|
|
Blue Cap; Blue Bonnet; Nun, and Tree babbler are just some of the names given to our native Irish Blue Tit.
Here in Thurles, Co. Tipperary, this year, two such Blue Tits, whom we affectionately came to know as Thomas Tit and Sharon Tit, moved in quite unexpectedly to a newly installed Tit box.
Blue tits are small, lightweight, short legged, acrobatic and highly intelligent birds, with a somewhat convivial nature, most often found hanging upside down from branches and bird feeders, in their endless search for insects and seeds.
Once the removers of foil milk bottle caps; from once door to door milk bottle deliveries; stealing the energy rich non-lactose cream; the sturdy beaks of these little birds are well suited to their diet of fruit, seeds and berries in the autumn and winter; while changing to mostly larvae, insects and spiders, found in abundance during spring and summer.
Sharon Tit remained in total command with regard to family matters, especially when it came to choosing not just a mate, but also a home/nest site. The breeding season for Tits usually starts in early to mid-April. In the weeks before egg laying, Sharon Tit increased her weight by 50%, aided by food collected and shared with the help of partner Thomas Tit.
Tits will usually build their nests in holes and crevices in trees, walls or in this case a nest box purchased from O’Driscoll’s Garden Centre, here in Thurles. But Tits have been known to nest in such places as rural ‘An Post’ letter boxes.
Sharon Tit formed a deep hollow in her chosen, soft hair nest materials, by simply wriggling and continuously twisting around and around, while continued to erect higher sides. The nest when complete saw Sharon Tit producing nearly her own weight in eggs, laying one egg each day for 12 days.
Her eggs took 14 to 16 days to hatch completely and both Sharon and Thomas, together, made up to 300 daily visits to and from the nursery, during the first few days. Together these visits rose to some 800 or more each day, prior to the youngsters leaving the nest.
As can be seen in the video above, Tits will collect caterpillars, feeding themselves only the smallest; while feeding the larger ones, containing the most energy, to their siblings. No need for pesticides here, as the dietary practises of Sharon and Thomas Tit made them extremely effective pest controllers in the gardens; feeding their babies as many as 15,000 flies, spiders and green caterpillars in the first three week as parents.
Three weeks on, with all children left the nursery, Sharon and Thomas Tit continued to support this family roaming freely for a further two weeks, but at five weeks old they were abandoned to fend for themselves, as is normal Tit family practise.
The ‘Silent Spring’ Heritage Bill
Poem “Death of a Naturalist”.
[Extract courtesy of former Nobel laureate and the late great poet Mr Seamus Heaney]
“Bubbles gargled delicately, bluebottles
Wove a strong gauze of sound around the smell.
There were dragonflies, spotted butterflies,
But best of all was the warm thick slobber
Of frog-spawn that grew like clotted water
In the shade of the banks”.
Definition of a Politician: One who shakes your hand before an election and your confidence afterwards.
 Fine Gael Party Vote Catcher Josepha Madigan, at the opening, this month, of the new Cultural and Heritage Centre at the Bank of Ireland, College Green, Dublin. A dark day for Irish biodiversity
The new ‘Silent Spring’ Heritage Bill; now passed into law and which allows for the burning of vegetation in March and hedge-cutting in August under a pilot project, will now encompass the entire country; with July 5th 2018 surely one of the most despondent of days for Mother Nature.
Sole Fine Gael T.D. and Minister for Culture, Heritage & the Gaeltacht, Josepha Madigan together with her predecessor “Burn the Heather” Humphreys, had cited road safety concerns as the reason behind this Bill. This need to fix the unbroken, however, was more akin to an F.G election gimmick and a hoped-for increased farming vote, rather than the remedying of any slight contradiction existing between the Road Traffic Act and the Wildlife Act.
Name me one road traffic incident, in the last five years, which involved an overgrown hedge and what has the burning of heather (not Humphreys) and gorse to do with health and safety?
Needless to say, Fianna Fáil were not going to lose out on any attempt to sway farming voters either and to their shame, supported this unnecessary Bill.
Sinn Féin opposed the Bill and Co. Kerry party member Martin Ferris associated the declining bird populations to excessive burning. However, local Sinn Féin Templemore/ Thurles Municipal District councillor Mr David Doran has gone against the views of his party, on local TippFM radio, demanding a pro-active approach by Tipperary County Council in the cutting of hedges out of season in Co. Tipperary.
Let’s be honest, what would Josepha and her sweaty constituency of Dublin/Rathdown, actually know or understand, when it comes to the burning of heather and gorse and the cutting back of rural hedge-rows. Some 32,500 Irish people had signed a petition opposing this Bill, while conservationists, environmental groups, wildlife non-governmental organisations, and smart farmers supporting biodiversity, claimed this Bill was not based on any scientific basis whatsoever.
