 Prospect Bay Lakeside Accommodation,
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Curlew
(listed on RSPB/Birdwatch Ireland Red List) nest on the opposite shore,
and we regularly see kingfishers in the shallows of the bay and at our
duck pond. There is a substantial number of heron, though locals know
them as ‘cranes’. We have wigeon and snipe of course, and
several other small wading birds. 
In
summer honeysuckle, dog rose, arum lilies, wild iris and large yellow
water lilies compete for attention, though by then it is the damselflies
in all their electric colours that steal the show. In late summer/autumn
the hips, haws, holly and ash erupt in an explosion of red, but none
quite so impressively as the white-spotted scarlet fly agoric ‘faerie’
toadstools of which push through the leaf litter in the dampest parts
of the wood.
Perhaps the most elusive creature on the lake is the otter, as usually
the only time we know he’s about is when our pet ducks disappear
or chaos erupts in the middle of the night. We used to blame mink until
we saw one otter happily go after the ducks in the middle of the morning.
Its an uneasy balance between admiring otters and wanting to let your
ducks free range!
Little
wrens and field mice love the fruit from the ornamental strawberry plants;
bees literally cover the fuschias; the robins guard their territories
from every nearby branch and fence post. Blackbirds in the ivy covering
an old stone shed forage for worms in competition with the mistle thrush,
while unruly gangs of goldfinch bully each other and the blue tits until
the peanut feeder is won. Grey wagtails moved into the ornamental ivy
on the front wall opposite the pond, and house martins and swallows
circle and swoop over the pond and house roofs all summer while their
chicks peek out of the mud bowls built into the eaves – and poop
all over the window cills!
Our
favourite neighbours are the hares. The Irish hare is a distinct species,
and we are fortunate to have many. They haven’t minded us building
the house, or cars coming and going – they just carry on around
us. We mostly see them grazing the lawns (and nibbling our new trees)
at night, and early mornings, and last spring we came across two tiny
leverets which was a great photo opportunity.
After
we began to investigate we discovered that actually the pine marten
is reasonably common in this part of the country and increasing in number.
Just up the road the woods around the Marble Arch Caves have pine marten
nest boxes in the trees and also fixed to disused quarry walls courtesy
of a recent Channel Four (UK) Wildlife Programme, which was re-housing
a marten which had invaded the roof space of the caves’ reception
building.
Prospect
Bay’s new nature trail will allow guests to more easily traverse
the property, with small notice pegs at various spots identifying particular
flora and fauna visible at certain times of year. We’d like to
show you some badger sets, where the wild strawberries and raspberries
are growing in the banks, the pastures where the wild orchids pop up
like a measles rash, and info on the hundreds of inhabitants of our
favourite oak.
