I should say and we'll have Rose Kelly who was one of the main people who got the rights for nature signed off by Donegal County Council and we'll have John from the in a show-in EIP as well John is a farmer he's a hill farmer and he'll be talking about how he is able to farm successfully but look after nature as well as part of that programme that he runs Yeah and Ards Friarie there's a walk there on Friday Yeah so we've two different walks then for Heritage Week there's Ards Friarie which is 11 o'clock in the car park on this Friday so turn up at 11 o'clock that's aimed at families aimed at anybody and everybody will be exploring some of the habitats that are there we'll be looking at how the trees and the rest of the habitats there protect the water that's in that area in particular and then at on Saturday at 11 o'clock we have a walk from the Bolliba so from one end of Garten back to Gleab Gallery we'll be taking a bus from Gleab Gallery all the way around and then we'll be walking back to the shore of Garten Lake and looking at some of the habitats there now that one on Saturday you have to book so if you go on to my website www.naturenorthwest.ie or if you look on Facebook or Twitter or any of those things Instagram you'll find www.naturenorthwest.com and you have to book the Saturday one but Ards Friarie just turn up at 11 o'clock and it'll be great to see you Just go back to when you do and you talk there about the event on Thursday when you talk about an issue on the habitat that is lost what can I elaborate more on that we started talking on meadows and just to touch on it because I said I'd explain a little bit on the management of meadows if that's okay for a moment and it's one of the habitats that is very much lost not just in the shown but all over the country we don't have as many wild meadows as we have and people here at the Corn Creek the Corn Creek project and other projects like that I was talking just earlier on today some people involved in maher maher is the type of sand dune that has wonderful meadows as well and if you have a meadow and if you've been leaving an area on your farm on your land in your garden don't cut it quite yet you will want to trim it round about the end of August early September and then you'll leave it for a couple of weeks so that the seeds can fall off and then you rake it up and the whole idea is raking it up take that nutrition away and that encourages wildflowers the wildflowers prefer less nutrition we're not trying to put in fertilizer so you leave it for a little while so the seeds fall off after you've trimmed it and then you remove that dead vegetation but that is one of the habitats that certainly has been lost and this isn't just an inchown thing this is all over the country it's to say of course we know about our woodlands and inchown peninsula doesn't have as much woodlands as the rest of the country proportionately but it does have some amazing gems there that can be built on think of corn woods that's just right outside current on a town and there's not many towns have a woods that's so rich as that so a lot of what we'll be talking about and thinking about and what a lot of the groups are doing in inchown is trying to connect those habitats that are there and trying to connect up with hedgerows with planting trees trying to see where they can fit in some various different meadows leaving a bit of space for the bees the butterflies and the rest and of course protecting our amazing coastline that we have up in inchown Oh yeah, absolutely so I'll end up there just remind us again of those three events I will indeed, yes so Ard's Friary we've got a walk and talk for anybody and everybody that's at 11 o'clock in the car park in Ard's Friary so just turn up for that and then at Leeb House we'll be taking a bus on Saturday at 11 o'clock we'll be taking a bus around to the boulevard that one needs to be booked and you'll find the book and link online and then tomorrow turn up at the Colligan Hall 12.30 and there'll be all sorts of different speakers there'll be all sorts of different companies showing what they've been doing and some of the great work that they've been doing so it'll be well we're turning up to that that'll be from 12.30 to around about half three four o'clock okay brilliant Angus Kennedy from Nature Northwest thank you very much for joining us on the program today on our social platforms as well and Angus just before you go if people want to find it more information or if they'd like as well to get in contact with you about any queries thanks Kevin it's NatureNorthwest.ie you'll find my website and all the contacts and the events are up on that and then the usual social media channels Facebook, Twitter and Instagram we're getting very very modern I can't think of your head to leave one out yeah yeah there's a lot to keep up with Nature Northwest and you'll find all the info there bringing stuff Angus Kennedy thank you