St. Thérèse of Lisieux Church, Somerton Road, Belfast in December 2017

Getting Back to Nature

On Saturday 30^th April, I went for a walk in The Waterworks, my local park in North Belfast. It was a bitterly cold day and I was wrapped up like an Egyptian mummy. I was supposed to be doing a power walk but there were so many wonderful things to look at, I made a few stops on the way. I noticed this coot near the water’s edge:

 

 

I then came across this clump of daffodils which looked battered after the storm but were still putting on a brave face. I was reminded of the lines from Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale:  ‘daffodils that come before the swallow dares and take the winds of March with beauty.’ 

 

After paying my respects to the courageous daffodils, I noticed a stall which I initially thought was a fishing related event, but was amazed to find that it was the Waterworks’ Bird Club. I had just missed the ringing of the chaffinches but was in time to see the blackbird having a ring placed on its leg. Previously it had been netted by a process known as mist netting.

Aidan, the expert also told me that a brambling had been identified in the Waterworks and it had come all the way from Russia. Also I found out some amazing facts about coal tits’ clever breeding strategies.

Two birds of prey were also part of the display:

 

On my way home I saw these geese.There is a famous Roman legend that a flock of sacred geese, from the Capitoline Hill saved Rome from being overrun by the Gauls, because they warned of their attack by honking loudly.