Cookstown Wildlife Trust

                              Butterflies      Cathyrn Cochrane                            8^th April 2025

     Our chairperson, Ernie Hunter  welcomed everyone  to our last lecture  of the season which was followed by the AGM . Before the speaker was introduced, Ernie  said there were still seats available on the bus trip in June. Closing date for entries to be submitted for our book is now  to be 16^th May, and  again he emphasised that articles can be short or up to 1000 words and can cover a wide  range of nature subjects  from  favourite talks to interesting wildlife encounters. Volunteers  have been requested  by Ballinderry Fisheries to monitor stretches of the Ballinderry  River  and our member   Sharon Loughrin  also required  volunteers to help rake the mowed wildflower meadow at Lissan .

       Alan  Aitken then introduced  Cathyrn Cochrane who  talked on  Butterflies  Cathyrn has a passion for insects especially dragonflies, butterflies   and moths. She is a member of  the Northern Ireland branch of Butterfly Conservation which was formed in 1968  and whose President is David Attenborough. Its aims are to promote scientific interest, practical conservation action and   encourage people to enjoy  butterflies.

      There are 180,000 species of butterflies worldwide.  Twenty-seven live in Northern Ireland . Cathryn proceeded to tell us  about some of these. They are divided into different groups.

      The Whites  are well known and  comprise the popular  Orange tip butterfly.  This beautiful butterfly flies in April / May and has one generation  The male has orange tips to their wings but  in both species the underside of the wings are mottled green. The caterpillars are green and feed mainly on the cuckoo flower but also will eat hedge mustard, sweet rocket and honesty. The pupa although challenging to find is boat shaped and is attached to its food plant .

Orange Tip Butterfly

Read more: Butterflies of NI by Cathryn Cochrane Tues 8th April 2025

Ernest Hunter, our chairperson welcomed everyone and  extended sympathy to the family of Rhoda Jones  who recently passed away. Mentioning our coach trip in June he said there were still seats available on the bus. A  £10 deposit is required  by all who are going. Some deposits have been collected. Ernie  thanked everyone who had submitted articles for our 65^th anniversary book and encouraged more members  to enter. Sharon Loughrin announced that Lissen House on the 19^{th of}  March is having a talk by Lolly Spence on C.S. Lewis. Tickets are £10  each which includes a mini tour of the downstairs of the House and light refreshments. Our original speaker who was going to give a talk on curlews was not available, so Mark Smyth a regular speaker at the club stepped in to talk about bats.

                      Mark  opened his talk by asking a few simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ questions  such as  are bats blind; are they dirty  all of which  received negative answers. Bats are members of the  Chiropter family which means ‘hand wing’ . They are not rodents nor are they even related to them  In fact it is thought by scientists that their nearest living relatives are cetaceans and ungulates. Mark emphasized that all people who work with bats have to have a licence as well as rabies inoculations.

Soprano Pipistrelle--photo by Mark Smyth

Read more: Batty about Bats Tues 11th March Mark Smyth

           Lough Neagh Partnership—our  work on the lough                      14^th  JANUARY 2025

Alan Aitken  deputising for  our chairperson Ernie Hunter asked Claire Hassan  to introduce our speaker, Ciara Laverty . After graduating from  the University of Cumbria, Ciara obtained a  Masters in Ecological Management from QUB .Ciara is now  the  Ranger at Lough Neagh. She also has just obtained her Bird Ringing  licence .

                      The  Lough Neagh Partnership was founded in 2003  to help manage and protect Lough Neagh. With only  9 staff the partnership board is  made up of elected representatives, landowners, farmers, fishermen and local communities. Lough Neagh is  a Ramsar site which means it is a wetland of international importance designated under the Ramsar Convention. It’s a place of scientific interest, a special protection area and a National Nature Reserve.

Read more: Lough Neagh Partnership: Shoreline and Islands Programme by Ciara Laverty

Our chairperson, Ernie Hunter welcomed everyone including some new faces to our Christmas meeting. He apologised for November’s meeting,  cancelled due to the speaker’s illness and to bad weather. The death of our member Shane McGarvey on 19^th October was mentioned. Shane was passionate about birds especially the cuckoo and last year guided many of our members around  Lough Fea  to look for these birds . We were not disappointed. He had also given a talk to us on cuckoos last December and led us on the Dawn Chorus event at Lissan House in May this year. His knowledge on all wildlife was astounding.  Ernie Hunter sent condolences to his family.

                Our first speaker was Sharon Loughrin, Chairperson of Lissan House Trust. With the help of slides she told us about this ‘Golden Place’, how  it had been built in the 1600s and had the unique distinction of having been in the same family until 2006 when Hazel Dolling (nee Staples), the last owner died. It was Hazel’s wish that Lissan would be left to the community watched over by a group of trustees. It is not a National Trust property and is entirely maintained by enthusiastic volunteers.

Hazel Dolling (Staples) last owner of Lissan Estate

                   Sharon said there are now 30 allotments ( pesticide free) on the estate as well as  walks for hikers, cyclists and even  horse riders. Lately it has joined in  partnership with Ballinderry Ripple ,a group which is dedicated to conservation protection and improvement of rivers and loughs of the Ballinderry River catchment area

Read more: Member's Night 10th December 2024