FEATURE: Going Wild About Carrick-on-Suir's rich array of flora and fauna

A seal brandishing a trout in its mouth, a fox yawning in the sun and a woodpecker having lunch are just some of the delightful and fascinating images to be seen on a popular Facebook page dedicated to the flora and fauna of Carrick-on-Suir.

Wild About Carrick-on-Suir celebrates the huge variety of animals, birds, fish, insects and plants to be found living and growing in the town and its environs.

A browse through the Facebook page, founded by Carrick-on-Suir & District Lions Club on any given day is an experience to lift your spirits; an affirmation that the world we live in is full of wonder and beauty.

You will come across pictures of otters spotted along the banks of the Suir and even skulking past the front door of a house.

There are kingfishers swooping to catch fish in the river, swans with their cygnets, ducks leading a row of ducklings, a tiny frog smaller than a pen and deer wandering in woods.

You will also find recordings of mink and stoats, the first cuckoos heard in spring and months later photos of swifts and swallows gathering in preparation for flying to warmer climes for the winter.

Snapshots of bluebells and cuckooflower posted in spring progress to photos of fox gloves, knapweed and self heal in the summer and autumnal shots of mushrooms, toadstools and hedgerows bearing native berries.

Brian White’s photograph of a yawning fox sitting in the sun featured on the Wild About Carrick-on-Suir Facebook page last year. 

Some contributors are Carrick-on-Suir Camera Club members and other amateur photographers, beekeepers and nature enthusiasts whose posts are filled with fascinating information, folklore and memories about the creatures and plants they capture in their lens.

Other contributors are people stopped in their tracks by the wildlife they spot on their walks or going about their daily business. They take time to record their discoveries on their mobile phones and share them with Wild About Carrick-on-Suir’s followers, often asking for information.

Regular contributor and amateur naturalist Brian White of Carrick-on-Suir Lions Club says they encourage people to record the sightings they share on the page with the National Biodiversity Data Centre based at the South East Technological University campus at Carriganore, Waterford.

He puts up appeals on the page for sightings of rarely seen creatures like lizards, yellow hammer badgers and stoats.
Sightings of wildlife confirmed by photographs all help to build up knowledge of local habitats, which can be used to help protect them.

Carrick Lions Club set up Wild About Carrick-on-Suir Facebook page in the spring of 2020 as Ireland was plunged into the first of the Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns.

The Facebook page captured the mood of the time. Brian recalls many people, confined to within a few kilometres of their homes, discovered a new appreciation for the natural world around them.

Bridget Littlewood shared this beautiful photo of the first woodpecker recorded in Carrick-on-Suir last June on the Wild About Carrick Facebook page

Wild About Carrick is one of several environmental initiatives the club spearheads. They range from school talks and community litter clean-ups to developing the Bog Field at Carrickbeg into an amenity area and producing a five-year biodiversity plan for Carrick-on-Suir.

Brian says the membership of Wild About Carrick has now grown to 1,500 members. He believes Carrick-on-Sur is a very special place because of its variety of habitats from the tidal River Suir and its banks to the woodlands and mountains on its doorstep.

“It’s unique enough. There is no other place in Tipperary where the river is tidal. We have wildlife you don’t have elsewhere.
“It’s one of only four known places where the twaite shad fish, a herring like fish is found.

"For years they thought it might be gone completely but in the last two years we had so many of them that specimen hunters have come to Carrick. He points out a lot of migratory birds use the Suir to access the mainland and this means Carrick is where you get the first sightings in the county of swallows and swifts in spring.

“We are also the first in Tipperary to see the egrets, which is a heron like bird.”

Many people will be surprised by the photograph of the seal catching a salmon in its mouth in the River Suir in Carrick.

Brian says seals are known to travel as far inland as Clonmel on occasions, following sea lamprey and salmon up the Suir.

While Wild About Carrick shows nature is thriving in our midst, Brian is also acutely aware that species like eel, crayfish and lizards have declined or disappeared locally for reasons ranging from loss of natural habitats to pollution and climate change.

He also worries about the impact the proliferation of invasive foreign plant species such as Japanese Knotweed, Giant Hogweed and Himalayan Balsam are having on native plants.

Wild About Carrick is one of the forums where Brian raises public awareness about these habitat threats. Its huge popularity with Carrick-on-Suir people is a source of encouragement to him and fellow Lions Club members.

“We are enthusiastic and we are certainly here for the long run,” he says with quiet determination.

“We will continue to roll out the Carrick-on-Suir Biodiversity Plan and are applying for further grants to do that. People are doing a lot more than they did before to protect the environment. You can certainly see that in the town.”

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