First stop of call was the Tirkane sweat house in the magical surroundings of its hazel wood trees and underlying carpet of bluebells. There were, however, few birds singing but the robin’s singing seemed to capture the atmosphere of this most mystical of places. Then, it was on to Mullagh Bridge lay-by just outside Maghera. The highlight of the day was here, with a pair of dippers delighting us by darting up and down the stream close to their nesting place under the bridge. But any hope of clearly hearing the birds was constantly drowned out by the steady flow of traffic building up prior to the Sperrins Rally.

The next listening station was in Craigmore where the calls of one little bird caught the attention of the arriving group. Part of the fun in bird watching is trying to work out what a bird is and early suspicions of a chaffinch were confirmed as a barrage of binoculars scammed the tree in search of the mysterious bird. He later greeted the group with clear bursts of the common chaffinch song before finally flying off. The last listening station consisted of a walk round Drumnamph Wood to the accompanying songs of robins, chaffinches, wrens, blue tits, great tits and the cascading melodies of the willow warbler. A brighter day might have brought out a few more songsters but the beautiful walk in the ancient woodland more than made up for that and finally it was off to Delicious café for a well-deserved breakfast which did justice to the café’s name.

This was the third bird ID outing organized by Carntogher Community Association as part of its Dúlra nature project which is funded by the Rural Development Council, the Environment and Heritage Service and Esmee Fairbairn Foundation. Further events will be a Moth and Butterfly identification walk on 17th June and a Bat identification evening with a date still to be confirmed. If you would like more information on any of these events or want to get involved with the Dúlra project to find out more about nature and wildlife gardening phone Declan on 028 7954 9978 for more information.