Spring in the Glens

After my article last weekend on Otters in Donegal I was contacted and told about otters being regularly seen in a river in the Antrim Glens. With a good forecast I reckoned it was worth checking out. Several hours were spent on the river bank with no otter sightings though their footprints in the sand as evidence of their presence. I was rewarded however with prolonged views of a fishing Kingfisher. A drake Goosander was a also a pleasant surprise - evidence perhaps of the hard winter in Scotland pushing them across the Irish Sea. This is a site I will continue to visit and report on.

In a nearby wood I was treated to views of at least five Red Squirrels feeding and playing amongst the trees. These wooded glens are one of the last retreats for the Red Squirrel in Northern Ireland. The volunteers of the Glens Red Squirrel Group are doing their utmost to ensure that they remain for future generations. See the links page of this site access their website.

All in all a wonderfully sunny day with the signs of spring emerging, such as the yellow flowers of lesser celandine, after the hardest winter we have had for many years.