Ardmore Tidy Towns Notes 4th Nov. 2015

01/11/2015 19:20

Ardmore Tidy Towns Notes.

Halla Deuglán Bobbin’

It’s a long time since I felt the floor of Hall Deuglán springing like it did last Saturday during the Childrens Halloween Party. Well done to Mary, Breda, Nora, Marie, Robbie, Bill & Chris and helpers for the decorations in the Hall. The music certainly was spot on as there wasn’t an inch to spare on the floor all evening. Thanks to all the parents, most of whom dressed up themselves for the occasion, for bringing such a huge crowd of children along. And the cakes, drinks and teas went down a bomb as well. Brillaint happy party atmosphere! Best ever. Well done all.

Adjudicators Report

Now that we’ve been through the adjudicators report in detail we begin our plans for 2016 in earnest. Everybody wishes us well and help us along the way every year. But for the coming year we have one huge request – we need a few people from each street/estate/road to take ownership of their own neighbourhood from a tidiness point of view. Amazingly, under the heading ‘Tidiness’ we have not improved a single mark over the past 3 or 4 years. Under this heading they seem to look at very fine detail like unpainted poles, railings or gates, untidy or out of date signage or signposts, litter, hedges, edged footpaths etc. So we’re asking for a little hand from everyone on our 2016 journey. We’re 4 four marks off the Tidiest Village in Ireland and only 5 off the overall winner. So we’re close. But we must assume that those ahead of us will improve again, so the target is moving and we’ll need all hands on deck to get there. Let’s give it a rattle.

Unwanted shrubs/plants.

I think we mentioned a couple of weeks ago that we’ll happily take any unwanted shrubs/plants etc from anyone doing a garden tidy up. In particular we’d need a few hydrangeas if anyone is thinning out.

New Residents!

We have new permanent residents in the parish – a family of Buzzards. Buzzards are magnificent birds of prey, similar to small eagles. They are a huge brown bird with a paler band and some white around the breast. They are stunning birds in flight with a wingspan in excess of 2 metres! They mostly eat rabbits and rodents, but will take frogs, large invertebrates and the chicks of ground nesting birds. They hunt by perching on a tree or a pole and watching for prey or by soaring on thermals. If they spot something edible on the ground while they’re soaring they bundle themselves into a ball and dive on their prey. I think it must be 6 or 7 years ago since the late John Keevers first spotted one out around Monea and that one seems to have visited occasionally in the meantime. However, a pair of buzzards reared to chicks to adulthood on 2014 and this year they have reared three. The young obviously move on to colonise their own territory as we definitely only had a pair all through spring and early summer but the enlarged family are very visible at the moment. They look like a giant crow or even a pheasant in a field and can be seen daily around Crossford/Monea/Curragh and Clarkstown. You’ll often spot them standing alone in the middle of a field (usually an elevated spot) on a pole or a steak or on a tree.
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