Knocksink Wood, Enniskerry, Co. Wicklow - Maurice Bryan

A mature deciduous woodland like Knocksink Reserve is among the very best places for birds to live - their habitat - and when the tumbling Glencullen River adds its contribution this is truly a paradise for a great many bird species. Such a wood is a splendid place to learn how to watch birds, but to succeed you must stay fairly still, speak softly and, above all, use your eyes all the time. Of course it will help to have a field guide book as soon as you can get one, as this will let you become familiar with the colour and shape of all the lovely birds that await your discovery.

Most of the birds we find will be passerines, that is to say, they will be birds which can perch on branches, though some will also be specially adapted to living on the river bank, like the shy Dipper, who can use his wings to submerge and hunt for underwater insects. At first sight looking like a plump Blackbird, the white patch on the chest of the male is very distinctive, but these birds are shy, and you must wait very quietly to see them.

Spring is the very best time to visit, when the migrants have returned and the wood resounds with song. The Blackbird's mellow notes lead the orchestra, matched by the Robin's flute-like song, both easy birds to see. The lovely Song Thrush sounds like the Blackbird, but repeats his notes, while the bigger Mistle Thrush can be seen shouting out his song from a treetop in the teeth of a March gale, giving him his nickname of "Stormcock". Two more thrushes visit from Scandinavia in winter, the Fieldfare and the Redwing, and both will be found here in harsh weather. The Wren, a tiny brown bundle of energy with a cocked-up tail, surprises us with his loud rattling, chirring song, a tremendous noise for such a little bird, while dainty Goldcrests, our smallest birds, tinkle continuously in the tree canopy as they search for their insect food. They are accompanied by Tits, of which Ihere are four species in the wood: The Great Tit, whose monotonous two-note song is described as "teacher, teacher", handsome with his shiny black head, white cheeks and black belly stripe: His cousins, the Coal Tit, very similar but without the belly stripe and with a white nape to his neck, and the familiar Blue Tit, with a blue cap and white cheeks. All will be busy hunting for insects to feed their chicks! If we are lucky we may come across a party of Long-tailed Tits, tiny acrobats with tails longer than their bodies, beautifully coloured in black and white with pastel pink shading, as they forage from tree to tree, or spot a mouse-like Treecreeper as he works his way busily up a tree trunk, balancing with his spiny tail, as his long, curved bill probes the bark for hidden insects. The Finches are a family with a different life style, who are predominantly seed-eaters, as you can tell by their strong bills, like little tweezers for extracting and crushing seeds. You will certainly see the Chaffinch, one of our most common birds, the male with a lovely pink breast and grey-capped head, his mate a littie less colourful, but both with distinctive white wing bars. Also to be found are stout Greenfinches, the males very green in summer plumage, with yellow wing bars and white beaks. Somewhat less common are the spectacular Goldfinches, which were formerly much in demand as cage birds because of their lovely plumage and tinkling song like little bells. Luckily it is now illegal to capture wild birds to keep in cages, as birds need their freedom. The Goldfinch also has yellow wing bars, but is fawn, black and white, with a wonderful crimson face, and will often feed at the edge of the wood on seeds of thistle and dock. In the conifer plantations higher up we may see the Siskin, a bird that is increasing as more of these woods are planted, also greenish but with a black cap and more speckled. In winter they now come to suburban bird tables and feed upside down on peanut holders! The hardest of all finches to see is the glorious Bullfinch with black cap, rosy pink breast and vivid white rump. They are shy, and go deep into the scrub at any sign of disturbance, but once seen will be remembered. Two common summer migrants are the Chiffchaff and the Willow Warbler, small greenish-fawn insect-eaters that look almost identical. Luckily their songs are completely different, the first a two-note like the Great Tit, but slower and more deliberate, while the second has a sad, descending piping call. It is astonishing that such smalt birds, smaller than a Sparrow, should have a lifestyle that sees them spend the winter deep in Africa and return here in spring to raise their families! Migration is a very demanding way to live, involving flying over turbulent seas and scorching deserts, and we have a special responsibility to look after these travellers who come here seeking food and nesting sites. Another Warbler to look for is the Blackcap, the best bird singer in Ireland, with lovely mellow notes, a bird that was formerly quite rare but has now also started to come here in large numbers in the winter. Another common summer migrant is the Swallow, which does not nest in trees, choosing instead the eaves of a building or the rafter of a barn, but they can certainly be seen "hawking" for insects above the treetops, the while "twittering" to each other. Their brown and cream cousins the Sand Martins can be seen at the upper end of the valley, and sometimes a blue-black House Martin with a white rump will also join the hunting flocks - are you beginning to see that bird watching is a very interesting hobby, and identification requires that you have a keen eye, patience and a good field guide book! Larger birds also use the wood, of course, and Woodpigeons are common throughout. The largest of our Doves, they can be told by their white neck marking and blue-grey colouring, while the Collared Dove, a recent arrival from the Middle East, is fawn coloured with a black half ring on the back of his neck. Other large birds are the Crows, and you can see five members of this family in the Reserve! Most common are the Rooks, who come to feed from their noisy rookery in the village, the adults easy to spot by the white patch of skin at the base of their beaks, and the pairs of chattering Jackdaws who roost in the wood. We are all familiar with Magpies in their black'and white plumage, and know their harsh call, but we may not have seen the Hooded Crow who is often to be spotted in the upper reaches of the wood. These are big, strong birds, with a raucous call, very handsome with black head and wings, grey body and a huge pickaxe of a beak. This lets the "Hoodie" deal with almost any kind of food and the birds are great scavengers. If we are very lucky we will also see a Jay, not looking like a crow at all with a mainly pinkish body, a white rump and a bright blue flash on the wing. Unlike most crows these are shy, and will fly squawking if disturbed. By the edge of the river we will find other birds that have adapted to the food it offers. Grey Wagtails flit from stone to stone to pick insects from the crannies; their name is not really accurate, as their most prominent feature is the sulphur-yellow patch on their breast and flanks! They are rightly called "wagtails", as they bob up and down alt the time as they scuttle around. And, if we are really in luck, we may see the electric blue flash of the spectacular Kingfisher as he darts from one perch to another, then sits immobile waiting for a fish to come into view. In the more open parts of the river a Grey Heron may some- times be seen, a large bird with long legs and neck that stands patiently in the shallows or walks slowly forward, concentrating on the water and ready to strike when food appears. Such an abundance of bird life naturally attracts predators, that is to say birds that live by hunting. The most common is the Sparrowhawk, about the size of a Jackdaw, though the female is larger than her mate. They have swept-back wings and longish, square tails, and can sometimes be seen circling high above the wood as they search for prey below, though they will most often appear suddenly flitting through the trees in the hope of finding an unwary bird that they can snatch. They can take birds as big as pigeons! Another bird of prey that you may see in the more open upper end of the wood is the Kestrel, which most usually hunts mice and shrews, and does so by hovering in the wind with fast-beating wings and using its wonderful eyesight to see its prey from high in the air.

So, you see, this lovely reserve holds a great wealth of bird life for you to observe, and we hope that you will have great fun looking and listening to find as many of the different species as you can. Even winter can be a good time to visit, as the trees are bare and the birds more visible, and you will see winter migrants like the Redwing and Fieldfare, or even the rare Waxwing that only comes to Ireland every ten years or so, when its Scandinavian food supply fails. Whatever the time of year, you cannot fail to enjoy your visit to this treasure-house of birds!

- Maurice Bryan
from a brochure produced for the National Environmental Education Centre, Knocksink Wood