“When gorse is out of blossom, kissing’s out of fashion”.
Rural people should ask the question, “Have I heard the cry of the Curlew in recent years?” “No”, I hear you say! Well currently, there are only some 125 pairs of breeding Curlew’s left in Rural Ireland (None I hasten to add in Dublin / Rathdown) and there is now a real risk that Josepha’s Heritage Bill will sound the death knell for not just Curlews, but for many other species of wildlife, including our already depleted bee population, which hugely depend from February to May on Gorse yellow pea-flowers as their early food source. Currently one third of Ireland’s 98 wild bee species are under threat of extinction.
The Bill will also result in severe consequences for late-nesting birds, such as the endangered Yellowhammer, latter Red-listed (Latter being the world’s most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of plant and animal species here in Ireland.), due to a decline in the breeding range and population, (Incidentally have you seen one in Co. Tipperary recently?).
Interesting to note that in England the penalties that can be imposed for criminal offences in respect of a single endangered bird, a nest or an egg, under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, deservedly levies an unlimited fine, or up to six months imprisonment or both.
One wonders if Josepha, while taking on the role of priest and leading the prayers in the Church of St Therese in Mount Merrion, Dublin recently, did she recite the Apostles Creed, you know the line; “Maker of Heaven and Earth,” or perhaps come across the Dublin born Mrs Cecil F. Alexander’s hymn, “All things bright and beautiful”?
All things bright and beautiful, All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful, The Lord God made them all.
Each little flower that opens, Each little bird that sings,
He made their glowing colours, He made their tiny wings.
We agree with you Josepha, No Votes for Fine Gael here.
Just when we are about to acknowledge, both at home and globally, that our natural world is on its bare knees environmentally, this Fine Gael government, (whom thank God, we have successfully rid ourselves totally here in Co. Tipperary), has decided to weaken the very basic of conservation rules; despite the knowledge that we are incapable and incompetent in attempts to enforce current basic environmental laws, already existing.
Josepha’s legal motto, carried on her twitter account page states the Latin phrase; “Per tenebras lucem quaero”. [ Translation, “Through the darkness (or from darkness), I seek the light”]. Perhaps in Josepha’s case the legal phrase; “Qui male agit, odit lucem” might be considered more appropriate. [ Latter translated, “The one who commits evil shuns the light”.]
First Click on Link (A) http://www.thurles.info/2018/07/02/polution-of-river-suir-continues/
Second Click on Link (B) http://www.thurles.info/2018/07/09/st-patricks-cemetery-gates-reflect-an-image-of-thurles/
Third Click on Link (C) http://www.thurles.info/2018/07/10/thurles-administration-their-fitness-to-practise-in-question/
Back on August 27th, 2017, we asked a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ question, “Does the Thurles Town closed-circuit television (CCTV) , latter used in public area surveillance, actually work?”
The question was then raised because of malicious damage caused within the Thurles town centre, during that period and prior to that date which had gone undetected.
News of CCTV being introduced into our towns public areas had been initially welcomed back in December 2012. This new public area surveillance system was costed as being in the region of one hundred thousand euro (€100,000), with 70% of the cost to be covered by “Pobal”. (Pobal: a not-for-profit company managing programmes on behalf of the Irish Government and the EU; supporting communities and local agencies in their efforts to achieve social inclusion, reconciliation and equality.) A further 20% of the cost was provided by Thurles Town Council, while the final 10% was aided by local business through Thurles Chamber of Commerce.
Back then we were informed that the entire system would be designed, installed and maintained by three Tipperary companies named as:- Hall Alarms based in Clonmel, Co. Tipperary; Future Security in Nenagh, Co. Tipperary and Amarach Technologies, latter also based in Nenagh, Co. Tipperary.
Hall Alarms was awarded the tender to install the Thurles town centre CCTV system.
Relevant Legislative Pertaining to the Introduction of CCTV.
Section 38 of the Garda Síochána Act, 2005 requires the Garda Commissioner to authorise the installation and operation of CCTV in public places for security and public safety reasons. Section 38(3) describes three categories of persons who may be authorised by the Garda Commissioner to install and operate CCTV systems in public places – (a) members of An Garda Síochána; (b) person s retained under contract by An Garda Síochána; and (c) “persons who meet established criteria and whose application for authorisation in respect of a specified area within the administrative area of a local authority who has been approved by the local authority after consulting with the joint policing committee for that administrative area”.
