Treasures awaits us in Mayo as environment is further restored

COUNTRYFILE

IT was the regular appearance of a pair of buzzards close to home that moved me to make a list of birds of prey encountered in Mayo.

There are those two, of course. Twenty years ago there was hardly a buzzard to be found in the entire country.

Yes, the occasional one was being sighted, but at the time the laying out of poison was still in fashion.

If a sheep died on the hill it was too often seen as an opportunity to cut into the local predator and scavenger populations. The range of poisons freely available was wide, and the very practice was widespread and common.

Then came legislation, and this was gradually followed up with education and enforcement.

Now the majority of people are aware of the harm that had been done, and came to appreciate that we actually need our environment to be full of wild creatures if we are to thrive ourselves. And so the majority of poisoning instances dwindled.

Now we are at the point where most of us are happy to see buzzards circling endlessly in the sky above, to hear their plaintive mewing calls carried on the breeze from March through the summer, and to enjoy the vague assumption that they are breeding somewhere nearby. See what good comes when knowledge is embraced.

Yet the common buzzard (while still far from really common) is only part of the success story.

Even this week I watched a hen harrier hunting low over the reed beds at Moore Hall.

To the inexperienced eye there might not be much to choose between this fine bird and the aforementioned buzzard. Both are brown, with broad wings. Neither flies particularly fast, apart from the moment they move in on their prey.

The female hen harrier, as well as the juvenile, has a bright white rump which is missing in the slightly larger buzzard. The male hen harrier cannot be mistaken for any other bird, being pale slate-grey with a neat black trim to its wings. We rarely see him now, though he must surely be out there somewhere.

So this fine bird of prey swept over the reeds, swooped low over the water and disappeared around the corner to chase ducks and water hens.

A week before, I had watched a merlin dive from unseen heights to snatch one of the gathered starling flock.

At the appearance of this small falcon, all the remaining starlings dropped immediately into their reedbed roost, thus avoiding the attentions of the sparrowhawk pair that were watching on from their place in the pines.

At this time last year it had been a peregrine falcon that sent the murmurating starlings into a total panic.

The peregrine doesn't turn up very often – he is swift enough to catch what he wants wherever he goes and is under no compulsion to take prey as small as a starling. I did find where the peregrine pair had their nest, but that shall remain a secret – at least for now.

Also a year ago, a golden eagle was photographed close to Partry. I saw the picture myself, though not the bird.

Go back one more year and a red kite entertained us as it flew over woodland on the lake shore. Again, there can be no mistaking these birds for any other; their long, forked tail makes them readily identifiable.

This summer we had a juvenile white-tailed sea eagle hanging around Lough Carra for a few weeks.

And nor should we forget the kestrel, which also goes by the name of windhover, or those sparrowhawks which we see every second day. We should throw barn owl and long-eared owl into the mix for good measure.

What diversity we now enjoy! All this is only thanks to the farmer, who is eager to learn and move with the times.

What treasures await as our environment is further restored?