Field Trips

There will be two field trips, one to Ireland's Eye to see the variety of birdlife, especially the gannet colony and newly breeding migrants, and the other to the National Botanic Gardens to see the trees in this International Phenological Garden. These field trips will take place at the end of the conference on Thursday June 17, 2010.

Ireland's Eye and Howth

Ireland's Eye is a small uninhabited island off the coast of County Dublin, Ireland situated directly north of Howth Harbour. The island is easily reached by regular tourist boats. The island plays host to a large variety of seabirds including guillemots, razorbills, fulmar, shelducks, kittiwakes, auks, shags, gannets, gulls, cormorants, plovers and oystercatchers. In June there should be plenty of chicks and adults feeding them for us to watch. There are also a few breeding pairs of puffins. Grey seals are abundant in the sea around the island. Howth head also has many species of seabirds nesting on the cliffs and a convenient walking path for viewing them. The village of Howth is home to many shops and restaurants and a nice harbor walk. Please bring your binoculars and a water bottle. Please also remember to wear good walking shoes and to stay on the path at all times to avoid stepping on chicks, nests, or off of cliffs.

*We will not be going on to Ireland's Eye itself, just sailing around it and instead walking around Howth Head. Sailing around the island will give us better and safer views of the breeding colonies on the cliff faces than we would get walking on shore. There will be an ornithologist pointing out and discussing birds of interest for both the boat trip and the walk.

National Botanic Gardens

The National Botanic Gardens in Glasnevin were founded in 1795 and opened to the public in 1800. The gardens are host to over 20,000 species of plants as well as several species of birds, insects, and mammals. The gardens have several beautiful iron curvilinear glasshouse from the Victorian era. There is a vistior centre which includes a cafe which serves excellent cakes. There is also a library and herbarium with over 600,000 specimens that may be viewed by the group if there is interest. The 4th Global Botanic Gardens Congress will also be held at the National Botanic Gardens from June 13-18, 2010 and an exciting program of scientific presentations and workshops will be occurring.