Vol. 1 Issue 18 - April 8th, 2021 NEXT EDITION APRIL 22nd 2021 email: [email protected] East Cork News & Advertiser Thursday April 8th, 2021 tell them they'd have already seen on or you can always call us just to have a FaceBook or somewhere. chat… Ah yes, the way we were might have been a bit back of beyond - or a bit like If you have any interesting news or ideas, the Waltons as my American colleague please send them to - info@youghalac- said - but I think we had as much fun, if tive.ie - also visit our Facebook page for not more than nowadays. our regular updates and where you can comment or post your own items... Our YARA support group is available for members who may need help - this YARA … Youghal Active… includes grocery runs, books through the but stay safe… library, or emergency maintenance work, YARA - Monthly News CATCHMENT CORNER Welcome to Summertime of them either. If you wanted to make a The Dungourney River meets the Happy Easter, and remember the medical call - which was seldom - you'd go to the Owenacurra in a discreet corner of advice - stay fit before you get the jab post office and ask the woman there to Midleton, literally a catchment corner, because you'll be jiving after it! connect you. After a lot of "hallo's", she somewhere just upstream of Chadwick's would wave you into a tiny airless booth hardware store. Access to the exact con- We are delighted to announce that we where you took the call. For very urgent fluence is made down quite a boggy and have been given access to the Burke calls - I remember only one from my child- overgrown pathway immediately on the Collection of photographs and these are hood when my mother went to the garda west side of the Pontoon footbridge. now available on our website - station and asked to use their phone. I Through a rather straggly wood compris- www.youghalactive.ie can't remember why she had to do that. ing quite a bit of squelching undergrowth, some potentially ankle snapping terrain, We also have a new Blog section on our For us farmers, there was threshing day. and out on to rank grass and reed, but a site and here is the latest article from one Threshing was a labour-intensive busi- hundred yards downstream you can look of our own members - we will have regu- ness. The sheaves had to be fed into the straight across the Owenacurra and up a A goldcrest in full battle dress in the lar updates so check it out yourself. thresher continuously. Someone had to length of sluggish, straight waterway undergrowth at the Pontoon in Midleton make the straw into a straw rick and the comprising the lowest reach of the The Way We Were grain had to be secured in bags. The Dungourney river. At this time of year, adjacent to the main path, immediately By Peggie Biessmann farmyard was always humming with activ- with spring most definitely sprung, leaves down from the bridge. My favourite little ity when we got home from school. on trees, a few wild flowers showing , and bird; at least that is what I say when I see I told my son the other day that when I People came in twos and threes to have a mildness every other day, this rough them up close and personal like today. was in primary school, there were something to eat in the kitchen - mainly piece of riverside is an excellent spot for But then again, I seem to change my inkwells in each desk and we dipped our pig's head if my memory serves me right. a bit of casual bird watching. mind quite frequently depending very pens in them and carefully shook off As children we thought it was great fun. often on whichever species is currently excess ink to ensure we did not blot our Often a couple of swans are to be seen catching my attention. But the goldcrest is copybook. He looked at me as if I had I once told an American about threshing hoaking around in the river bed, where I so cute and cheerful. Not shy, particularly casually remarked that I had a dinosaur day. He asked me how on earth we think the Dungourney provides somewhat at this season when he is establishing ter- as a house pet when I was growing up. organised it without a telephone. So, I better fare than the Owenacurra, which ritory, and once you get your ear in, he explained that my father would cycle out tends to be considerably more stoney can be very vocal with his high pitched I started telling him about how things to the man who owned the threshing and less weedy throughout its course. tics or chattery twittering, though for me were "back then". I lived on a small farm machine and they would make out a day Other large birds haunt the backwaters. almost above the level of human audibili- in the country, two miles from the nearest for the threshing. Then, word was left at Herons spire and spear, and Little Egrets, ty. town or village to be more accurate. We "the hotel" where nearly everyone took a not that long ago a rarity on these shores didn't get electricity until I was twelve, drink after Mass to let them know what have become a common sight. There is Get close to him and marvel at the mag- although of course the town had power day the threshing was at our place. All the usually a phalanx of mallard hanging nificent but tiny bold gold stripe along his before that. neighbours either came themselves or around, and just recently there have been head, and if he takes against you watch "No television and no radio", he said pity- sent someone to help. My father went to a pair of teal but most of their kin have that little crest rise by the merest fraction ingly so I had to set him straight. Yes, we all the threshings around. It worked per- departed for northern nesting grounds. like an angry little Mohican. Extraordinary had a radio, a great big thing with smooth fectly. Last year there were a pair of moorhens that the minute frame of the female nor- round knobs for twiddling to find the right in the reedy overflow channel running mally lays 7 or 8 eggs……they can be lit- station. It had a "wet" i.e., acid battery It was the same with funerals. We got The under the western section of the Pontoon tle more than pea sized. These birds are that needed charging and a dry battery. In Cork Examiner regularly and the first bridge, but they do not appear to be not at all unusual, but they do go unno- addition to Radio Eireann, we listened to thing my father or mother did was check around this year yet , at least in that ticed by many folk, partly because of their BBC Light Programme and Radio the death notices. Then there would be a haunt. Looking up into the sky the usual diminutive size, partly because they find Luxemburg "208". discussion about attending a funeral. suspects: wood pigeons clap out of the favour and spiders in the depths of the Sometimes my father cycled to a neigh- trees, collared dove often coo from the far undergrowth, and partly because their Telephone? Well, no we didn't have one bouring parish or sometimes he and a bank, feral pigeons flock around old build- general olive colouring can make them few others hired a car between them to ings to the north and east. It would cer- hard to spot despite their active flitting attend a burial. I remember we all went as tainly not be uncommon to see a buzzard and hopping from flimsiest twig to bris- a family now and again. I can still picture soaring overhead in wide circles , drifting tling bramble. But when noticed they do the "parlour" never used, reserved for away slowly downwind, and somewhat have an ability to charm anyone by their good use, and the sobs of bereaved surprisingly sparrowhawks take to the apparent strong little personality and women. And sitting around for a high tea. high air, circling more tightly than the buz- wow! that gold crest! It was a social occasion back then, too. zard and gaining height more rapidly on the sunlit days when thermals start to If you have any sightings of natural histo- The thing that strikes me most now in our assist. ry interest from our catchment areas, be hectic world, is that when my father came they animal, vegetable or mineral (mmm? back from a funeral or my mother from a But for me the delight of this corner is in perhaps geological interest), do let me shopping trip to Cork city, we all sat the small birds. Indeed the smallest bird know at [email protected] around the table and listened to their in Ireland. Even smaller than a wren, the news of the big world. There was always goldcrest takes to the mix of tangled Geoffrey Eastaway plenty to talk about and we were all inter- undergrowth and scruffy evergreen trees, ested in what they had to say. Without wanting to sound the moral trumpet, isn't it a pity that nowadays this just wouldn't East Cork News & Advertiser happen? No one would be remotely inter- Upcoming Publication Dates ested.