2 minute read
Season’s Greetings: Animal Affairs
By ROWAN LANNING
Summer is perhaps the busiest time of year for our animal neighbours. After the breeding season, many animals spend their time preoccupied with finding food for their young, while the babies start to leave their nests and burrows to explore their newfound surroundings. Many young birds will be fledging during the summer months, some species trying to rear a second or even a third brood, depending on the weather and whether they started their breeding season early enough. While it may be more difficult to see birds in the woodlands now that their trees are fully leaved, the music of birdsong fills the air. Meanwhile, encounters with mammals are also far more common as they leave their dens and burrows to find food for their young. Foxes, hedgehogs, stoats, pine martens, rabbits, hares, and badgers may all be seen – particularly during the liminal hours of dawn and dusk as they leave or return to their homes, but also during the daytime if one is lucky enough. There are ten species of bat that call Ireland home, and the long summer evenings are the best time of year for watching them flying through the sky as they hunt for insects. Speaking of insects, all manner may be seen in the summer – from bees and butterflies (or other pollinators like moths and flies) who are busy at work feasting on and pollinating the many blooming flowers, to the damselflies and dragonflies and other insects who emerge from their aquatic forms in the waters of our rivers and ponds to their winged forms. The tadpoles of spring will turn into the frogs of summer, and Ireland’s only native reptile – the common lizard – may be seen taking advantage of the warmer temperatures by sunning themselves on warm stones. Have you seen any animals out and about so far this summer?
