Mongorrey is our highest local point. Here's the view west:
Right in the centre you can see Donegal's highest mountain: Mount Errigal with its top in the clouds.
The area surrounding Mongorrey was extensively planted with Spruce and Fir in the 1950's and the crop is now being harvested. For a period of a few years after the clear-felling takes place, the land tries to revert to its original peat-bog conditions, with the return of plants and insects that haven't been seen there for decades. This will, of course, all change when the newly planted conifers begin to shade the ground again. It's interesting to note that of the 1200 or so
species that I recorded in the last 5 years, only around 20 are dependent on coniferous plantation. You can see why I'm not a great fan of these plantations.
The borders of the forestry have fortunately been planted with Beech. That means that at least the access roads have an interesting fauna. The buds of Beech are quite interesting:
Each grey scale hides a new leaf, and the pointed bud stretches quite suddenly, forming new leaves and branches simultaneously. Beech leaves are amongst the last of the new leaves to open, usually in early May.
Here's a fairly unseasonal shot of Bramble flower buds:
Our mild winters are not quite severe enough to kill off these buds any more. Tomorrow I'll show some pictures of other unseasonal flowers.
While I was down photographing the spawn I noticed this Water Boatman swimming near the bottom of the pond. Corixa punctata.
This pond is quite interesting. When the Spruce plantation was clear-felled (yay!) about 5 years ago, a large area was excavated to use for log storage. This pond formed as a by-product. For the first couple of years it lay stagnant, but now various water plants (Pond Weed, Ivy-leaved Water Crowfoot, Callitriche) have established and water beetles and bugs have arrived. I'll continue to monitor the arrival of new species as the pond matures.