This is the fundamental legal basis for CCTV in the Thurles community
In November 2015 we were informed that the local authority was required to assume responsibility for the management and operation of the CCTV system in compliance with Data Protection legislation, [See pdf page 3].
Three years on, we now understand that this CCTV system has not properly functioned since early 2017, and while just some of the cameras continue to work today, the actual recording equipment has fully ceased in its capacity to function.
In June 2017 we became aware that the server for this CCTV was not operating and remained at the old Council offices, at Slievenamon Road, following the move by staff and officials to their new offices in Mathew Avenue.
In the words of William Shakespeare, “Ah, there’s the rub!”. Were Gardaí to seek Co. Council management’s permission to view this now presently non-existent recorded footage, we learn that the council’s access operator / administrator, is presently not available due to sick leave issues.
Yet, back in October 2017 we were informed that discussions were ongoing with Gardaí with regard to CCTV in Thurles and that cameras would be installed at Thurles Town Park , which would have covered the Skateboard Park shown in video above, [See pdf page 7 and page 8]. In that same month it was known that the system was not functioning properly.
Today Gardaí would have to be actually sitting in front of a screen watching a crime, in order to make an arrest, however without CCTV recorded footage, the possibility of obtaining a prosecution would be “slim and none.”
Thurles Skateboard Park
From the video above we glean that the two-year-old Skateboard Park is now unsightly, with graffiti everywhere in abundance. In fact, the area rarely sees an actual skateboard. Instead, in the late evenings, youths are using the previous days uncollected supermarket trolleys to create their fun on the skateboard ramps.
‘The Source’ Car Park
Next door in the car park situated under the newly built Source Arts Centre & Library, (Again see Video) youths gather in small groups. This €10 million Thurles Regional Arts Centre; Branch Library; a 250 seat Theatre boasting a large, shared, exhibition space, and Restaurant; situated in Cathedral Street, first opened in the late summer of 2006, (less than 12 years ago), bringing a contemporary urban design to the medieval fabric of our town. This accessible, non-CCTV monitored building with its dirty neglected wooden façade, has become the target of idle hands. Insulation positioned on the low ceilings within this car park area is slowly being ripped apart over the entire vast area, with the bodies of parked and vacant vehicles often used as scaffolding, and for this same reason.
Street Landscapes.
Street furniture and other items existing on our thoroughfares are the constant target of graffiti vandals. One Latvian man currently living in Thurles has been arrested by Gardaí and indeed has pleaded guilty to some 18 charged of criminal damage and having in his possession a number of markers, with intent and without lawful excuse, to further damage property at unknown locations, but this arrested man is not acting alone and without our inactive €100,000 CCTV system’s recordings, well…………
It will be interesting to read the 2018 Tidy Towns Report this year, that is if we have applied to be judged at all. Last year they gave us, most certainly out of an act of kindness, a mark of 293, out of a maximum of 450 marks. You can read their report for 2017, by clicking HERE.
This Thurles community are not blaming Councillors and Municipal District Management for acts of vandalism and criminal damage through graffiti; [We raised the growing matter of graffiti in August 2011, October 2012, September 2017], however, Councillors and Municipal District Management must accept fully, responsibility for their gross failure in delivering and dispensing even the simplest modicum of rudimentary administration.
A voice crying in the wilderness!
Right now the Thurles.Info website remain, to use the words of the prophet Isaiah, “The voice that crieth in the wilderness” with regard to the neglect of Thurles. Surely there must be some other strong voices who are saddened by the fact that the major assets of this once prosperous town are being squandered and wastefully discarded, by those whose wages we pay.
The River Suir, as most of our readers are aware, rises on the slopes of the 480m (1575 ft) high Bearnan Eile (Translation from the Irish – “Devil’s Bit”) mountain, just north of Templemore here in Co. Tipperary. It flows southwards, merging along the way with the rivers Aherlow and further on with the river Tar, before entering the sea at Waterford.
This same river is now under threat of serious pollution, partly due to the laid-back attitude and total inactivity of Tipperary Co. Council personnel.
Back in August of 2016 the Anner Hotel had been the appointed venue for a River Suir Community meetings. The purpose of these meetings was supposedly to open up serious discussion on the river Suir; with regard to water quality and other natural water issues, while also exploring possible opportunities regarding what this river and its tributaries could provide for local communities. The importance of the river Suir, from a European perspective, was explained at such meetings, including why the river had been selected as a ‘Special Area of Conservation’, based on the myriad of wildlife being supported therein and thereon. Almost two years later, all planning; to use more liquid expressions, appears to have evaporated, dissolved, melted and even became vaporised.
