Wild in Cork

I’ve just come back from a week-long trip down to Cork with my family, which saw us visiting Fota Wildlife Park and a number of nature reserves while we were staying in a cottage in Dunmanway. We were hoping to go whale watching with Cork Whale Watch during the week, but unfortunately it was cancelled due to the bad weather. Despite this, we still had a good time in Cork and got to see a number of interesting animal species.

On the Monday, we visited the Gearagh nature reserve near Macroom, where we saw a great crested grebe in the distance, sitting on its nest on a small island of reeds. This was the first time I had ever seen this species in Ireland, as I had previously seen one in Rotterdam three years ago. We then went to Macroom town for some lunch (I got an ice cream for desert!).

On Tuesday, we went down to Rosscarbery bay to do some whale watching (near where we were supposed to take the boat out for said activity, had it not been cancelled), to make up for our cancelled trip. I spotted a pair of choughs on some rocks near the cliff edge, another Irish bird first for me. And while I was waiting for my parents to come back with food for our picnic, I spotted at least two porpoises surfacing quite close to the land, the closest we’ve got to whale watching on our trip. We also spotted a seal in the same waters, and on our way back to our cottage, we saw a kestrel flying in the country side. On Wednesday, we went down to Inchydoney beach in Clonakilty to relax and have a swim.

We visited Fota Wildlife Park on the Thursday after about an hour’s drive from our cottage. We enjoyed getting to see many of the animals, including the cheetahs, Indian rhinos, penguins, kangaroos, and a pelican standing on a rock in the lake. We also saw an Indian peafowl chick (‘peachick’) in the company of its mother, and we spent a few minutes watching the drill monkeys in their house. I also saw a male Edward’s pheasant in the macaw aviary, and I remember this species being mentioned on a brochure I have for the Asian Sanctuary from 2013. After the wildlife park, we investigated the nearby train station, because one day, once Covid is gone, I hope to take the train down to Fota myself. We later headed down to the Cuskinny Marsh nature reserve near Cobh, and had a look at some ducks and swans, as well as some little grebes out on the lake. We then went down to the Cork train station for an investigation, and we decided that planning to get to Fota from home via public transport was a straightforward plan.

On Friday, we had lunch at a cafe in Ballydehob before driving off to Glengarriff Woods Nature Reserve for a long walk. We headed up a hill to Lady Bantry’s Lookout, where we could see all across the surrounding valley, before continuing down the hill and through the woods, stopping at every bench along the way to soak up the surrounding birdsong (and insects buzzing).

We headed back to Bray on Saturday, stopping off at the Ballyvergan nature reserve near Youghal along the way. Understandably, the hide was closed, so we just spent a bit of time around the area before driving to Youghal for lunch. After lunch, Dad and I walked towards the Slob Bank, while Mum went to get the car. As we walked a bit along the path, I spotted something unusual in the water quite close to the land. Although I thought it was a bird we were looking at, we soon realised that it was an otter! Being a nocturnal animal, otters wouldn’t normally be expected out in the daytime, but this is my third wild otter sighting, with the previous two sightings at the East Coast Nature Reserve in Co. Wicklow (see my blog post on my first sighting here). We spent a bit of time watching the otter as it dipped its head out of the water every few seconds while on the move, occasionally coming ashore to rub the salty water off its fur; at one point, it even came ashore with an eel in its mouth. By the time Mum came over, the otter had disappeared. We continued along the Slob Bank, where we saw several curlews and a large number of jellyfish along the coast. After stopping as far as we could go, we headed back to visit the Priory cafe for a snack. We then drove straight home to buy dinner, but not before fuelling the car with petrol along the way.

All in all, I wouldn’t say our Cork holiday was the most productive, but even though we had to miss out on the whale watching, we still had a great time as we got to see animals we rarely see in the wild in Ireland, like the otter, chough and great crested grebe, as well as seeing the animals at Fota Wildlife Park and familiarizing ourselves with the different train stations.