Pat Dunning has lost count of the times he has had to explain how he, a long-time member of a gun club, is so passionate about preserving endangered bird species such as the curlew, red grouse and lapwing.
“I am a hunter – but I am a conservationist, a bird watcher from forever,” says the Co Roscommon man, who “grew up listening to the curlew bubbling and the grouse crowing” on Ballydangan Bog near the farm where he was raised.
After Bord na Móna, the owners of the raised bog, drained it to prepare for commercial peat production on the site, Dunning and other members of Moore gun club pleaded for a reprieve for the already declining bird species. They had watched birds disappear from other busy midland bogs and didn’t want the red grouse to be lost to their community forever.
Bord na Móna listened, leased the bog to the gun club members and the Ballydanagan Bog Red Grouse Project was born 14 years ago, supported by the local community, State agencies and a number of academics.
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An unexpected benefit has been an increase in curlew numbers.
The once brown barren landscape has also been transformed and is now a lush kaleidoscope of wild orchids, bell heather, ling heather and bog cotton, to name but some of the colourful flora that abounds.
While his passion is birds, Dunning reveals that a plant species, thought to be extinct in the Republic, was discovered in 2015.
“I am almost afraid to say it in case some eejit would coming looking for clippings but it is the serrated wintergreen. I remember the excitement when they found it.”
Although the plant was known to be in Co Fermanagh “this is the only site in the Republic and there is a viable population here,” says Dunning.
A lot of bird species have thrived since the bog was re-wetted and the drains, which umpteen chicks had tumbled into, were removed.
“It is a red grouse project but lapwing, curlew, snipe, barn owls, long-eared owls, short-eared owls, jacksnipe, golden plover and all the birds that depend on this eco system are very important to us” says Dunning.
Paddy Feehily agrees. He is supervisor on a community employment scheme where four workers are charged with predatory control, monitoring of wild birds, and heather management. He is also chairman of the gun club.
Feehily is immensely proud of the fact that not only has the red grouse been saved (albeit still in small numbers) but that the call of the curlew now punctuates their day.
“We have gone from two breeding pairs (of curlew) in 2010 to seven now,” he explained. With that, local man Vinny Flannelly a colleague on the CE scheme, drives into the bog to report that three curlew have been spotted, “and are gone up to Gerry Dolan’s field”. His supervisor explains that it’s a male curlew and two fledglings, the female having gone off “to feed herself up” after laying the eggs.
Dunning has a special affection for the lapwing – “the national bird of Ireland” – but says the curlew is the part of Irish folklore.
“They even say the curlew cried and cried after Michael Collins was shot,” he said.
[ The curlew’s call is giving way to silence but not everyone is giving upOpens in new window ]
Eliminating predators is a key part of their work, as is managing the heather to ensure there is enough to provide shelter but also new shoots to feed the young grouse.
“The first year I started trapping this bog on my own, I removed 58 invasive North American mink,” says Dunning. “That’s why we had no chicks. Imagine 58 mink killing all day every day”.
The Heritage Council has sponsored a sophisticated trapping system that means they now receive notifications on their phones as soon as a trap is activated, identifying which one has closed.
They use live catch traps and release any non-target species. So while mink, foxes, magpies, hooded crows and grey crows are dispatched, they have released otters, pine marten and even a few hedgehogs.
“One pine marten kept coming back for the bait. We knew it was the same one as he only had one eye,” says Dunning.
“Mink are the biggest disaster,” said Feehily, explaining that they are an alien species imported into Irish fur farms in the 1950s. “Then the do-gooders released them and let them off and they spread like wildfire.”
Conversation on a visit to the bog with Feehily and Dunning is frequently interrupted as they pause to enjoy the call of not just the curlew.
Dunning points out that local farmers are “our eyes and ears”, always tipping them off when they spot predators.
“I did grow up shooting but I always loved birds, like hen harriers, grouse and lapwings,” says Dunning. “I was afraid they would not be here for our kids and our kids’ kids. We are only here for a dot of time,” adds the father of three.
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