BirdWatch Ireland had organized a meetup in Brigit’s Garden on Sunday morning at 4am to hear the dawn chorus. Alas for me, I was just getting home from a party at that time, so I missed it (and I wasn’t up to listening to any sort of noise for the rest of the day). I took this picture of a wren the day before – one of Ireland’s smallest birds making plenty of noise.
In 2004, I visited a turlough in south Galway with a very special characteristic. Turloughs are seasonal lakes and are very common in Galway, and I’ve visited and photographed many examples of them [e.g. here and here].
The turlough is called Caherglassaun Lough and it is close to Coole Park in Co. Galway [which has an even bigger seasonal lake of its own]. I had read about it in Mary Mulvihill’s great book, Ingenious Ireland, and on a foggy November morning, I trudged up a muddy lane for a look. I didn’t stay very long that morning – just enough to take a picture – and I’ve been meaning to visit it again ever since. Because I didn’t stay for long that morning, I didn’t witness the one thing that makes Caherglassaun special – it has a tide. It is not directly connected to the sea – it is freshwater – but there is an underground river that connects it to the sea in Kinvarra Bay. AS the tide comes in, the water in the river gets pushed back and the lake rises.
Last Saturday morning, I went back. It has been a very dry year so far and the water level is far below the level of my previous visit. I set up a camera to take a time-lapse movie to demonstrate the ‘tidal’ phenomenon. The effect is not as obvious as an actual tide – there is a delay of about 3 hours between the actual tide and the lake one – but it is visible. The actual elapsed time in the movie is two hours – I set the camera to take a picture every 20 seconds and then created a movie from them afterwards. I’ve created two movies - if you click on this link, you will see the water very slowly recede on the near shore (closest to the camera position. However, it isn’t easy to see, so if you click on this link, you will see a close up of the shore line – the tidal effect is more obvious.
John, your time-lapse movie of the tidal turlough was lovely to see. A ‘remote’ tide, at a distance. Thanks for patiently putting that together.
I’ve heard so much about it down the years — and written about it! — and it’s great to actually see the phenomenon.
Warm regards,
Mary
John, thanks for the wren! And for the tidal turlough! Both lovely and fascinating.