Birdwatch Ennis CBS

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Many of our grandparents remember the Corncrake in the meadows around Ennis. One grandparent from west Clare said he remembered the Corncrakes keeping him awake at night as they called out crex-crex all night long.

Quite a number remarked on the appearance of the Collared Dove in our gardens over the past twenty years.

The Goldfinch seems to be much less common than it used to be. They were trapped and sold as cage birds for many years. About ten years ago a wildlife ranger named Paddy O Sullivan caught two men from Limerick trying to trap Goldfinches near Dromoland.

Black-headed Gulls are seen much more around the town now, than they used to be in the past. Many believe this is because of all the waste food thrown in the river Fergus and because of the dump in Doora.

Lapwings were once very common in the fields close to the town from October to March. They can still be seen in Ballyallia beside the lake.

The Linnet also appears to be in decline all around the outskirts of the town. This probably due to a change in the way that farmers are using their land. Hardly any farmer close to the town grows wheat barley or oats nowadays.

A lot of parents can remember seeing a Barn Owl when they were young while only five out of thirty five in our class can recall seeing one.

Grandparents also spoke fondly of the Skylark singing early in the morning as it flew up into the blue sky to greet the dawn. They can still be seen on the Loop Head peninsula.

Some of our parents heard that Sparrows are getting scarce in Great Britain but we see them daily on the footpaths up town.

Another bird that is regularly spotted is the Starling and flocks of them are often noticed in the evenings as they fly past the town on their way to their roosts. They used to have a roost for a number of years in the Ennis Abbey.

Parents recall fowlers shooting Wigeon and Teal on the river Fergus close to the Bishops residence at the back of an area now called Willow Park. Wigeon and Teal are hardly ever seen in this area now because of all the housing.

Many of our parents could identify the Yellowhammer but cannot remember seeing one in the last five years. In the past year only one pupil in the class saw a Yellowhammer. He saw it in the Burren close to Corofin. Yellowhammers depend on grain crops for food and but there is very little tillage farming in Clare anymore. The Yellowhammers found near Corofin live on wild grain that grows throughout the Burren in summer. During the winter they eat crushed grain that farmers feed to their animals.

The Cuckoo is often heard close to Lees Road and also around Roslevan.

One Grandad in Drumcliffe feels that Blackbirds and Thrushes were much more plentiful when he was young. He also remembers seeing Jays close to his house.

Golden Plover, White-fronted Geese and Greylag Geese were a common sight in Inagh during the winter months twenty five years ago.

The flock of Feral Pigeons that we now feed in the Woodquay car-park were not there long ago as that area was not a car-park. Lots of people lived there in houses that we would consider very small.

On our weekly walk around our school we saw the birds listed here. We are still on the look out for new birds to add to our list.

1.Rook

2.Jackdaw

3.Black- headed Gull

4.Feral Pigeon

5.Pied Wagtail

6.Magpie

7.Blackbird

8.House Sparrow

9.Chaffinch

10.Redwing

11.Starling

12.Mistle Thrush

13.Fieldfare

14.Robin

15.Wren

16.Song Thrush

17.Reed Bunting

18.Blue Tit

19.Mallard

20.Grey Wagtail

21.Grey Heron

22.Coot

23.Great Tit

24.Moorhen

25.Wood Pigeon

26.Hooded Crow

27.House Martin

28.Swallow

All the birds listed were seen in the school yard, the school pitch, beside the river Fergus at the back of the school or on the Fairgreen directly across the road from our school.

We have worked on our bird projects since November 2000.

We used a camcorder to video some of the birds we see around our school from day to day. We plan to use this video when we enter our project in the Clare County Council birdwatching competition later this year.

During some of our art classes we drew and painted many of these birds.

We watched a video called Town and Country Birds

We all did individual projects on the birds in our gardens. We wrote about them, collected pictures of them from magazines and drew them.

We participated in Level One of the Esso Wildlife Challenge.

We took photos of a number of species on our digital camera.

We visit the library on a monthly basis and select books on birds and the environment.

Faith Wilson from Birdwatch Ireland visited us and showed us slides of common garden birds.

We feature a bird of the week on our website. We write about the bird as well as scanning photographs and drawings of it on to our site. We keep a special look out for that bird at home and at school for that week.

On certain days we do Break Time Look-out where we watch out for birds in the yard and on the roof and count the number we see.

We spoke to our parents and grandparents on changes they have noticed in bird life around the town and county.

We intend to read, listen to and write poetry about birds before the end of the school year.

We learned how to sketch birds using a pencil.

After Easter we will keep a field diary to record our observations.

We take a Bird Walk around the school every week and so far we have recorded 19 species.

At the end of the school year we will draw a map of our school ground and indicate on it where we saw the various birds.

We scanned all our drawings of birds on to the school website.

We found place names around Ennis and Clare that are based on birds e.g. Ballyallia,(Baile Eala) Knockanean,(Cnoc an Éan) Rineanna.(Rinn an Éanaigh)

We fed birds at home and on the school birdtable during the winter months.

We plan to plant some shrubs that will grow berries so as to attract more birds to our school in future years. e.g. catoneasters, pyracantha, elders and escalonia.

We collected information from the internet websites