Here, on both sides of Barry’s Bridge, Blue Green algae covers most of the surface of the water. The growth of this algae is rapidly encouraged by the current bright sunlight and existing warm temperatures. This when added to nutrient enrichments including phosphorus and nitrogen; latter found in animal waste; human waste; fertilizers used by the farming community; the improper located of septic tank systems; waste water conveyed in sewers, (Issue first raised by us on November 7th, 2013 and cleaned up first in 2018), now has further exacerbated an already rapid, deteriorating condition within the Suir’s river water.
A stainless-steel water pump, driving water in the form of a fountain (Gifted to the people of Thurles town, courtesy of Cantwell Engineering Ltd), and which had previously aerated the water and down stream in this area, was switched off without explanation by Tipperary Co. Council some 10 years ago, thus further adding to the problems being experienced today.
This blue-green algae (Cyanobacteria bacteria) appears to have now become a harmful algal bloom producing toxins (such as microcystins and anatoxins) that can affect not just humans, but more especially livestock (e.g. Horses, Cows, dogs and wild fowl) latter that frequently swim in and drink this contaminated algae soup; with the levels of this toxicity regarded to be generally moderate to severe.
The presence of the algae is confirmed by the foamy water appearing; washed downstream, which we had privately tested, believing it to be some form of industrial chemical pollution. This foam or “bloom scum” uses up the oxygen in the water, which in turn causes major problems for all other aquatic life.
Common signs in animals to watch out for, include:- Vomiting; Diarrhoea; Coma Shock; Disorientation; Seizures; Muscle tremors; Muscle Rigidity; Paralysis; Difficulty in Breathing; Blue Discolouration of the Skin and Death. Unfortunately, for animals there is no antidote for the toxins produced by blue-green algae, however immediate veterinary care should be considered an imperative.
We learn last week that Templemore Thurles Municipal District Manager, Mr Matt Shortt agrees with Local Council Representatives, that the river Suir currently looks like a cesspool, but adds that officials would have to take advice on what the best course of action should be. “We have to be very careful about what we do and will have to take advice, so that we do not cause any problems down the line. We don’t have the expertise here, but we will make inquiries and take it from there,” he stated.
This statement however is not satisfactory and akin to quotes from builder Mr O’Reilly (Actor David Kelly) in a Faulty Towers script. In previous years this weed was removed from the river by the simple act of “deskuzzing”. Laughingly, (God Help Us), the building overlooking this current cesspit, namely “The Source”, was selected as the launch pad for a Tipperary Heartland Tourism unveiling just last weekend. Senior officials attending, including at least one Tipperary Labour TD (Mr Alan Kelly) and one Fianna Fáil Co. Councillor (Mr John Hogan), both appear to have lost two of their basic five senses, namely in this case smell and vision.
Human Health Concerns
This Blue-green bloom can pose a human health threat to those entering the river. Symptoms experienced from drinking contaminated water that contain blue-green algae can include:- Dizziness, Diarrhoea, Stomach Cramps, Nausea, Headaches, Fever, Sore Throats, Abdominal Pain, Muscle Aches, Mouth Ulcers, and Blistering of the Lips. Skin coming into contact with the water can develop severe rash like symptoms.
Surely the time has come to claim our town back from those who now govern within the Templemore / Thurles Municipal District.
More on this deliberate destruction of “the town we love so well” in the coming day.
It is estimated that 200 million cars being driven in America, with each vehicle driven an average of 20116.8 kilometres (12,500 miles) each year. The entire nation therefore travels approximately 2.5 trillion miles annually, and will kill off an estimated 32.5 trillion insects in this travelling process.
Here in North Co. Tipperary Ireland, cars, particularly those black in colour, don’t have to travel at all, to kill our insect life. Due to unprecedented sunshine raising our heat levels, (averaging between 27° and 30°), millions of insects. who choose to land on black car windscreens, are being tricked into committing suicide.
Dark colours absorb heat, most especially that from the sun’s rays; while light colours reflect about 60% of this same sunlight. Less than 10 years ago the state of California in the USA, actually considered banning the sale of new black cars. Had this rule been introduced, same would have translated to a 2% decrease in fuel economy savings, due to a related decrease in air conditioner use, thus in turn further reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 1.9%.
So far as I am aware the forced mass suicide of insects was not considered; however here at home, do check your car windscreens to avoid your car’s fan system sucking these dried, fried insect into your vehicle.
|
Support Us Help keep Thurles.info online by donating below. Thank you.
Total Donated 2026: €300.00
Thank You!
Daily Thurles Mass Livestream
|
Recent Comments