4PX

Whooper swans winter at two sites in this area, on the shore of Clogher Lough and in a field at Gurteen Lough nearby. The second is a subsidiary site, not often used. It was here I found a broken leg-band two years ago, 4PX, which told me that the bird had been ringed as a nestling in northern Iceland, at Skagafjordur eight years previously. The bird had been seen at Lough Swilly, in Donegal in the meantime.
Last November, I was on the phone in the hall, when the whoopers appeared out of a squall like the ghosts of winter. Later that afternoon I walked to the top of the hill to see them: eleven in the field on the far side of the lake, grazing methodically with long, snaky necks stretched forward.
There were twelve at Clogher for several weeks, then four more arrived after Christmas; now, in late February things are moving again: ten last week at Gurteen, with a further 24 at Clogher. Once the flock had retreated to the lake, I got a very good view of them, checking each bill to make sure there wasn't a Bewick's among them. The birds have a rusty staining around the head and upper neck, from feeding in the volcanic soils of northern Iceland.
The children of Lir must have been this species, they are so wary and lonely. It is difficult to get close to them to check for more leg-bands. I crept along a lane this morning and squatted in the field; two heads appeared above the grass at the top of the drumlin, started calling, and then the whole flock was away into the air. Their calls are like a wheezy accordeon limping on three notes.
Skylarks are about the place already, and bluebells and barren strawberry are showing in the lane, along with cow-parsley leafage.

Tarsaghaunmore

Tarsaghaunmore is a remote valley in the Nephin Beg range of mountains in north Mayo. The name means 'great threshold' or 'land on the border of another territory'. The area is a wild, remote expanse of blanket bog with a number of spate rivers draining off the uplands. One of these rivers takes its name from the townland of Tarsaghaunmore.
When I first began to explore here a few years ago I met Paddy McHugh, who still travelled up and down the river to keep track of his cattle. By then in his eighties, Paddy was a survivor of a pastoral lifestyle of very ancient origin. He was also a witness for the history and folklore of an area where few people lived any more.
Tarsaghaunmore is now within the newly-designated Ballycroy National Park and it therefore has a government guarantee for a future as a scientific reservation. The process of survey and study that accompanies designation as a state wilderness has already started.
Robert Lloyd Praeger referred to it as 'the very loneliest place in the country' and used it as the occasion for a rare spiritual reflection: 'go up to the hills, as sages and saints have done since the beginning of the world, and you will need to be a very worldly worldling if you fail to catch some inarticulate vision of the strange equation in which you stand on the one side and the universe on the other.'
[Photo: Cameron Clotworthy, National Parks and Wildlife Service]

Stephen and the Birds

In chapter 5 of A Portrait, Stephen watches a group of birds flying around the buildings in Molesworth street and wonders 'What birds were they?' He eventually speculates about swallows, but the descriptions of behaviour make it clear that the birds are in fact swifts. This makes the reference to a late March evening problematic, as swifts do not arrive in Ireland before early May. The passage is also of interest because the sight of these migratory birds concentrates Stephen's mind on the idea of flight and exile.

Spring Things

A sparrow taking up position at the corner of the house, chirping (Viking bird). Primroses, snowdrops, barren strawberry, lesser celandine. Dabchick parading. Mallard pairs. Light until six.