Welcome to the RSPB Belfast Harbour blog! We will be keeping you updated with all the latest goings-on at the reserve.
We’ve had a busy week this week, despite the rain having set in! Catherine Bertrand from Butterfly Conservation came down on Tuesday to lead a butterfly walk around the reserve, which was well attended by visitors and volunteers. Despite torrential downpours throughout most of the day, we were lucky enough to get an hour of sunshine to do some netting and catches, which included green-veined whites, meadow browns and a small copper.
Wednesday began with a surprise greeting from our resident family of mute swans, who were casually strutting up and down right outside the window of the observation room! Volunteers then began the task of removing ragwort from the area grazed by our two konik ponies, as this plant can be poisonous to grazing animals. Ragwort is also the host plant for cinnabar moth caterpillars, so we collected all of these before the plants were removed and re-homed them to some ragwort away from the ponies.
In other news, some of our common tern chicks have started to fledge, and plenty of fish are still being brought in to feed the remaining chicks.
All in all a very exciting week, come on down to catch the action!
Hope to see you soon!!
The team at RSPB Belfast Harbour :)